With less than a month to go before the start of the
Summer X-Games in S.F., city officials "are scrambling to
raise private money so taxpayers don't end up footing the
bill," according to Yumi Wilson of the S.F. CHRONICLE. The
city has received "tentative promises from businesses to
help pay for much of" the $700,000 cost of staging the week-
long event, but it is still $150,000 short of what it needs.
X-Games Host Committee Chair Gavin Newsom "had hoped" to use
corporate sponsorships to pay for police, traffic control
and city services, but Newsom said, "We're not getting the
$100,000 to $200,000 sponsors that we expected." Newsom
said that one problem is that members of the city's
corporate community "know or care little about the X-Games."
But "perhaps the biggest problem" is ESPN's advertising
policies for the Games. Because ESPN gives its corporate
sponsors exclusive rights to showcase their logos and
banners at the Games, few local businesses "are interested
in fronting cash for an event where they will get little or
no on-air exposure" (S.F. CHRONICLE. 5/28).
