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Event Insider: X Games Aspen 2021 Brings Back Live Events
The world’s biggest snowsports spectacle returned this weekend under strict COVID-19 precautions without on-site spectators, but replete with history-making freeski and snowboard performances. Lessons from a successful X Games Aspen 2021 by Boardsport SOURCE editor Dirk Vogel.
Any way you slice it, X Games is the biggest international stage in action sports. Every winter and summer, the combination of live sports and music festival experiences attracts crowds in the hundreds of thousands.
But like all live sports events, X Games felt the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
The impact was especially harsh because 2020 was going to be a banner year for X Games with new event formats and international expansions. Then the pandemic hit. While the 2020 edition of X Games Aspen still drew 111,500 spectators for competitions and concerts, in Aspen Snowmass in January, the new X Games Chongli 2020 event in February already had to be cancelled because of COVID-19.
By the time athletes returned home from X Games Norway in early March 2020, the pandemic had spread enough to put the entire world on lockdown. It also wiped out all major events on the calendar: X Games Shanghai, X Games Minneapolis, and X Games Sydney 2020 were cancelled; and so were the Tokyo Olympics which would’ve seen the much-anticipated debut of skateboarding and surfing as official events.
Now X Games has made a return to live events in Aspen from January 29-31 on Buttermilk Mountain. It’s the 20th consecutive X Games in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, but making it happen required some format changes: Because of the pandemic, X Games Aspen 2021 was closed to the public without the usual spectators and musical performances. Motorised sports also had to be shelved, for now, to keep things manageable.
But when all was said and done, the latest progression of freeski and snowboarding was broadcast into 500 million homes across the world and streamed across major online platforms. And judging by viewer counts on YouTube and other platforms, action-starved viewers ate it up!
Here’s what we can learn about bringing back live events from a successful X Games Aspen 2021:
COVID SAFETY PROTOCOLS
The biggest question in bringing back live events is coronavirus safety. The NBA famously installed a ‘COVID bubble’ for all athletes, while the UFC maintains a hub for international fighting events on a private island in Abu Dhabi.
For X Games Aspen 2021, the team at ESPN decided to produce the event without on-site crowds and concerts, for the first time in event history. Access to Buttermilk Mountain was limited to athletes, select media, and staff under full coronavirus precautions. And it worked!
Sure, some athletes were side-lined from competing because of the pandemic. Most famously defending Big Air gold medallist Max Parrot, who had to quarantine with his Canadian teammates in Laax, Switzerland, after two athletes had tested positive for COVID-19.
But to the organiser’s credit, X Games Aspen completed all scheduled medal events without a single cancellation due to the virus. That is an achievement in and of itself, especially keeping in mind recent outbreaks in professional football and other sports
SPONSORS
Events on the scale of X Games would be impossible without the support of high-profile sponsors. This is where X Games Aspen 2021 again performed better than many other sports by bringing back headline supporters such as Jeep, Wendy’s, Pacifico, Monster Energy, and more for this edition.
This level of support is definitely not a given in our new reality. Household brands like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Budweiser and Ford have pulled their TV commercials for the Super Bowl this year. Reasons include the cost of $5.5 million for a 30-second slot, but also the current climate of social unrest and rising unemployment.
With all these factors in mind, X Games achieved a major business win by securing a full set of sponsors for Aspen 2021 and is definitely reaping the benefits of its massive digital reach.
DIGITAL REACH
When it comes to its digital presence, X Games is running laps around ‘mainstream’ sports events like the Super Bowl. At the 2019 X Games Aspen, social posts tagged with #XGames, #XGamesAspen and #XGFan created more than 18 million total interactions. The summer edition, X Games Minneapolis 2019, generated 5.4 million video views on Facebook, 9.6 million on Instagram, 3.3 million on YouTube, and 1.6 million on Twitter.
It’s safe to say that X Games draws a lot of water on social platforms. The main ESPN Twitter account commands enormous clout with 36.4 million followers. The X Games YouTube channel has 1.26 million subscribers and highlight videos from competitions draw massive eyeballs, for instance the 2020 edition of Knuckle Huck with 723,000 views and counting.
