The Next Big Male Sport?

It’s safe to say that today sets up as one of the more notable days on the sports calendar. It’s the true Opening Day in MLB, it’s the national championship in college basketball and it’s the continuation of the playoff push in the NHL and NBA.

But we here at JoeSportsFan have a warning for the supposed “big” sports—you better get your game face on, because you’ve got some competition on the way.

According to a recent story in the Wall Street Journal, the powers that be in charge of men’s figure skating are taking measures necessary to broaden the appeal of their sport to the male demographic.

Because it’s about damn time men started watching other men skating in a flamboyant attire.

Canada particularly wants to drum up new interest in the sport ahead of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. One solution: Get more men to tune in. To do that, Skate Canada is encouraging skating officials and athletes to use words such as “strength,” “power,” “speed” and “risk” when describing the sport.

Team members are being asked to play up the fact that they skate faster than most hockey players, jump higher than most basketball players and fall harder than most football players—all without padding.

(Debbie Wilkes, Skate Canada’s marketing director and a former figure skater, says she doesn’t have data to prove those assertions, but experience tells her they’re probably true.)

Who needs data to prove the assertions? It’s pretty obvious that, if they were so inclined, a male figure skater could probably dominate at the highest levels of basketball, football or hockey. And they could do it all while wearing a sequin one-piece.

What’s that? They may ditching the sequins?

At the same time, Skate Canada is discouraging skaters from using too many sequins, feathers or anything else that dangles from their costumes. Adornments like that are “garish” and “distracting,” says Skate Canada Chief Executive William Thompson, and belong “in an ice show, not a competition.”

But attracting the football crowd could be a challenge for a sport whose fans routinely throw stuffed animals onto the ice as a show of admiration.

And with that the final warning shot is fired over the bow of the so-called “major” sports. Figure skating is coming for your viewers.  And they’re bringing their stuffed animals.###MORE###

Apr. 6

1958 - Arnold Palmer wins his first major golf tournament (Masters).  It was the first of seven for Mr. Palmer, which is pretty amazing considering he’s largely considered one of the best of all-time and Tiger Woods already has 14 Major championships at the age of 33.  Long story short - Tiger is good.

1986 - Soccer ball juggled non-stop for a world record of 14 hrs, 14 seconds.  The guy could’ve gone longer, but a strong wind blew through the host gymnasium and he flopped to the ground trying to draw a foul.

1996 - Freelance Sports Illustrated photographer, Tony Tomsic, was sent to the hospital with a hand injury after Albert Belle chucked baseballs at his head for trying to take his photograph.

Ahhhh, ’tis the season.

...that even though Opening Day is somewhat symbolic of the quickly approaching summer, it’s not always warm and toasty during Game One. The Chicago White Sox have already announced that they have cancelled their home opener due to weather conditions and their neighbors a few miles to the South might be doing the same if this forecast is accurate…

Nothing says baseball like snow flurries and a high of 38 degrees. We can almost smell the freshly frosted-over grass from here.

Patrick Imig checks in with a firsthand account of the winners and losers at Wrestlemania 25.