Menu
Events and Attractions

‘Big Air’ snow event expected to land in black

Organizers of this week’s Polartec Big Air at Fenway expect the event to finish in the black once ticket sales wrap, but they’re making no commitments for future in-stadium snowboarding and skiing festivals.

Nearly 19,000 tickets had been sold by midweek last week for the two-day contest that starts Thursday. Fenway Sports Management and the U.S. Ski & Snowboard Association agreed last summer to jointly produce a big air competition at the venerated Boston ballpark, sharing all costs and revenue.

A giant ramp/jump structure is installed for this week’s Polartec Big Air at Fenway.
Photo by: FENWAY SPORTS MANAGEMENT
Planners originally set a sales target of 20,000 tickets but now expect to easily eclipse 25,000, said Mark Lev, FSM managing director. The best sales generator in the final days, he said, is the 15-story ramp/jump structure in center field. Taller than Fenway Park’s light towers, it’s clearly visible from the street as snow-making begins.

“We knew that once the ramp would be built and people were going to be able to see this thing, it was going to stimulate a lot of interest,” Lev said.

Capacity for the unique snow sports configuration is about 20,000 per night, a little more than half the ballpark’s baseball seating, said Fred Olsen, FSM’s director of special projects.

Robust interest from sponsors has helped the budget, too. Sponsorship sales have exceeded the budget by 30 percent, said USSA chief marketer Michael Jaquet. Along with selling title rights to textile manufacturer Polartec, the partnership has sold 14 associate sponsorships (they originally created 12 slots) and counts more than 30 partners in all.

FSM and the USSA agreed to split all costs and profits, with the Boston group selling seats and marketing rights to regional, one-off partners, while the USSA organized the athletic details and sold the event to sponsors as part of its seasonlong inventory. “We absolutely love the model,” Jaquet said.

But despite the enthusiasm and expected financial return, the event won’t be returning to Fenway Park next year. The USSA thinks the novelty in a given market is important and is evaluating locations in other major media markets in cold winter climates. “We won’t go back to Fenway,” Jaquet said. “We have heavy interest from other stadiums.”

FSM officials also are not making any commitments to snow sports beyond this week. Management will continue pursuing baseball offseason events such as football and outdoor hockey games, Lev said, but the massive ski/snowboard jump ramp is another matter altogether. This event has required far more logistical and operational effort than any event in Fenway Park history, Lev said.

“We have 26,000 pieces of steel being constructed into a 140-foot ramp,” he said. “We need to evaluate how that affects the field, with baseball only two months away.”

The budget and preparations have been strained by a factor hard to imagine in Boston one year ago: no snow cover. Before Thursday, contractors HKD Snowmakers will come together with experts from Killington Ski Resort and from Crystal Ice, a supplier to the fishing industry, to create 800 tons of snow to cover the ramp at depths from 18 to 36 inches.

The ramp is being built by Steelman Productions, ConsultantZee and Snow Park Technologies.

After running a big air competition in a Denver park in 2011 with mixed results, the USSA wanted to bring its Grand Prix tour to a major city. The Fenway Park event, which includes both women’s and men’s snowboard big air and freeskiing big air, is the third and final stop on this season’s Grand Prix, replacing one originally scheduled for Copper Mountain, Colo.

Athletes confirmed as of last week for the Boston event include snowboarders Sage Kotsenburg, Jamie Anderson and Maxence Parrot, and freeskiers Joss Christensen and Gus Kenworthy. Musical acts Bad Rabbits and American Authors are slated to play.

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 18, 2024

Sports Business Awards nominees unveiled; NWSL's historic opening weekend and takeaways from CFP deal

ESPN’s Jay Bilas, BTN’s Meghan McKeown, and a deep dive into AppleTV+’s The Dynasty

On this week’s Sports Media Podcast from the New York Post and Sports Business Journal, ESPN’s Jay Bilas talks all things NCAA. Big Ten Network’s Meghan McKeown shares her insight into the Caitlin Clark craze. The Boston Globe’s Chad Finn chats all things Bean Town. And SBJ’s Xavier Hunter drops in to share his findings on how the NWSL is making a social media push.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/02/08/Events-and-Attractions/Big-Air-at-Fenway.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2016/02/08/Events-and-Attractions/Big-Air-at-Fenway.aspx

CLOSE