X games taking away some winter sports for 2013 games.

[ScottySkis]

http://www.powdermag.com/stories/no-more-skier-x/ ESPN pulling 3 winter games.:sad:

 

[BenedictGomez]

Honestly?

Skier X and Snowboarder X are the only 2 events I care about, and the only 2 events that had me tuning in to the X-games.

I assume this means I'm an atypical view, because God knows all these decisions are 100% based on ratings and $$$$$, so there must be survey/polling data out there that tells ESPN that Skier X and Snowboarder X are lightly viewed.

 

[RENO]

Well, that sucks! Skier X/Boarder X are my 2 favorite things to watch also. Now almost all of winter x will be compacted down to a pipe, slopestye course and a snowmobile course/area. They still maintain the big money makers with the pipe competitions. Summer also eliminated most of the events that require them to spread out a lot like mountain biking, street luge, downhill inlining, etc... They kept the big money makers too. Only thing left that requires a good amount of area is the Rally car racing. I don't think that the X games draw like they used to so they're downsizing. Similar to what the regular job world is doing, I guess... :???:

 

[K2Trav]

an open letter from Seth Wescott to ESPN

Seth Wescott
Clearly i'm not hiding behind any alias here.. this decision sucks.. ESPN has forgotten how their winter coverage and fan base was built and upon the shoulders of whom.. a man named SHAUN PALMER who got America interested in watching this tv show while the execs thought they should bring us such classics as modified shovel racing and snowlerblading.. clearly after sixteen years those same execs are making the same boneheaded decisions.. removing the last three gravity sports from the x-games brings them down to a level that clearly panders to the likes of American Idol. Letting judges decide who wins everything in winter sports is pathetic to the true spirit of competition.. exploiting your fan base and making them PAY to decide who wins in a popularity contest is even worse but it does make the brand so much more money now doesn't it?.. the first person to the finish line doesn't lie. No judges can throw a score and getting a famous twitter buddy to throw their weight into it won't help you buy a turn. i read an email from the inside yesterday saying that they hoped to have it in next year again.. wonder why? Its because ABC and ESPN can't touch the Olympics, but they can get their hands on us 10 days before and exploit the hell out of us for their ratings for the week.. but of course there will be no loyalty this year when they don't need to use us... sad also that they cut the only adaptive sports programing. Further setting back the lives of those who have had so much taken from them already.. PRETTY FREAKIN LAME X-Games, PRETTY FREAKIN LAME.. Two OLYMPIC sports that you helped to build..... out the window so we can watch urban snowboarding that helps promote the Slow Death of the American Ski Industry as a whole.. jobs, communities, regions struggle all throughout our nation and you guys don't even understand the model of how it all works.. I've had some good times at the X-Games, but they have lost their Luster, and POWDER is always a better alternative to that week of hype in Aspen.. but for the future athletes and their ability to make a living. Those execs should see how it tastes to eat ramen and sleep in your car to make a dream a reality. That is real and can never be taken away from all of us who have lived it to get to the ultimate stage.. which by the way, is not the WInter X-Games..........

 

[Huck_It_Baby]

Bummed.Those are the most exciting events to watch! =(

 

[Smellytele]

Well, that sucks! Skier X/Boarder X are my 2 favorite things to watch also. Now almost all of winter x will be compacted down to a pipe, slopestye course and a snowmobile course/area. :???:

+1

 

[Hawkshot99]

Are there now any other non-judged events in the winter games?

 

[wa-loaf]

I'm ok with this if they bring back ballet.

 

[AdironRider]

an open letter from Seth Wescott to ESPN

Seth Wescott
Clearly i'm not hiding behind any alias here.. this decision sucks.. ESPN has forgotten how their winter coverage and fan base was built and upon the shoulders of whom.. a man named SHAUN PALMER who got America interested in watching this tv show while the execs thought they should bring us such classics as modified shovel racing and snowlerblading.. clearly after sixteen years those same execs are making the same boneheaded decisions.. removing the last three gravity sports from the x-games brings them down to a level that clearly panders to the likes of American Idol. Letting judges decide who wins everything in winter sports is pathetic to the true spirit of competition.. exploiting your fan base and making them PAY to decide who wins in a popularity contest is even worse but it does make the brand so much more money now doesn't it?.. the first person to the finish line doesn't lie. No judges can throw a score and getting a famous twitter buddy to throw their weight into it won't help you buy a turn. i read an email from the inside yesterday saying that they hoped to have it in next year again.. wonder why? Its because ABC and ESPN can't touch the Olympics, but they can get their hands on us 10 days before and exploit the hell out of us for their ratings for the week.. but of course there will be no loyalty this year when they don't need to use us... sad also that they cut the only adaptive sports programing. Further setting back the lives of those who have had so much taken from them already.. PRETTY FREAKIN LAME X-Games, PRETTY FREAKIN LAME.. Two OLYMPIC sports that you helped to build..... out the window so we can watch urban snowboarding that helps promote the Slow Death of the American Ski Industry as a whole.. jobs, communities, regions struggle all throughout our nation and you guys don't even understand the model of how it all works.. I've had some good times at the X-Games, but they have lost their Luster, and POWDER is always a better alternative to that week of hype in Aspen.. but for the future athletes and their ability to make a living. Those execs should see how it tastes to eat ramen and sleep in your car to make a dream a reality. That is real and can never be taken away from all of us who have lived it to get to the ultimate stage.. which by the way, is not the WInter X-Games..........

