World ski body eyes financial reset after overspending and wants to add new events

GENEVA — Skiing’s governing body was on track to spend all its cash reserves by 2028 and has now cut jobs while aiming to add new events to help restore finances.

The International Ski and Snowboard Federation’s rescue plan — steering away from expected annual losses of 20 million Swiss francs ($24 million) — was detailed at meetings this week ahead of the first winter season since new president Alexander Ospelt from Liechtenstein was elected by a single vote.

Rising concerns about spending during the five-year presidency of Johan Eliasch, the billionaire boss of the Head ski and sportswear brand, seemed to be decisive in the June election.

“We are in a serious situation, not a desperate one,” the ski body’s interim secretary general Urs Lehmann said in an interview on the sidelines of the week-long gathering in Geneva. “The FIS family deserved to have clarity where we are.”

An FIS office in Munich, Germany was closed and race prize money subsidies that began during the COVID-19 pandemic have been curbed. It's part of the financial reset for the governing body that oversees Alpine and cross-country skiing, freestyle and snowboarding, ski jumping and Nordic combined.

Athlete prize money and adding events

The World Cup race earnings leaders across the FIS disciplines last winter were the superstars of Alpine skiing who also won their overall titles.

Switzerland's Marco Odermatt won 741,000 euros ($832,000) in prize money from race organizers and Mikaela Shiffrin topped the women's list with 615,000 euros ($690,000) earned. Yet they were the only Alpine skiers to earn more than 400,000 euros ($450,000) from races across the five-month season.

Those totals also were boosted by FIS money that started during the pandemic and is no longer viable.

“If you add something, that’s easy," Lehmann, the 1993 men’s downhill world champion for Switzerland, told The Associated Press. “Taking it away again is super difficult and nobody did it over the last three years.”

Maintaining and increasing athlete prize money likely will mean more races spread around more venues that want to either join or be a more regular stop on the World Cup circuits.

“There is only one way — add competitions," Lehmann said. “Can we do this? Yes, because I’m a strong believer that our calendar has more space. We have more interested parties than we have spots today.”

Extra world championships are set to be added in the current down year of a four-year Olympic cycle which includes two editions of worlds.

Skiing reached a critical financial stage

Member federations were told at a specially convened FIS Summit in Geneva that “FIS is solvent today but in a critical point," according to a presentation.

Equity reserves had almost halved at the end of last year to about 43 million Swiss francs ($52 million) since 2021 when Eliasch was elected, after a second pandemic-hit season.

Total revenue for the four-year cycle through 2029 is set to double to almost 650 million Swiss francs ($783 million) yet expenses are rising at a faster rate.

Reserves are set to be exhausted by the end of the 2028 winter season, with reasons cited including a decline in the value of world championships broadcasting rights and rising broadcast production costs.

FIS members were told their governing body had been paying them too much while its staffing almost doubled from 50 to 98.

“We had to let go a bunch of our teammates unfortunately to become leaner, more efficient and also cost efficient,” said Lehmann, who joined FIS in a newly created chief executive role last year then resigned days before the presidential election.

FIS rescue plan will take time to deliver results

“We have a plan but this plan works only if the FIS family is really standing together,” Lehmann said.

Long-term broadcast and commercial contracts mean the situation cannot change fast enough.

“In media rights, basically the deals are done until 2030. The effect of having a higher value we will only see in almost four years,” Lehmann said. "I am convinced that we are going to make it but everybody has to know where we stand today.”