What does the Ski Association actually do when no one wants to sponsor them anymore? The question is actually getting closer to becoming real, after recent events. First, Cross Country Norway’s highest patron, Sparebank1, announced that they are ending their long-standing collaboration with the Skiing Association after the WC in Trondheim. Soon after, the message follows that Equinor is doing the same. This means the end of millions in contributions to the recruitment work within what is still a question of the term “national sport”. In the middle of it all comes the sensational dismissal of general secretary Arne Baumann, just months before the World Cup on home soil. Such a situation would normally entail a crying need for active management. But in the middle of this, the ski president appears as if she could hardly care less. Descending ski president? Tove Moe Dyrhaug is in her second term as president of Ski-Norge. This week she has attended board meetings of the FIS, i.e. the International Ski Federation, which are held in Zurich, Switzerland. All arrows ultimately point to the ski president. She herself points in all other directions. COMMENTS: news’s Jan Petter Saltvedt. Photo: Lars Thomas Nordby / news news was, as the only Norwegian medium, present during the FIS meetings in Zurich this week. The skiing president did not want to comment on the Equinor case and pointed out that this belongs to the individual disciplines, i.e. cross-country skiing in this case. Which is formally understandable. Nevertheless, there is reason to wonder why this should not be a matter that concerns a president of a ski association in an ever-deepening crisis. And where the largest of the branches she is responsible for is losing income in the multi-million range. Then you either have good advice or a lack of understanding of the situation. I’m not going to say what it’s easiest to suspect right here. Regardless, it’s startling. Because a crisis is a crisis is always a crisis. And this really is a crisis. Especially for the part of Dyrhaug’s association that has generated the most activity up until now, both in terms of the number of members and sponsorship income. The big sponsor drop The last position can definitely be under pressure. Because it is not a given that the flight of sponsors will end with Sparebank 1 and Equinor. VG has calculated the loss of these two sponsors alone at NOK 17 million. No matter how much climate organizations cheer that the snow sport of cross-country skiing will no longer be sponsored by the nation’s big fossil goody bag, Equinor, it is not exactly as cheerful for the sport of cross-country skiing. At least not in the short term. This type of process tends to have a self-reinforcing effect. No one wants to be left behind in the sinking ship in the end. Therefore, no one knows yet, as Nettavisen has described, what other major contributors such as Norgesgruppen and clothing sponsor Craft do when the WC party in Trondheim is over. No one is queuing up to take over, if they also find other arenas to market themselves on. And there is nothing to indicate that the association itself has managed to maintain the necessary expertise in what the sponsorship market today wants from its partners. Such realizations can have brutal consequences. Down a ledge One of the other sections ski president Dyrhaug obviously does not need to worry about is jumping. There, as in cross-country skiing, significant changes have taken place on the personnel side in the past year. Renowned Jan-Erik Aalbu has taken over as sports director. This also includes the responsibility for bringing in new sponsors. For a sport that definitely likes itself in a special class best in runaway races, this is in any case a rare setback. The noise caused by the conflict between former sporting director Clas Brede Bråthen and large parts of the association has left its mark. CONFLICT CAUSED HEADACHES: Clas Brede Bråthen resigned as sports director at the Ski Association. Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum / NTB As is well known, trust is much easier to lose than to regain. The fact that Aalbu has created internal peace with the other branches of the union is far from enough to convert a skeptical market, which has long since begun to orient itself in new directions. Only alpine skiing can currently be called a success story within the great Confederation. After a number of years of conflicts and apostasy, also to the relatively fresh alpine nation of Brazil, they have gathered and managed to make themselves attractive. But that does not change the picture of the total. Because where do you start, when all opinion polls are pointing down, and it doesn’t seem as if the boss understands the seriousness? Conflict and chaos on the continent Perhaps one can aim out of the country. And point out that things are even much worse there. But it doesn’t work very well in skiing. For Norway, along with powerful skin nations such as Germany, Austria and Switzerland, is in open conflict with the leadership of the FIS, strongly represented by the obviously extremely self-willed and unresponsive president Johan Eliasch. Austria and Germany’s ski federations have already taken legal action against the federation. Norway might have done it too. If you could afford it. It’s all about control over the product. Who will sell the TV rights to the skiing World Cup races. It has been the individual nations until now. But in April, the board of FIS rather surprisingly decided that the organization will take care of this centrally in the future – and then distribute the income between the member countries. Norway’s representative on the FIS board is Tove Moe Dyrhaug. This week, the antagonists met again in connection with a new board meeting. But no one has wanted to say what they have come up with. About anything. Or comment on a letter the Norwegian Skiing Association has sent to FIS after this week’s board meeting. Nor is anyone else in the Norwegian association, who sits closer to the process than Dyrhaug, allowed to speak now. Or say something about whether the conflicts continue or whether you are approaching an agreement. In a confederation which, at the Skiting in Bodø earlier this year, decided to keep “openness” as one of its core values. Obviously, without the decision having yet been put into effect. What would be said about the Norwegian Ski Association if some random journalists had written the book about them now? Farewell to Arne In any case, they will very soon be without a general secretary. And will go out and look for the fourth in Dyrhaug’s reign. The current one does not find it interesting enough to continue in the job, half a year before ski Norway’s biggest party in over a decade. It is clear that many are wondering. Nothing else is possible. Although Arne Baumann makes a major and recurring point that there is no underlying conflict. RETIRING GENERAL SECRETARY: Arne Baumann in the Norwegian Skiing Association. Photo: Cornelius Poppe / NTB And maybe that’s true. Perhaps Arne Baumann is just already tired of internal processes that do not create progress. Perhaps it is dissatisfaction with the progress he himself has managed to create. Or maybe he leaves the union before it gets even worse. Including that some of the 150 employees will have to go because of the financial misery. The loss to the Norwegian Skiing Association is said to have been 11 million last year. This year it could be even bigger. This cannot go on for very long. Now the World Cup at home will save the future. Or make everything even darker, if the audience doesn’t show up to the extent one hopes. It will be exciting to see how or if Tove Moe Dyrhaug then reacts. Arne Baumann is in any case out of the system by that time. Without yet knowing what he is going to do. Perhaps Baumann himself will find someone in Dagbladet who will help him write the book about the fall of the Norwegian Ski Association. With or without the use of anonymous sources. The title can be something as captivatingly simple as “Forbundet”. And if you don’t have time with the subtitle – and a little limited finances – it is always possible to borrow a bit from a book here and let it sound something like this: “The book describes the inner life of the Ski Association during a continuous period of decline in the last ten years.” Good reading. Published 27/09/2024, at 12.17
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