Cliffs notes: You took away my gravy train and Im pissed!

While he has some good points in there (the adaptive competitors) he glosses it over with a massive amount of butthurt, as if snowboard/skier cross were the economic lynchpins of every ski community.

While I'm personally pretty bummed and Snowboardcross was my favorite event, but I will admit it had pretty much maxed out in terms of progression and appeal. There is nothing really to be gained or improved on that front. If anyone couldnt tell already, noone watched in the first place as it was usually dropped to mid-day coverage. In reality, they are pretty boring from a spectator standpoint.

It was a niche sport, kinda like street luge. I don't think anyone is missing out that isnt covered anymore either.

Besides, he still has FIS, which is a legitimate race league and not just corpo BS that is the X Games. If he really cared about the sport and not money, he wouldnt care, but this rant just proves Seth is just bitching cause he wont get paid this year. Boo hoo, snowboarding is supposed to be fun, not profit.

 

[RENO]

If he really cared about the sport and not money, he wouldnt care, but this rant just proves Seth is just bitching cause he wont get paid this year. Boo hoo, snowboarding is supposed to be fun, not profit.

If somebody took away a big chunk of your income, you wouldn't be pissed? I'd be pretty pissed off if I was him!

 

[AdironRider]

If somebody took away a big chunk of your income, you wouldn't be pissed? I'd be pretty pissed off if I was him!

No doubt I would be, as I assume you would be as well.

But let me answer your question in the form of another question.

If you were to lose a big chunk of your income, would you write a butthurt fueled tirade to the powers that be about how you don't deserve that treatment?

Cause clearly thats the adult way to do things. Again, he frames his argument as if snowboard cross was carrying the industry, when in fact, it was a loss for almost all venues that host a snowx event, both in terms of ratings, as well as for the mountain that hosts it with snowmaking, infastructure, etc.

In effect, hes crying that a bunch of other people should keep losing money so he can get paid. Call the wahmbulance.

 

[BenedictGomez]

I'm guessing from that letter that Seth Wescott isnt a threat to cure cancer anytime soon, but I cant say I disagree with much of what he wrote.

The nature of the layout for Skier X and Snowboarder X make it difficult to sell tickets for, and ESPN knows the pipe is where the TV ratings are. Like I said, this clearly must be all about $$$$ (at least IMO).

 

[drjeff]

I'm guessing that along that concept is that events where the finals can be held live, in primetime, works much better for ESPN's business model, and skier X/Mono X always seemed to have their finals at about 4PM East Coast time on Sunday, just as the ABC coverage was about to end for the X-games.

Logistically I'm sure that having a roughly mile long course, that is spread out over a mile, as opposed to looping around the same basic smaller footprint for a mile, presents some what of a challenge, but those portable lighting systems that they have can do an incredible job, and could easily allow the finals to happen at night, in primetime.

I also have to wonder, even a little bit, if safety concerns didn't come into play, as over the last few years, both for the skier X and especially the Mono X competitors, that last jump in particular was getting a bit out of hand size wise IMHO, to the point where you almost didn't want to watch them launch off it since in the back of your mind you knew that there was a significant chance of seeing a major injury when they landed. Sure it's the X-games, but still even most extreme sports competitors have a point where they realize that that fine line between still being safe and imminent bodily harm is likely, and that point seemed to have been reached, if not even crossed in the case of the mono X racers the last few years.

 

[bobbutts]

I guess I'm the only one who found those events to be not worth watching. I saw a bit and just didn't find it entertaining.

 

[Glenn]

I'm guessing that along that concept is that events where the finals can be held live, in primetime, works much better for ESPN's business model, and skier X/Mono X always seemed to have their finals at about 4PM East Coast time on Sunday, just as the ABC coverage was about to end for the X-games.

Logistically I'm sure that having a roughly mile long course, that is spread out over a mile, as opposed to looping around the same basic smaller footprint for a mile, presents some what of a challenge, but those portable lighting systems that they have can do an incredible job, and could easily allow the finals to happen at night, in primetime.

