When the main event of the cross-country world cup season cannot attract the public even with free tickets, the product has no future, writes journalist Atte Husu.
Atte Husuurheilhu reporter
The sight was impressive when Nordic skiing’s flagship event of the turn of the year, the Central European Hill Week, began on Thursday in Oberstdorf, Germany.
Even though it was a qualifying competition, the Schattenbergschanze hill center, which attracts 27,000 spectators, was almost sold out. There were only single tickets left, with a price range of 18–24 euros. Let’s emphasize again: in the qualifying competition. The race itself has been sold out for a long time.
The public rush like Ober will be repeated during the following week at other race locations in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Innsbruck and Bischofshofen. The traditional mountain week is alive and well.
The same cannot be said about the Tour de Ski, the main product of the Cross-Country World Cup.
When the nine-day tour begins on Saturday in Toblach, Italy, the number of tickets sold is around zero.
– We have free access to the stadium, the Italian official answering the phone of the competition office announces.
A shocking difference
There’s no need to look for admission tickets at the Tour de Ski’s other Italian location, Val di Fiemme, where the tour ends as an epiphany.
Tickets and sales are found in the same equation only when talking about VIP packages, where the role of the competition is not a steak but something between a salad and a potato.
The Italian organizers welcome anyone who is interested in watching cross-country skiing there with open arms. The Tour de Ski is now organized for the 18th time, and Toblach, which opens the race, is participating for the 12th time. In Toblach, access to the trail has always been free.
Despite this, Toblach’s audience numbers have hovered around a few thousand at best, but in recent years time after time only around a thousand.
In other words: Thursday’s paid hill qualifying in Oberstdorf drew more crowds than the free event in Toblach in the entire history of the Tour.
Travel advertisement
The Italians are able to organize their races with unprecedented numbers of spectators thanks to local tourism companies.
While in Finland the Ski Federation pays the competitors’ travel and living expenses out of its own pocket and collects the prize money of the games, the Saapasmaa Ski Federation is able to pass on the costs to the local tourist office, which in return receives international visibility from the event.
Considering the size of the business, there is no need to even talk about ticket sales for the Tour.
The formula has also worked in cross-country skiing in Switzerland. However, Davos, which is debuting at the Tour this year, differs from other race venues by selling 10 euro tickets to its races.
At this year’s Tour, someone is actually paying to watch the skiing on site.
Even money won’t save
Should the Tour de Ski be stopped? In light of the TV viewership figures, the answer is an absolute no.
Although ski jumping gathers three times as many pairs of eyes on TV receivers compared to cross-country skiing, the final climb of the Tour is year after year the most watched competitive event of the Skiing World Cup.
However, in the big overall picture, it is not in the interest of cross-country skiing that the climax of the cup season looks like a village race on TV, where the public can’t even bother to attend for free.
Top skiers have their own chapter. With the exception of a few exceptional years, they have referred to the tour with their gloves because they have wanted to bet on success in prestigious competitions. The selection has materialized into medals with a large percentage.
However, prize money has been a significant factor in the absence of stars. They were hard at first, but fell by half over the years. In recent years, the pot has been on the rise again.
The increase in prize money will surely increase the interest of the stars in the Tour, but putting euros on the counter will not change the situation along the route in one direction or the other.
Focus elsewhere
The Tour de Ski will continue to have its place in the cross-country world cup, but skiing decision-makers should look for other ways to revitalize the sport.
The audience that comes to the place creates the atmosphere of the event, and the role of television is to convey the atmosphere. Now that the Tour has races in places where people can’t be attracted even for free, it’s impossible to create an image of cross-country skiing as an interesting product. It’s bad to start from scratch.
Ski bosses have been marketing Tour de Ski for the 18th year in a row as the number one product of the cup season. As such, it is getting worse every year.