X Games Schedule Reflects Changing Nature Of Action Sports

Only skateboarding and BMX remain from the original lineup of X Games sports in ’95, as the “evolving nature of action sports has required that the X Games change,” according to Matt Higgins of the N.Y. TIMES. Aggressive in-line skating will not be held for the first time this year, and wakeboarding “has been altered from a medal event to a demonstration in a giant water tank in the parking lot of the Home Depot Center.” The event’s target audience of males 17-24 is “increasingly interested in motor sports, the first of which, freestyle motocross, debuted in 1998.” SuperMoto, a “dirt/street track hybrid,” made its inaugural appearance in ’04, and rally car racing, arrives this year. EOE Senior VP Ron Semiao said some events have been dropped “because there isn’t really a participant base or an industry for it to continue to evolve” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/3). The L.A. TIMES’ Peter Yoon reports wakeboarding was cut from the event “for budgetary concerns -– it has cost more than $500,000 to stage the event in the Long Beach Marine Stadium” (L.A. TIMES, 8/3).

Rally Car Racing To Debut At This Year’s X Games

RALLY AROUND THE OLD OAK TREE: In N.Y., Howard Beck wrote the addition of rally car racing will make the X Games “louder, dustier and older.” Younger viewers “will be drawn to the cars, while the graying, paunchy drivers might bring in a new demographic.” Most of the drivers and co-drivers are in their 30’s and 40’s. The team of driver Paul Choiniere (42 years old) and co-driver Jeff Becker (55) have “competed sporadically for the last three years [in Rally America], since Hyundai ended its sponsorship.” But the auto maker is sponsoring them in the X Games. Becker said, “I think I’ll call up the AARP and ask for sponsorship.” X Games GM Chris Stiepock said, “We’re going to give our core demo’s dads a reason to tune in now” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/2).