Figure skating needs a trip to Spokane

U.S. Figure Skating officials are beginning site inspections on potential host cities for the 2010 national championships, which serve as Olympic trials for that year’s Winter Games in Vancouver.

They are wasting time and money on a no-brainer:

The championships belong in Spokane. No need to visit anywhere else.

It is one of four undisclosed candidates for the event, and I have learned Providence, R.I., and Portland, Ore., also are apparently in the running.

(U.S. Figure Skating chief executive David Raith did not answer messages seeking the identity of the mystery city. It may be Detroit.)

Two years ago, Spokane put on the best U.S. Championships of the nearly two dozen I have attended, including Portland (2005) and Providence (1995).

The city was more jazzed to be host than any other I have seen. There were even posters about the championships in bars too funky for even a thirsty sportswriter to patronize.

Spokane’s attendance was 154,893. Portland’s was 117,000. Providence drew 56,856.

This is what I wrote after the event in 2007:

“Take a city with good facilities, a highly competent organizing committee and no major league professional sports, and it doesn’t matter how relatively small or isolated it is.

“Spokane’s motto might as well be, ‘Gateway to Idaho.’ By 2005 estimates, it is the 99th largest city in the country, in the middle of the 108th largest metropolitan area.

“Yet it drew 25% more spectators for the skating nationals than any previous host, a group that includes much larger places such as Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia, Dallas and Atlanta.”

Men’s champion Evan Lysacek was impressed too:

“Skating was so big here it made us feel kind of important,” Lysacek said.

And SportsTravel magazine also thought the little city in eastern Washington did a bang-up job, giving the 2007 U.S. Championships its sporting event of the year award. Previous winners included things like the Super Bowl.

Figure skating needs a boost. The next two years are critical, with the 2009 worlds in Los Angeles and the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver – only 410 miles from Spokane, so you could see sellouts in Spokane as the road map to sellouts in Vancouver.

The folks leading Spokane’s effort for the 2010 nationals say the interest for the second time around will be even greater.

No reason not to believe them, since they exceeded every expectation for 2007. They should nickname the place Spo-can-do.

I have only one worry about the situation:

That the same U.S. Figure Skating leaders who put last year’s Skate America in Reading, Pa., one of the most lugubrious cities in the country, also are making this decision.

Of course, maybe they noticed that Reading’s downtown is a perfect metaphor for both the arena during Skate America as well as for the state of the sport.

Empty and dying.

Philip Hersh covers Olympic sports for The Times and Chicago Tribune.