How Cancellation Of Summer X Games 2020 Affects Minneapolis, Action Sports Calendar

In the next domino to fall in the sports world, ESPN on Friday announced that X Games Minneapolis 2020, its flagship summer event, will be canceled due to the continued threat of COVID-19.

In a statement, ESPN said, “Due to the ongoing COVID-19 concerns, X Games Minneapolis 2020 — July 17-19 — has been cancelled. The safety of the athletes, staff and spectators is our top priority, and we will continue to closely monitor the situation for all X Games events.”

It’s the first time in 25 years of events that a Summer X Games has been canceled, and the news comes just three months after ESPN postponed what would have been its first event in China—X Games Chongli—also due to concerns about the novel coronavirus.

“We thank the great city of Minneapolis, our organizing partners, athletes and fans for supporting X Games Minneapolis,” said Tim Reed, X Games vice president. “During three successful years, the city and facilities proved to be great hosts and provided a world-class stage for the best action sports athletes to create truly memorable moments in X Games history.”

The 2020 X Games was the last one under ESPN’s contract with Minneapolis, where the event has been held since 2017, and there are no current plans to renew it. In that time, however, X Games has left an indelible mark on the city, both economically and culturally.

In each of the last three years, X Games and its associated programming, which included concerts at The Armory, exhibits featuring local artists and brand activations outside U.S. Bank Stadium, generated about $50 million a year in total economic impact, according to Sports Minneapolis executive director Melvin Tennant, citing an ESPN study.

“We certainly will miss having all the athletes and the fans in our city this summer,” says Tennant. “It was really wonderful to see such a diverse number of athletes in extreme sports come to our city and watch the way in which our community welcomed those athletes.”

Across the board over the last three events, athletes consistently had positive things to say about their experience in Minneapolis and at U.S. Bank Stadium. Tennant hopes they might consider converting those positive feelings into support for the city as it, like many around the country, loses out on the massive economic benefit a sporting event can bring to a region.

“I’d like to be able to call on the athletes who experienced Minneapolis to somehow use them as ambassadors, as they are already for their sport but also here in Minneapolis,” Tennant said.

The local impact of X Games goes far beyond the 119,000 fans (figure from 2018) who watched the events in U.S. Bank Stadium.

ESPN and X Games designed a legacy skate park, Central Skatepark, that remains a permanent fixture at Central Gym Park. In 2018, the second year the city hosted X Games, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) commissioners approved the Minneapolis Skate Park Activity Plan, a 20-year roadmap for increasing the number of skate parks in Minneapolis and encouraging skating among future generations. Another new park under the initiative, JXTA skate park, opened in June 2019.

“Clearly, the benefit of all the live programming ESPN did over the last three years as well as the numerous re-broadcasts on many ESPN platforms helped to shape Minneapolis’ image as a welcoming destination for extreme sports,” Tennant said. “Many people now know us as ‘the city that hosted X Games.’ That is very gratifying to hear.”

The cancellation removes yet another event for skateboarding, BMX and Moto X athletes from the action sports calendar. Freestyle skateboarding and BMX were set to make their debut in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, now postponed to 2021. Additionally, world championships and other summer staples like Dew Tour and Vans BMX Pro Cup have been postponed or canceled.

However, ESPN still has myriad plans in place to showcase and celebrate action sports athletes. Its Real Series, now in its 11th year, is something of a virtual competition already, highlighting ski, snowboard, skateboard, BMX and Moto X athletes in video parts tailored to their own style. There’s a fan voting component, and X Games judges award X Games gold, silver and bronze medals to the top spots.

Real Ski and Real Snow already debuted in mid-March and early April, respectively. This year’s decisive Real Snow fan favorite and gold medalist was none other than Finnish snowboarder Rene Rinnekangas, who also demonstrated his crowd-pleasing exploits at X Games Aspen 2020. In the snowboard knuckle huck contest, he used competitor Ryo Aizawa’s board as a ramp to launch himself off the 80-foot jump.

For action sports fans missing their regular competition fix, Real Street kicks off the summer disciplines in mid-May, followed by Real BMX in August and Real Moto in September.

A new long-form studio interview show hosted by Brandon Graham, Brando’s World of X, airs every week, and X Games host Jack Mitrani is doing a daily Instagram live to keep action sports fans in the know while competitions are on pause.