Creating a more appealing FIS Ski World Cup

Summer is a good opportunity to take a step back and evaluate the Audi FIS Ski World Cup product to see where there is room for imporvement. Niklas Carlsson, the chairman of the Sub-Committee for Alpine World Cup, initiated this reflextion a few years ago and the first results have now been put into practice. He took the time to answer a few questions to that topic.

**What were the reasons that pushed you to start rethinking the Alpine World Cup product?**A lot of sport federations have been relying on the fact that their product is, but now we can see that the environment we is changing, the media landscape is different and we need to adapt. We have been adding and adding new things to the World Cup, but now it’s time to review what we are doing. Is it good? Can we do it better? How can we be more appealing, both for active skiers and for TV viewers following the sport? At the very beginning, there was the belief that there is room for improvement and from the start on, almost three years ago, we established that we want to change, we want to develop. But figure out what and how we should do it takes time.

**Change can be scary, especially in big and traditional structures like FIS, what was the reaction of the different stakeholders when you came up with proposals for changes?**Generally the reaction was positive. I was concerned, that some people would get scared, but by taking it step by step, I think we’ve been laying the ground quite well and make people understand why we need to do this. Now I feel that we are working together and so far I would say that I didn’t have too strong reactions with people stepping back. We know we have some tough times ahead of us, where we’ll have to find solutions all together. For example with the discussion on the quotas and how big the start field should be. There is two ways to go here: either we find a way to reduce the quotas, or we could also find formats where we can have big starting fields. But I’m sure that being creative on how we do competitions is one solution to improve our product.

You mentioned it, from the beginning on it was clear that we had to change, but no one knew where this would lead us. Now some concrete steps have been accomplished with a first draft for the 2020/21 calendar. How will this evolution go on from there?  We will continue on this way. The discussion we had at our Sub Committee for Alpine World Cup meeting in Portoroz was very important because it was the first time we could test what people think and see how they’d react when we put forward new ideas. My experience is very positive, I think everyone sees that there is a need for a change, so I think we can go on step by step. Until now we mainly put out the frames and gave directions, but now we presented concrete things we need to change to reach our objectives and the Sub Committee supported it. I feel more confident that we are on the right way and that we can push for more and more changes and show what we really believe in. I would say it’s not changing the sport, but it’s strengthening the things we are doing well and make sure we put all the efforts in the right things.

You said it’s an evolution, not a revolution. Aren’t you afraid that it could take forever to implement changes that general public can relate to?  No, I’m not afraid of that. If you look at what we’ve accomplished in the last years, I’m not too concerned that it takes time internally. But as you said, the consumer, be it a skier or someone following us on media, needs to see that things are happening. However, it is a complex process and we need everyone in the boot with us to get the best outcome. It’s better to take a little more time and do it right than rush it and do it wrong.

You are involved in many different organizations linked to Alpine Skiing (Are 2019, World Cup Stockholm, Junior World Championships Are 2017, Chairman of the World Cup Committee), do you have time to enjoy a good day of skiing some times in winter?  Actually I do, I ski more and more, it’s a big passion for me. I’ve been working as a coach earlier, in those days I was always on the snow, but I didn’t really ski. Now get to ski on my own a lot and I really enjoy it. I also have kids who are competing and it’s always a pleasure to go to their training as well.

You once said that the World Cup is made of people with passion. Is this strong involvement your way to show your passion for alpine skiing?  I really think that. Skiing is a great activity and I really hope people both like to watch it and to do it. On those committees, we all are passionate skier and this is why sometimes it can be difficult to do a change, because the passion, the engagement, the emotions are so strong. This is a lovely thing. It’s challenging, but it’s good to see that people care. I think that passion is one of the biggest assets we have.