It is exactly this humungous digital reach that connects X Games to young viewers across the planet. And it’s what makes the event series so valuable to its loyal brand sponsors and keeps them coming back.
It’s all part of a virtual cycle of amplification, amplification, amplification. Strength in numbers. Because for added reach, the sponsors also rule over massive online audiences in the millions of followers, like Monster Energy with 3.3 million YouTube subscribers and view counts in the double-digit millions.
Not to forget all the sponsored athletes who are basically brands in their own right, including Shaun White with his army of 1.5 million Insta followers. So whatever ground-breaking trick, medal finish, or surprise win (see 5.) may go down at X Games, the ripples across social media and digital platforms make waves on an immense, global scale in front of hundreds of millions of engaged viewers. Can the Super Bowl claim the same thing?
FESTIVAL EXPERIENCES
The biggest draw at any X Games, aside from the world’s best action sports performances, has always been the concerts. Musical acts performing at X Games Aspen have included the likes of The Chainsmokers and Lil Wayne. And it can be argued that the musical component expands the reach beyond die-hard boardsports audiences.
With this in mind, the festival experience has probably been the hardest ingredient in the winning X Games formula to replicate in a closed-to-the-public setting.
But X Games invested in the kind of innovative technology that brings fans a piece of festival atmosphere into their homes. A brand-new virtual experience, X Fest, offered fans a chance to win prizes, play games, listen to music, and connect with X Games sponsors.
All that fans needed was a web browser, no downloads required. Once they customised their avatar – a stylised skier or snowboarder – fans were free to roam a virtual festival village with experiences like a Knuckle Huck arcade game and music stage. Plus, branded experiences from headline sponsors like Monster Energy’s igloo-themed Chill Media Zone or the Jeep car showcase.
Sure, it will be tough to match the magnetic draw of a real-life Lil Wayne concert. But in an age where virtual Travis Scott concerts on Fortnite become instant classics with gazillions of fans, X Games has made a strong case for combining its massive digital reach, sponsor line-up, and engaging festival character into a virtual experience for fans at home.
- THE BEST IN SPORTS
The main ingredient in the secret sauce has always been top notch sports performances. Even before returning to live events, X Games managed to tap into this massive potential and keep audiences stoked with events like the ‘Real’ video contest series. Events, like 2020’s Real Snow competition, generated over 328,000 views with their winning videos by headline X Games athletes, which still form the backbone of the X Games experience.
For X Games Aspen 2021, the stars of the winter sports universe were once again out in full force. Okay, perhaps snowboard icon Shaun White had to pull out of competition at the last second because of a practice injury, but the best of the best still threw down on Buttermilk Mountain with some never-seen-before feats in the mix.
Chloe Kim, the official Queen of the Superpipe, returned to competition after her freshman year at Princeton and delivered a gold-medal winning performance. Upcoming snowboard pro Dusty Henricksen made history as the first rookie to ever win Slopestyle gold. Japan’s Yuto Totsuka won his first X Games SuperPipe gold and bested two-time defending champ Scotty James. Henrik Harlaut was crowned the most decorated skier in X Games history on the strength of a Knuckle Huck gold medal, and Jamie Anderson took her 19th X Games medal as the winningest woman snowboarder in history.
Not to mention all the never-been done tricks, streamed live into millions of households across the globe. Like Mathilde Gremaud landing the first-ever Switch Double Cork 1440 in women’s competition history. Or halfpipe skier Cassie Sharpe pulling a brand-new leftside 1260 air blasted 10’9” high. Countless new entries into X Games trick history were added this weekend, and viewers across the world had a chance to watch it all unfold live in front of their eyes.
At a time when the future of sports events hangs in the balance, this felt like a ‘normal’ X Games (meaning the good kind of normal we all can use right now).
With that said, there’s a lot to learn from the successful return of X Games Aspen. And more than a year into the pandemic, event organisers will have to keep learning their own lessons to host live competitions at any scale, from stadium-size to the most local of huck fests.
But before vaccinations take hold and the world can return to live events attended by sizeable crowds, it’s safe to say that X Games Aspen 2021 is as good as it gets. Major appreciation to the crew at ESPN and Buttermilk Mountain for putting on a world-class action sports showcase in these uncertain times and writing history this weekend in Aspen.
