The Big Air snowboarding spectacle in Civic Center last January will not be returning.
An international schedule packed with Olympics-grooming World Cup snowboarding events as well as funding challenges doomed the high-flying contest’s return to Denver, which saw elite snowboarders screaming down a 106-foot-high ramp before sliding to a snowy stop in front of thousands of spectators gathered in Denver’s downtown park.
“It’s a challenging economic model when using a venue like Civic Center park where you have both free and pay areas,” said Sue Baldwin , the principal organizer of the event with the Metro Denver Sports Commission.
Plus a January competition doesn’t fit the calendar of the International Ski Federation (known as the FIS) for World Cup Big Air contests.
“If we wanted to do it again, they (the FIS) were looking at October through December, which doesn’t work because we could easily have a day like this,” Baldwin said Thursday, with temperatures in the 60s.
The FIS made an exception last year. The federation had an opening in its calendar that worked well with the Colorado gathering of snow athletes and industry players for Denver’s SnowSports Industries America annual Snow Show trade show and Aspen’s Winter X Games.
At a cost of $1.2 million, the two-day Big Air event lost money, even with sponsors such as LG and Sprint and even though it lured 14,000 spectators. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and the FIS took a share of the event’s sponsorship revenues, which pinched the amount the Denver Sports Commission could generate to pay for the event. The commission, which works to lure high-profile sporting events to Denver, charged $45 to $200 for admission to the event, although a swath of the park was open for free with limited views. Ticket sales could not cover all the costs, though.
“It was difficult with limited commercial rights,” Baldwin said.
While the Denver Sports Commission promises a return of some big winter events in 2013, it is taking 2012 off from hosting a snow-sports contest in downtown Denver.
But Visit Denver is not.
“Even though we don’t have Big Air, there will be another major event that will take place, not in Civic Center park but another place, and it should attract the same crowds as Big Air,” said Deborah Park, spokeswoman for the city’s convention and tourism bureau, Visit Denver.
Park declined to elaborate, promising that details of the event “are coming soon.”
The loss of a first-ever World Cup Big Air contest in the U.S. isn’t too much of a big deal for aspiring Olympians. Not many American snowboarders compete in Big Air contests in Europe.
“Generally, America just isn’t too big on Big Air,” said Ben Boyd, snowboard-program director at Ski & Snowboard Club Vail. “But for those guys who are looking to get a little bit of exposure, it was an eye-opening event. It was a good taste for some kids to see what FIS World Cup contests are all about.”
Baldwin said her group is working to bring internationally sanctioned athletic contests back to Civic Center. The sports commission hopes to host an annual winter event in Civic Center in January 2013 — an urban biathlon, maybe (with lasers instead of live rounds), or an urban halfpipe contest or even a curling contest.
“With an Olympic bid potentially in the future, we are looking for opportunities to do something different and big every year,” said Baldwin, noting Colorado’s interest in a possible bid for the 2022 Winter Games.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
