ASPEN — Officials of the Winter X Games announced today the event will stay at Buttermilk Mountain through 2012.
The current contract was to expire after the 2010 event, but
The 2008 Winter X Games’ attendance totaled 72,500, about 4,000 less than the 2007 Games but twice that of Aspen’s first X Games in 2002.
There’s little question the X Games continue to be good for Aspen. Ever since moving to Buttermilk in Colorado’s most glitzy gulch, the four-day event has filled nearly every bed in the valley.
Executives with the X Games and Aspen Skiing Co. have been negotiating on extending the scheduled contract that previously had been scheduled to end after the 2010 event.
The X Games continue to build on its status and offer relief to visitors and sponsors via free admission and 15 hours of live programming on ESPN and ABC. And the Winter X Games’ once-a-year competition makes it destination-type viewing versus the every-night-of-the-week sports.
Other snowsport multistop series such as the Honda Sessions, Ski Tour and the Jeep King of the Mountain have wilted under the economic downturn. But the pioneering X Games — with only two Super Bowl-esque events a year — is better poised to survive.
“I can assure you, we are taking our lumps as much as any event out there,” said X Games general manager Chris Stiepock, noting that this year’s trims include fewer workers helping to run the circus. “We will assuredly not bring in as much revenue, and in turn we have to cut expenses.”
Big-name sponsors such as Jeep, Edge shaving gel and Taco Bell return this week to Buttermilk ski area, hoping ESPN’s 13-year-old winter contest continues to set high marks for attendance, television viewership and online clicks.
Etching their way into history
A look some of the key dates in the history of the Winter X Games, which begin Thursday at Buttermilk ski area:
1997: The first Winter X goes down at Snow Summit Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, Calif., with snowboarding, ice climbing and snow mountain-bike racing. It’s also the only time “modified shovel racing” is contested. The four-day event draws 38,000 spectators.
1998: Winter X 2 arrives in Crested Butte, drawing 25,000 spectators and 200 athletes vying for $200,000 in prize money in freeskiing, “aggressive snowboarding,” snowmobile snocross and the ill-fated skiboarding.
2000: Vermont’s Mount Snow hosts the fourth Winter X and draws a still-standing record of 83,500 fans. Winter X IV debuts the now-marquee snowboard superpipe.
2002: Aspen hosts its first X at the formerly gentle Buttermilk ski area, drawing 36,300 spectators. Ski slopestyle and ski superpipe debut, as well as the first Olympic class of pipe-riding snowboarders, who take the stage weeks later at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
2004: An unprecedented third-year in Aspen — and a landmark agreement to keep X in Aspen through 2007 — continues to set records, with viewership climbing by a third, to 515,000 households.
2006: ESPN and Aspen Skiing Co. announce an agreement to keep X at Buttermilk through 2010.
2007: Winter X 11 sets attendance records in Colorado with more than 76,000 spectators and a televised and online presence that reaches millions. A record 925,000 households tuned into ESPN’s final prime-time telecast, featuring Shaun White’s aeronautical gold in the superpipe. These games also feature the first disabled event — mono skier X.
2008: Winter X 12 is the most watched in history, with eight telecasts reaching an average of 863,000 households.
