The face-lift in action sports continues, as Vans will announce today that it has drastically changed its event schedule for 2005 and beyond, focusing on seven dates instead of 18 and applying the Triple Crown name only to its series of three surf events in November and December.
Nevertheless, the company will not decrease its investment in the schedule, according to Chris Strain, vice president of global marketing for Vans. “From a production standpoint, there will be less quantity but a bigger effort in the events themselves,” he said. He would not disclose the investment apart from calling it “multimillion-dollar.”
Vans’ changes follow developments in other properties this summer: ESPN went to smaller championship fields and all-live broadcasts this year with its X Games; NBC and Clear Channel are launching the Dew Action Sports Tour in five cities next year and the Gravity Games was purchased by the Outdoor Life Network earlier this year.
Strain said the 9-year-old property was ready for a new structure. “We plan on really trying to focus on the progression of these sports through our events and to represent ourselves as a leader in the action sports industry,” he said. “We’re going to position ourselves not as the biggest media property, and instead focus on cooler events that really get away from the short highlight show and spread themselves over TV, video and the Internet.”
The four non-Triple Crown events will be the Vans Tahoe Cup in snowboarding at Lake Tahoe; the Vans Down & Dirty BMX Open (to be in Las Vegas after the Interbike trade show in October); the Vans Pro-Tec Pool Party (a “bowl” skating event evolved from skateboarding in empty swimming pools) and the Vans Downtown Showdown street skating competition, in June at locations to be determined. Vans owns the Pro-Tec equipment company.
All of the non-surfing dates will involve significant innovations in event structure, Strain said. Vans will not hold events in wakeboarding and freestyle motocross, which had been two of the six disciplines in this year’s lineup.
Two Triple Crown surfing events already have title sponsors, the O’Neill World Cup at Sunset and the Rip Curl Pipeline Masters, both three-year deals. The deal with surfwear company O’Neill is worth more than seven figures a year, and surf gear maker Rip Curl’s deal is in the six-figure range, Strain said.
He said Vans Warped Tour — its 50-date action sports and entertainment series — drew 650,000 fans at $25 a ticket this summer, a 30 percent increase in attendance with only four more events this year, which gives the company leeway to refocus its championship events. “In no way are we trying to downsize,” he said.
Vans’ relationship with NBC ends this year, and its new events will allow the company to pass the TV sales responsibility to its new partner and focus on promotion and production, Strain said. He said Vans’ TV partner would be a cable network next year, but would not elaborate.
