ESPN sells X Games majority interest, will keep televising events

ESPN offered its majority stake within the X and Winter X Games on Wednesday, marking the tip of an almost three-decade chapter throughout which the community helped propel snowboarding, skateboarding and different motion sports activities out of the perimeter and into the mainstream.

Terms of the sale to MSP Sports Capital, a sports-focused personal fairness agency that additionally has stakes in McLaren Racing and a handful of European soccer groups, weren’t launched. ESPN will stay a minority companion within the events and will proceed to televise them.

This season’s Winter X Games are scheduled for Jan. 27-29 in Aspen, Colorado.

Created throughout an period when ESPN nonetheless craved programming of all kinds (ESPN2 was initially designed particularly to attraction to a youthful viewers) the Winter X Games have lengthy been a trendsetter in snowboarding. It carries a popularity for constructing one of the best halfpipes and slopestyle programs and discovering new events (assume, snowmobiling) and niches (think, Knuckle Huck) to keep motion sports activities on the leading edge.

Next to his three Olympic titles, Shaun White’s 15 wins and 23 total medals on the X and Winter X Games are his prime sports activities achievement. Virtually all the sport’s largest names — Chloe Kim, Jamie Anderson, Danny Davis, Marc McMorris and extra — have gained a number of titles in Aspen. Even in an period during which the Olympics overshadows most all the pieces, hardly anybody argues that an ideal snowboarder’s resume is not full with out some sort of victory in Aspen.

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The first X Games had been held in 1995 — a summertime affair generally known as the “Extreme Games” that targeted on skateboarding. Tony Hawk was among the many gold medalists on the inaugural gathering. ESPN added a winter model in 1997 that finally overshadowed its summer season cousin in some ways, largely because of snowboarding’s inclusion within the Olympic program a yr later.

Building programs, discovering judges, coping with athlete well being and security and scheduling concert events that, more and more, grew to become a serious draw to the events takes a workers of greater than 1,000. By promoting the majority stake whereas remaining invested within the enterprise, ESPN will step away from that a part of the endeavor however will nonetheless deal with its core mission — televising sports activities.

“We’re pleased with what we’ve created with our workers and the athletes over almost 30 years of world-class X Games events and content material,” stated Jimmy Pitaro, chairman of ESPN and Sports Content.

Stepping in will be MSP, which will take over the manufacturing of the contests, and is anticipated to reshape the digital choices for an occasion that skews to a youthful, content-craving viewers.

“Our vision for the X Games tomorrow, next year and a decade from now is simple — we want to create a global action sports community of athletes and fans where we push the limits of competition and entertainment,” stated Steve Flisler, who turns into the brand new CEO of the X Games.

Flisler has been an government at Twitch, a streaming service that’s finest know for its dwell streaming of video video games, and likewise was in management positions at NBCUniversal.

He stated the mission on the X Games is to create “a content engine that gives fans more ways to interact and get hooked to athlete stories.”

“X Games athletes are opponents first however more and more will grow to be a few of the most influential content material creators throughout the globe,” Flisler stated.