X Games Continue To Grow, Adjust As 14th Annual Event Begins
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| Skateboarding Remains X Games' Major Draw |
X Games 14 begins tomorrow in L.A., and "after 13 years of growing up in the public eye, the action sports festival can't make up its mind about what it wants to be when it grows up," according to Sal Ruibal of USA TODAY. The X Games "outgrew street luge, in-line skating, sport climbing, video skydiving and the word 'extreme,' but skateboarding is still the heart and soul of the event." Skating is "evolving from the big-trick vert ramp to the slick style and finesse of street, park and new-for-2008 Superpark." But Surfing, "perhaps the perfect action sport, is not in X Games 14." In the "new world of extreme, surfing is just too unpredictable for prime time because even ESPN can't order the waves and surfers to appear." Events Moto X and Rally will pay out $678,500 in prize money at this year's X Games, while "skateboarding winners will receive checks totaling $554,000." BMX, which this year will make its Olympic debut, pays out "only $392,500 at the X Games." Meanwhile, for marketers, one of the "few constants about the X Games is that it constantly reaches a large number of young, male viewers." X Games Founder and ESPN Chief Creative X Officer Ron Semiao said, "Rally would be a huge sport in or out of the X Games. We've always had an automobile sponsor, but with Subaru in it, rally has become a targeted value sponsorship" (USA TODAY, 7/30).
NEW PARTNERS: X Games today is expected to announce its sponsors for X Games 14. Returning gold level partners include Edge, Navy, New Balance, Schick, Subaru and Taco Bell. Associate level partners include Maxell, MediaFLO USA, Nowwhat.com, PlayStation, PowerBar and "Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior," with the movie and PowerBar being the only new partners. Mountain Dew, a gold level sponsor for X Games 13, ended its X Games sponsorship in the fall of '07. Sponsors receive a mix of TV, online and print ads, as well as onsite signage and activation rights (Tripp Mickle, SportsBusiness Journal).
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