After 18 years together, Aspen Skiing Co. and ESPN know they have a good thing going. They also know X Games and Buttermilk Ski Area are so good for each other, there is no reason to go separate ways.<\/p>\n
With this in mind, ESPN announced it has agreed to a new five-year deal to keep its signature winter action-sports event in the Roaring Fork Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reality is there aren\u2019t many places in the world like Aspen,\u201d X Games Vice President Tim Reed told The Aspen Times. \u201cThe community is awesome. All of the local support we get and our partners with ASC, they are the best and we love working with them. We are thrilled to obviously add on five more years to the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
The extension will keep X Games Aspen around through at least the 2024 event, which will allow it to surpass the two-decade mark at Buttermilk. The official announcement was made during Wednesday\u2019s annual pre-X Games press conference. The 18th annual winter sports spectacle gets underway Thursday and runs through Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m super psyched that the relationship will continue. It\u2019s been an incredible addition to the programming in our valley, which is impressive in its own right,\u201d said John Rigney, Skico\u2019s senior vice president. \u201cWe\u2019ve been together a long time and this is one of those relationships that really benefits both parties. I\u2019m still continually impressed by the business it brings to town, by the caliber of broadcast and by the coverage that these amazing athletes and Aspen-Snowmass gets on a global stage. It\u2019s a great formula and there was really no reason to mess with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The athletes who attended Wednesday\u2019s press conference agreed. For the younger ones, such as 18-year-old Olympic gold medalist Chloe Kim, the winter\u2019s signature event for snowboarders and freestyle skiers has been held only in Aspen during their lifetimes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means a lot,\u201d said California\u2019s Kim, who has won Aspen gold three times in the women\u2019s snowboard superpipe. \u201cMy first X Games was five years ago, when I was 13. It\u2019s crazy. Pretty stoked it\u2019s going to stick around here in Aspen for five more years. I love it here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those feelings are even stronger for a local such as halfpipe skier Alex Ferreira, who only lives about five minutes away from Buttermilk. The 2018 Olympic silver medalist recently recalled his favorite early memory of X Games, where as a middle schooler he decided to skip class and catch a bus to Buttermilk to watch some of the athletes train.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so inspirational,\u201d Ferreira said of X Games. \u201cThe fact it gets to continue on in Aspen and kids continue to skip out of school, like me, I think that\u2019s phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The last time contract negotiations were going on, back in 2014, Aspen had a bit of competition as Utah\u2019s Park City, California\u2019s Lake Tahoe resorts and Quebec City in Canada were all bidding to become the next Winter X Games host. This time around, ESPN seems to have kept the door shut on outside bidders, its desire to keep the event in Aspen not something the company has shied away from.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve met too many people who don\u2019t love coming to Aspen,\u201d Reed said. \u201cI\u2019ve been here all 18 years and I think for a lot of us, if not all of us, every time we got on a plane to come to Aspen, whether it\u2019s for meetings or to actually produce the events, it\u2019s always a special feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither ESPN nor Skico releases information on the economic impact of X Games Aspen, but it\u2019s believed to be in the millions of dollars. According to ESPN, the 2018 event had a total on-site attendance of 115,000 people over four days, the second highest in X Games Aspen history.<\/p>\n
While some, such at Pitkin County Commissioner Greg Poschman, have questioned the county having to pay for any of it \u2014 such as the overtime for sheriff\u2019s deputies \u2014 the high occupancy rate in town and general upbeat vibe makes those fees worth it to others.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has proved to be an anchor as far as occupancy in January,\u201d Rigney said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great messaging tool for the resort. It brings a ton of people to town, but it also brings a ton of vitality and excitement and a little youth. I think that\u2019s not only good in the short term, but it\u2019s about feeding the pipeline over the long term.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winter X Games made its debut in 1997 at Snow Mountain Resort in Big Bear Lake, California. It then spent two years in Crested Butte before moving to Mount Snow, Vermont, for another two. Aspen has been the home of Winter X Games since 2002.<\/p>\n
And here it will stay, at least for another five years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a great spot for it. Everybody knows what it is and it\u2019s pretty cool that they are not really going to change it up too much,\u201d said snowboarder Chris Corning, who briefly called Aspen home while training with the Aspen Valley Ski and Snowboard Club. \u201cIt\u2019s always kind of fun to go somewhere else, but we go somewhere else all the time, so it\u2019s nice to be able to come back here every year and know what it\u2019s going to be like.\u201d<\/p>\n