Xgames Summer 2000

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Xgames man! X marks the spot. X for extreme. Except extreme starts with an E. Oh well, it makes for a pretty cool logo. August 2000, the summer Xgames descend on to the streets of San Francisco. The summer games include board sports from very fringe element sports like sky surfing and street luge where these games are like the Olympics (Mama, don't let your babies grow up to be street lugers). The Xgames also feature wakeboarding; one of the quickest growing sports lately and the broadly popular skateboarding events. The Xgames are not the top events to the athletes in these sports, but the potential exposure that these games provide is undeniable.
All the events were free to the public, and thousands came down to the city by the bay to enjoy the action sports and some free music. Even though they could probably charge admission, these events make plenty for the smart people that back this multi-ring circus. The band - No Doubt - played during the kickoff bash in between the Delusions of Grandeur award and a couple of other dump awards. It was painfully obvious that this was a made for TV event and that the public was there to be free stand-ins as the live audience. For the action sports events, the athletes had to wait to be queued for their runs to make sure the cameras were ready, but the public viewing was great because the action usually kept rolling.
Finding someone that knew more than the one task that was assigned to them was difficult, but this whole thing works because the people at the top tap into the best contest organizers of each of the sports there. These quality organizers have a core support group that control and rally the herds of volunteers and workers to keep the show going on. The Xgames have developed into a media snowball of it's own. They are expanding Internationally and developing junior programs that will just keep the ball rolling and getting bigger.
There are now so many Internet action sports web sites these days, that it can be hard for established sites like BOARDZ.COM to get media passes. Fortunately, we had covered this event before unlike the new web sites on the block (like bluelight.com and loudcloud.com or something like that) or all the kids out there with a skateboard, computer, and a free hosting web site with annoying pop-up ads. But the Xgames almost does not need BOARDZ, bluelight, loudcloud, or Billy Bobs home site to give them more coverage; the snowball is huge already. But in all their wisdom, they still do their best to accommodate the hordes of online media with amazing grace.
I was there and I watched on TV; these guys put on a great live show and the television productions are really tight with the few days they use to edit before they air the TV segments. Monday night football is live; I think the Xgames should be live too. Maybe next year?