I spent my Sunday night in front of the boob tube, watching the final day of action at the Winter X Games. Although the biggest story of the day was the final score nail-biter that found Shaun White being dethroned in the Superpipe by Steve Fisher, I noticed something even bigger--the crowd. The eleventh running of the games brought over 76,000 spectators to Aspen to freeze their buns off as they watched the action slopeside. It was the event's best attendance to date. White's recent Olympic Gold Medal and escalating celebrity are obvious catalysts for the growth, but whatever the cause, this is a sign of good things to come. Adventure sports are finally starting to get some of the mainstream respect they deserve. In a time when arenas are struggling to fill seats, I see a bridging of the gap between famous and fringe. Maybe sports fans are looking for a new alternative--tired of greedy, overpaid basketball players or a National Hockey League that loves the game so much that it cancels an entire season because the dollars aren't right. Maybe it's because the snowsports industry has embraced a sense of urbanization and finally started to remove its stuffy, cost-prohibitive stigma. Either way it's great to see these adventure athletes getting the cred they deserve.
-Jedd Ferris
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3 comments:
Yeah. Over paid athletes kill my buzz. I want to see athletes competing to win, not just get paid.
It is amazing to me how much Snowboarding has changed the wintersports industry. 10 years ago the most exciting thing that you could watch winter related was a Super G with racers named Hans and Franz. The Winter X games were much more exciting and just want this sleepy elitist industry needed. I am a skier but I have many friends that are snowbaorders and yes I hate that they snow plow all the slopes and sit right were everyone is trying to get off the chairlift but now we have young people that are excited about getting outside in the wintertime and athletes like Shaun White for them to look up to.
To make it more even more exciting maybe to make it much more extreme maybe these guys should be required to drink a 6 pack before they do the flying tomato-that would fill the seats!
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