Menu
Media

ESPN's X Games To Be Reduced To Two Domestic Events After $30 Million Loss

The Global X Games, which debuted this year, lost more than $30M, leaving ESPN execs "with no choice but to end," according to Tripp Mickle of the SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Two weeks ago, the company issued a press release that said "it was canceling future international stops in Barcelona, Spain; Munich; Tignes, France; and Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, and instead concentrating on two domestic X Games events." The property's demise "highlights a rare failure for ESPN." Action sports observers and sources familiar with Global X Games' struggles said that "the property's failure stemmed from a flawed business plan and poor execution." The company's sales team "struggled to land sponsors, its production team failed to control costs, and the addition of new TV broadcasts created a glut and diluted viewership from an average of 1 million in years past to just 497,000 viewers this year." Wasserman Media Group President of Action Sports & Olympics Steve Astephen said, "The P&L [profit-and-loss statement] has to be proper when you expand into a new business. The events were great. ESPN did a great job with the events. The crowd was happy. But you have to build it. That's a seven-year business plan." The company "hoped to find six to eight global sponsors to support the event." ESPN priced deals at $15M a year, "more than three times what action sports sponsors typically paid, and it hit the market with the new offering about 12 months before the first event." The effort "was rushed and incomplete." Sources said that in some pitches, for example, its sales staff could not tell potential sponsors "what German network the Munich event would be on" because ESPN had not yet cut broadcast deals there. The sales team "only cut three global deals." Two "were with traditional action sports sponsors Red Bull and GoPro," which balked at the $15M price tag and instead agreed to deals that sources valued at $10M a year. The third was in the auto category, "which Ford and Jeep split." ESPN had other revenue streams for the event, such as TV syndication, advertising sales, local ticket sales and domestic sponsorships with groups like the U.S. Navy, but people familiar with its business plan said that global sponsorships were supposed to provide at least 50% of its $100M budget for Global X, "and it fell short of hitting those numbers" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 10/14 issue).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

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/Global/Issues/2013/10/15/Media/X-Games-ESPN.aspx

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

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2013/10/15/Media/X-Games-ESPN.aspx

CLOSE