Dude, Denver lost its Dew.
The Dew Action Sports Tour, a five-stop national flying circus of skate, BMX and motocross that elevated the Pepsi Center parking lot the past two summers with youthful exuberance, will not return to Denver this year.
Wade Martin, general manager of the NBC-owned tour, said Denver was hard to leave.
“Our goal is to stay in markets and make them work, and we really thought Denver could be one of those markets,” he said, noting scheduling conflicts with the Pepsi Center and a “really attractive proposal” from Salt Lake City that ultimately led to the Dew Tour’s departure from Denver. “It was a great event, and we thought it was something we could grow on. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point we are back.”
Denver joins San Jose, Calif., and Louisville, Ky., as cities that lost the Dew Tour this year. Orlando, Fla., and Portland, Ore., keep their Dew Tour stops, and Salt Lake City and Cleveland will get their first experiences with the five-day festival.
Recent reports in The Salt Lake Tribune said the Utah Sports Commission enlisted the help of action-sports companies to promise the tour $150,000 and assistance promoting the event. Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman announced the event is expected to generate $12 million to $15 million for the state’s economy, according to The Tribune.
The host for the initial stop of the tour has not been announced. But it won’t be Denver. The city’s two-year deal with the Dew Tour ended last summer.
“It wasn’t meant to be a long- term deal,” Pepsi Center spokesman Brian Kitts said. “We did talk to them and went through some financial talks, and the assumption is they just decided to move several parts of the schedule around. We would be glad to have them back, but obviously not this year.”
Owned by NBC and Live Nation, the Dew Tour debuted in June 2005, offering the first season for action-sports athletes who typically had one or two chances a year to showcase their skills on a national level. Attendance at the tour’s five stops last year totaled 250,000, and an estimated 38 million viewers watched the tour on NBC and USA.
With a $2.5 million purse and a $1 million bonus pool based on end-of-tour point standings, the Dew Tour attracted the biggest names and largest tricks in the nascent action-sports world.
Last year, Ryan Nyquist threw the first 720 bar spin in BMX competition, at the Pepsi Center parking lot. Shaun White won his second professional skating contest inside the arena.
Denver bested 15 other cities in netting the inaugural tour.
“It’s a surprise, really,” said Brian Gavagan, a BMX halfpipe athlete from Denver who competed last year at the Pepsi Center. “It was such a good show last year, and we had one of the best turnouts. I really wonder what the other cities presented to make themselves more attractive. It seemed like such a perfect fit here.”
Jason Blevins can be reached at 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com.
