This year's X Games Aspen event will commence Friday from Buttermilk Mountain, and on the latest "SBJ Unpacks" podcast, ESPN VP/X Games Tim Reed joined our Andrew Levin to break down what it has taken to make the event happen amid the COVID reality, including health-and-safety protocol for athletes and staffers, engaging virtually with fans, working with sponsors, plus more.
On COVID-19 testing and health-and-safety protocols:
Reed: (The plan) is very, very detailed, as you could imagine. There are so many layers to it all, but obviously, testing’s a key component. ... But then distancing, hand washing and always wearing a mask, all clearly the key things that are going to really help us mitigate the risk that’s out there are in place. Everyone’s staying in single rooms, all the actual office spaces set up with the right distancing in place, but also, we went through all the studies on the air-filtration systems that the hotels had, that the tents needed, the trucks needed, tons of levels of detail.
On working with sponsors around the event:
Reed: (After) all we’ve been through, we’re thankful the partners are with us again this year in Aspen. It’s been tough for everybody, but it’s great to see that everyone’s working together on this one. You’re going to see the partners come to life quite a bit through our broadcast, whether it’s in-broadcast integrations or entitlements, various features around their athletes. We actually just worked with Wendy’s on a commercial that’s going to run that utilizes one of the X Games athletes. ... We always think of ourselves as pretty sponsor-friendly, partner-friendly, because we operate the events; we produce the show.
On taking the X Games to new markets:
Reed: To bring the brand to new locations is still what is intriguing to me because we’ve been, obviously, in a lot of different countries throughout the years. But there’s probably more markets that we haven’t done, whether that’s like a South Africa or India. There’s so many cool places. That’s what’s unique about these sports is the athletes are from all over the world, and I think as it continues to grow, hopefully that presents more opportunities for us to do events in hopefully places like Japan, which we haven't been able to. That would be a cool one to get on the books.