I also have to wonder, even a little bit, if safety concerns didn't come into play, as over the last few years, both for the skier X and especially the Mono X competitors, that last jump in particular was getting a bit out of hand size wise IMHO, to the point where you almost didn't want to watch them launch off it since in the back of your mind you knew that there was a significant chance of seeing a major injury when they landed. Sure it's the X-games, but still even most extreme sports competitors have a point where they realize that that fine line between still being safe and imminent bodily harm is likely, and that point seemed to have been reached, if not even crossed in the case of the mono X racers the last few years.

I see what you're saying there...it makes sense. My only "But.. clause" to that would be the guys doing backflips on snowmobiles. There's a potential there to really eat some doo-doo in a bad way.

It probably all comes down to ratings. It is slightly ironic though. Isn't boarder cross an Olympic event now?

 

[drjeff]

I see what you're saying there...it makes sense. My only "But.. clause" to that would be the guys doing backflips on snowmobiles. There's a potential there to really eat some doo-doo in a bad way.

It probably all comes down to ratings. It is slightly ironic though. Isn't boarder cross an Olympic event now?

Skier Cross and Boarder Cross are indeed full Olympic medal events

As for the snowmobile back flipping dudes, I agree with the potentially for them to totally eat some doo doo there (or maybe more like some ski doo doo :lol: ), but the main difference IMHO with what the skier X/mono X guys are doing vs what the snowmobile flipping guys are doing, is that with the snowmobile guys, with the pre set length of the run in they have in the competition, they can pretty much figure out what the max speed they'll be hitting the ramp and and as such where roughly everyone's going to land and build a landing ramp to accomodate.

With skier/mono-x, you don't know if you're going to have the competitors hitting the ramp at full out max speed that's built up over the previous mile or if you've got someone who crashed someone on the course and isn't carrying nearly as much speed, and it's that variability that build in a much higher degree of risk that slope engineering can't alaways account for, let alone if you've got some competitors side by side as they hit the last booter.

It's awesome to watch on TV for sure, but it really has seemed to me atleast over the last few Winter X-games that the line between generally safe for an athlete of that caliber vs. significant injury risk for even an elite athlete is getting mighty close, and I think the last thing that the folks at the X-games want to have happen is have one of the competitors right infront of the finish area crowd sustain a catastrophic injury

 

[Smellytele]

Skier Cross and Boarder Cross are indeed full Olympic medal events

As for the snowmobile back flipping dudes, I agree with the potentially for them to totally eat some doo doo there (or maybe more like some ski doo doo :lol: ), but the main difference IMHO with what the skier X/mono X guys are doing vs what the snowmobile flipping guys are doing, is that with the snowmobile guys, with the pre set length of the run in they have in the competition, they can pretty much figure out what the max speed they'll be hitting the ramp and and as such where roughly everyone's going to land and build a landing ramp to accomodate.

With skier/mono-x, you don't know if you're going to have the competitors hitting the ramp at full out max speed that's built up over the previous mile or if you've got someone who crashed someone on the course and isn't carrying nearly as much speed, and it's that variability that build in a much higher degree of risk that slope engineering can't alaways account for, let alone if you've got some competitors side by side as they hit the last booter.

It's awesome to watch on TV for sure, but it really has seemed to me atleast over the last few Winter X-games that the line between generally safe for an athlete of that caliber vs. significant injury risk for even an elite athlete is getting mighty close, and I think the last thing that the folks at the X-games want to have happen is have one of the competitors right infront of the finish area crowd sustain a catastrophic injury

I believe more people have been hurt and/or killed in the half pipe than boarder/skier-X. I for one get board with the half-pipe after about 2 contestants.

 

[AdironRider]

I see what you're saying there...it makes sense. My only "But.. clause" to that would be the guys doing backflips on snowmobiles. There's a potential there to really eat some doo-doo in a bad way.

It probably all comes down to ratings. It is slightly ironic though. Isn't boarder cross an Olympic event now?

I dont think they pick actual Olympic events based purely on ratings ala the X Games though.

Badmitton anyone?

 

[BenedictGomez]

I agree the final jump in both Skier X and Snowboarder X is moronic, and unnecessarily dangerous, but that snowmobile crap is far more dangerous. Someone is going to be killed on live TV pushing the envelope on that thing soon.

I dont think they pick actual Olympic events based purely on ratings ala the X Games though.

Badmitton anyone?

If I had to guess, I'd bet more people probably watch Badminton than most other summer Olympic sports.

 

[SIKSKIER]

I believe one skier died this year in a skier x race.They have lost me a viewer as those were my 2 favorite events.Whats more exciting than a chineese downhill?