Black Diamond: Beware the grim reaper, FIS

The alpine World Cup, the inaugural World Cup, found itself looking in the eye of the grim reaper when officials and friends of the circuit failed to come up with sufficient dollars to stage makeup races canceled from the snowless central European Alps.
    It was the first time in 32 years that the granddaddy circuit has been unable to gin up alternative sources to fund makeup races despite having a Birds of Prey downhill course, a willing organizer and supportive national federation trying to make things happen.
    An emotional and frustrated Guenter Hujara, FIS race director, speaking to coaches, officials and media, delivered the news that three makeup races would not happen in spite of all the effort to find sponsorship.
    To followers of the sport, the crisis is no surprise. The circuit has been the subject of both individual and federation greed for the past decade. The alpine World Cup is only important to a few federations. Global is a word seldom heard when speaking of the circuit these days.
THE ALPINE WORLD CUP, the inaugural World Cup, found itself looking in the eye of the grim reaper when officials and friends of the circuit failed to come up with sufficient dollars to stage makeup races canceled from the snowless central European Alps.
    It was the first time in 32 years that the granddaddy circuit has been unable to gin up alternative sources to fund makeup races despite having a Birds of Prey downhill course, a willing organizer and supportive national federation trying to make things happen.
    An emotional and frustrated Guenter Hujara, FIS race director, speaking to coaches, officials and media, delivered the news that three makeup races would not happen in spite of all the effort to find sponsorship.
    To followers of the sport, the crisis is no surprise. The circuit has been the subject of both individual and federation greed for the past decade. The alpine World Cup is only important to a few federations. Global is a word seldom heard when speaking of the circuit these days.
    So, instead of competing on a course brilliantly prepared in Beaver Creek and backed by perhaps the best organizing committee in the sport, the Vail Valley Foundation, “We will be sitting at home [Europe] knitting Christmas stockings,” angrily commented Hujara.
    Hujara was not alone in his frustration. Veteran TD Gerry Rinaldi echoed Hujara’s sentiment with even more fervor.
    “I raced in the very first World Cup in 1967,” Rinaldi said, “This used to be a world-class circuit. It certainly isn’t any more!”
    The reality is that politics, a rapidly declining European television audience and a hardnosed business stance by USSA stood in the way of putting on makeup races here.
    “We are being asked to help and we worked hard to get enough sponsorship dollars,” Bill Marolt told Ski Racing, “but we are not going to make up for a poor system by using our money to fund someone else’s problem.”
    As is to be expected, the Austrian federation president argued strenuously against holding makeup races in the United States, undoubtedly with the thought of grabbing yet another piece of the rapidly shrinking World Cup pie by rescheduling them at yet another Austrian resort. His reasoning: the altitude, too many races in one venue, and a lack of public attendance.
    But according to an interview by a veteran Swiss World Cup correspondent, Schroecksnadel has three Austrian areas ready to take the races immediately.
    Today, Austria is virtually the only country which makes money on World Cup events. And typically, the Austrian press took Beaver Creek to task for not just giving the money to hold the races. How absurd!
    The truth is the World Cup is bankrupt. The business model which allows the federations to own the rights to races held in their respective nations no longer works. Every federation does not want their ox to be gored even though they break even or lose money on virtually every race.
    The FIS and it president, Gian Franco Kasper, are in a tough position. The federations seem loath to give back rights, even if the FIS provided solid financial guarantees. Yet the FIS, with its ownership of the World Championships and Olympics rights, is the only entity which is making money with ski sport today.  While it may be the court of last resort, there seems to be no initiative on the part of the FIS Council or its president to make an effort to rescue the circuit.
    Marolt says he is going try.  
    “We need to establish a business model which works,” he said of the FIS. “There is a lot to be done, but we have no choice. What we have now is not working for anyone.”
    What Marolt says is true. Today the World Cup has no leadership and it is flailing for its continued existence.         Perhaps it is too soon to play Taps, but for the aging World Cup circuit, a horse-drawn burial caisson is being polished up.

— G.B. Jr.