U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis will host the next two Summer X Games.
Tim Reed, ESPN vice president for the X Games, said Minneapolis won the bid thanks to its new stadium, downtown location and ability to provide an adjacent home to a sponsor village and music acts. Local and state government also have committed to an as-yet-undetermined financial contribution.
“With all the different cultural aspects we integrate into the events, it gives us a nice footprint to blend all those different components,” Reed said.
The indoor stadium and climate will allow X Games to return to its traditional mid-July period — a less competitive time on the TV sports calendar — after three years of running the event around Memorial Day weekend in Austin, Texas. The Minneapolis partnership beat out Nassau County (N.Y.), Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Providence, R.I., among others, ESPN said.
The festival will occupy a two-block community park that is included in the broader stadium area redevelopment, and a flat track for motorcycle racing will be established a “couple of miles away,” Reed said. The 2017 X Games are set for July 13-16.
This will be the X Games’ first stop in the Midwest after calling Texas or California home for years. The Winter X Games have long been in Aspen.
Minneapolis will pick up what was supposed to be Austin’s last year in a four-year contract. ESPN backed out of the pact with Circuit of the Americas racetrack in March, officially because of the timing and weather concerns. However, COTA also absorbed a 20 percent cut in its state economic development subsidy prior to the breakup.
Reed said ESPN will seek bids for 2019 and 2020, and some failed bidders have already expressed an interest in that contract. Sports Minneapolis Executive Director Scott Romane said the city wants to keep the X Games beyond this initial two-year contract.
