Champions on Ice founder, Las Vegas Sun, July 2, 1998

Las Vegan keeps his cool organizing ‘Champions on Ice’ Lisa Ferguson Thursday, July 2, 1998 | 10:32 a.m. As summer temperatures hover above the century mark, Don Watson's thoughts are on ice: Who has it? Where to get it? Who to put on it? Then again, Watson, vice president of Tom Collins Enterprises, ponders such questions throughout the year as he works from the company's northwest Las Vegas office to orchestrate both the winter and summer legs of the its wildly popular "Campbell's Soups Presents Champions on Ice" figure skating tour. It's his job to find and secure massive venues to host the tour, which plays the Thomas & Mack Center on Friday, as well as make certain that the buildings have ice-making capabilities. (Otherwise, he must rent a slab of the cold stuff.) "I get calls" from venues throughout the country touting ice availability, Watson says. "It's a big investment." And "Champions on Ice" is a big draw with spectators. The first year that Watson worked on the tour, it stopped in 32 cites. When this summer's tour wraps up, on July 19 in Chicago, it will have played in 57 cities since opening last April in Baltimore. Meanwhile, most of the dates, venues and talent to be featured on next year's tour have already been established. It is executive producer Tom Collins, however, who signs the skating stars (prior to their competing in the winter Olympic Games) to four-year contracts to perform on the tour. Among this year's featured skaters are United States Olympic gold and silver medalists, Tara Lipinski and Michelle Kwan, respectively; Russian gold medalist Ilia Kulik and Canadian silver medalist Elvis Stojko. Getting busy For a few years in the early '90s, Watson went on the road with the tour, which is transported via a pair of tour buses and four tractor-trailer trucks loaded with everything from carpet and dressing room mirrors to pinball machines and treadmills. "We haven't missed one major city," he boasts. Where it has played, the tour has consistently packed in the crowds, even setting one-day attendance and gross revenue records in Washington's Tacoma Dome in 1994. "There's a huge following" for the tour and its stars, Watson explains. "People know these names and that's the problem with other ice shows" which are largely driven by choreographed production numbers. "People want to see somebody that is somebody, people they've been seeing so much on television." But his days on the road are behind him and Watson now mostly handles the paperwork end of things from the office. It is adorned with 20 years' worth of "Champions on Ice" tour memorabilia, as well as vintage posters from his teenage years, when he was a professional ice skater touring the globe with legendary skater Sonja Henie. It's one of four offices which Tom Collins Enterprises maintains around the country (the others are in Minneapolis, Seattle and Scottsdale. Ariz.). Still, the desert seems an unlikely place for an ice skating tour to set up shop. Blame it on Watson: He's known and worked with Collins -- also a former professional skater who once toured with and later served as president of the "Holiday On Ice" company -- since the 1950s. Formerly the company manager for magicians Siegfried & Roy, Watson had coordinated the tour from an office in his Las Vegas home before the company opened the office here nearly two years ago. Actually, Las Vegas was a natural choice for the business, he says, since this is where Tom Collins Enterprises often entertains the managers of the stadiums and arenas which house the tour. But when they're on the road, it's the skaters who are wined and dined. Since the tour began in 1978, Collins has made it a point to afford the athletes the finest accommodations available, including stays in luxury hotels, transportation on chartered jets, meals in world-renowned restaurants, lavish backstage buffets and even their own brand of "Champions on Ice" bottled water. Skating in style Why all of the bells and whistles? Because Collins remembers how things were when he and Watson were touring skaters. "We stayed in the cheapest hotels we could find," he says. When his performing days were over, "I said, 'If I stay in the business and I could afford it ... I'd love to put the skaters in the best hotels that we could possibly put them in.' "It's an aspect of the tour that the skaters look forward to," he says. "It does cost a few extra dollars, there's no question, but you know, I think the skaters really and truly appreciate it." Just ask Elizabeth Manley. The 1988 Olympic Canadian silver medalist has toured with "Champions on Ice" on and off for the past six years. "It is the best of all tours," Manley, a Green Valley resident, says. "Every skater, one of their goals along with winning a (Olympic) medal, they want to get on Tom Collins' tour. "I've done tours where it's been some pretty tough travel and it's been some pretty bad hotels ... but with Tommy, everything is five-star," she says, explaining how Collins has been known to treat skaters to Broadway plays when the tour stops in New York. Manley agrees with Collins' philosophy. "If you're treated well off the ice, nothing but good comes on the ice and I think that's why ... he gets the best skating that there is." Collins, 67, continues to tag along with the tour each season. "As long as this show's out there, I'm like Karl Malden and American Express: it goes no where without me," he quips. "When you've got this caliber of talent out there ... it's good to keep a handle on it. There's always minor problems that come up and you want to be there." One year, the skaters were scheduled to travel from Minneapolis to Billings, Mont. Just hours before the performance, their charter service was canceled, and a plane large enough to transport the group was unavailable. Eight small Lear jets were flown in from Southern California. Because they were only 10-seaters, Collins and crew got creative and figured out in which order the performers were set to take ice. "We would put the first 10 skaters on the first Lear jet and they would get there and start the show, and the next jet would fly in about 20 minutes later" to pick up the next 10, he explains. "It was continuous until the end of the show." Aside from being the boss, Collins says he also acts as a father figure of sorts to the skaters. He's been there since teen stars Lipinski and Kwan were just getting accustomed to touring. Many skaters have stayed with the show even after turning from amateur to professional status. "They've pretty much started their careers with me and I kind of ride through it until the Olympics are over," and beyond, he says. "They're brought up on this tour ... so you do get close to the skaters and their families." The one thing Collins doesn't do is skate with them. He claims to have not donned a pair of ice skates in 15 years -- but that doesn't mean he won't again. "One day, I'm gonna surprise them," he says. "Don and I are gonna come out and do our (former) pairs number one of these days." archive