BRECKENRIDGE — With an economic forecast as cold and dark as the first day of winter, it may seem like an odd time to launch one of the biggest tours in action-sports history.
From the deceased Honda Session to the comatose Jeep King of the Mountain/48Straight, even reaching back to the all-but-forgotten Gravity Games, recent history has handed out more flops on the new-school ski and snowboard circuit than opening day at the terrain park.
But there’s a plan afoot to Dew things differently.
“I think what we’ve developed from a business perspective is a really great platform for these type of events and tours to thrive,” said Wade Martin, president of the recently established Alliance of Action Sports (“Alli” for short), producer of the new Winter Dew Tour. “I’m not sure if those other events failed because of the product, per se. The toughest thing about these sports is that they are still in their infancy relative to other sports, so the business model really has to work. The reason we didn’t launch the Winter Dew Tour right off is that we wanted to create that business model.”
While the three-stop Winter Dew Tour, which made its debut with four days of freeride skiing and snowboarding at Breckenridge over the weekend, has the advantage of a complementary 4-year-old summer skate/bike/ motocross version to learn from, giving credit exclusively to Dew Tour producers isn’t accurate. The ESPN-owned Winter X Games will enter its 13th season as the undisputed heavyweight champion of winter action sports when it returns to Aspen from Jan. 22-25. And although there are differences between the two, Winter Dew is clearly a byproduct of the X factor.
The modern surge in action sports — both winter and summer — can be correlated directly to the success of the X Games brand that gave mainstream America its first introduction to folks like Shaun White, Hannah Teter, Gretchen Bleiler and Tony Hawk. The ensuing increase in popularity led Dew Tour producers to create a consistent, annual series with athlete point standings similar to NASCAR drivers.
“We want the X Games to succeed, and I think they want us to succeed,” said Martin, likening the Dew Tour to a regular season surrounding the X Games Super Bowl. “It helps the overall sports grow. There are places we might be competitive from a business level over things like sponsorship, but in terms of overall sports, it’s good for us for the X Games to thrive. and I think we are good for them.”
While the jury is still out on the Winter Dew Tour’s measure of success this winter, Martin points to a few key components giving it an advantage over defunct predecessors. Foremost among them is ownership by NBC Sports and MTV Networks, providing a live-broadcast media platform and production quality on par with ESPN’s X Games. Like the X Games, Winter Dew was presented live to a mainstream audience over the weekend and will follow up with “insider” programming on more market-specific networks like MTV2 and Fuel TV.
A close second is the tour’s ability to draw the top ski and snowboard athletes through that media exposure and an overall prize purse of $1.5 million.
“We will probably measure success differently at different stages in the evolution of the tour, from TV viewership, to on-site attendance, to the level of satisfaction among the athletes,” Martin said. “Out of gate, I think one of the measures is awareness from a fan level and a viewer level. But I think the most important thing is that this is a really important series to the athletes. If that’s the case, then all the rest of it falls into place. And in that regard, I think we’re off to a good start.”
Indeed, top snowsports athletes have embraced this new series with enthusiasm. Some 24 Olympic athletes and six medalists from 20 countries and 21 states have signed on to compete on the tour. Because of the recession, many action- sports athletes find themselves with fewer opportunities to maintain a high profile as corporate sponsorships and video projects are increasingly difficult to come by. As a result, contests are back in vogue among elite riders.
“Being live on TV is huge, and it’s definitely raising the profile of the sport, so I’m backing it,” Olympic silver medalist Bleiler said Sunday after winning the women’s pipe event.
Breckenridge rider Steve Fisher, the world’s top-ranked snowboarder heading into the winter, described the series as “a giant leap in the world of action-sports events,” adding, “We on the snow side of things have been excited about this for two years.”
So it appears that the elements are in place for the new Dew Tour to jump right into the mix as a dominant player in the winter action-sports world. Snowboard and skateboard superstar White believes it could take a year or two for the series to gain some traction, just as it did on the summer side. But Martin already sees sun on the horizon.
“We hope this is the most important series in skiing and snowboarding 20 years from now,” Martin said. “If you listen to the athletes, fans and people around the event, I think people have already embraced this as a premier series.”
Scott Willoughby: 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com
Winter Dew Tour by the numbers
24 Number of Olympians on Tour, including six medalists
15 Age of youngest athlete (snowboarder Trevor Jacob)
282 Total number of athletes participating
20 Countries represented
21 U.S. states represented
28.5 Hours of broadcast
$1.5 million Prize purse for the season
* Remaining tour stops: Mount Snow, Vt., Jan. 8-11; Northstar-at-Tahoe, Calif., Feb. 19-22
