Sports Events : ESPN stopped X Games outside of United States

American sports channel ESPN announced Thursday stopped his famous X Games events outside of the United States. Among European cities that hosted this high mass extreme sports, winter, Alpine resort of Tignes loses here its main event of the season.

As the season of winter sports is brewing in the Alps, this is very bad news that must collect professionals Tignes (Savoie). The American sports television channel ESPN announced in a press release on Thursday that it was ending its organization of X Games outside of the United States. In the lot of the cities concerned, alongside Barcelona, Munich and Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil) for the summer edition, Tignes see them disappear event who knew a resounding success since its inception in 2010.

For the station, the week of the X Games - competition freestyle ski and snowboard imported from the United States - was the most profitable week of the year. The latest edition in March, attracted over 117,000 spectators sanctions after the media coverage caused by the live broadcast in nearly 200 countries. But ESPN does not care. For her, the X Games outside the United States are not "economically viable". Blow to Sébastien Merignargue, the station manager.

The X Games will not disappear. The Aspen events, winter, and Austin, summer - bringing together sports like skateboarding or BMX-are maintained. The United States and the only promised land revert the X Games, to the dismay of Europeans

Audio Interview Sébastien Merignargue: HERE (in French)

Source Franceinfo.fr

ESPN Press release : 

International X Games events in Tignes, France; Foz do Iguacu, Brazil; Munich and Barcelona will not continue in 2014, ESPN announced Thursday.

"We are proud to have run world-class competitions for both the athletes and spectators; however the overall economics of these events do not provide a sustainable future path," ESPN said in a statement.
The network said domestic X Games events in Aspen, Colo., and Austin, Texas, will be held in 2014, as scheduled.

The X Games is the longest-running event in action sports, featuring competitions in snowboarding, freeskiing and snowmobiling in the winter and skateboarding, BMX, motocross and rally car racing in the summer. The event has featured some of the most historic feats in action sports history, including the first double backflip on a dirt bike, landed by Travis Pastrana in 2006.

ESPN announced the expansion to six sites in April 2012. With the expansion came new events, including Mountain Bike Slopestyle, Women's Skateboard Park and Gymkhana GRID. The global tour also included a new emphasis on music and culture, with film screenings and concert headliners such as 50 Cent, Awolnation and Major Lazer.

The international events in 2013 provided some milestone performances. In Tignes, Iouri Podladtchikov landed the first-ever YOLO Flip in Snowboard SuperPipe. In Foz do Iguacu, Jake Brown landed the first 720 ollie in Skateboard Big Air, and in Barcelona, Alana Smith surpassed Shaun White to become the youngest X Games medalist ever with her second-place finish in the debut of Women's Skateboard Park.

In 2014, the 19th year of X Games, competitions will be held in Aspen from Jan. 23-26 and Austin from May 15-18.

Next year will be the first time Austin hosts a summer X Games, ending the event's 11-year tenure in Los Angeles.