Quote:
Originally Posted by Hill Country
Despite the increased focus on music, attendance for the 2015 X Games dropped by about 30K from 2014. Although the 2014 attendance was the highest in 10 years. ESPN has been struggling to increase interest in the X Games which is why they had the well publicized nationwide search for a new venue. IMO it's still supported well enough to continue through the last two years of their COTA deal, but after that, who knows?
http://circuitoftheamericas.com/blog...f-the-americas |
Interesting.. I was kinda wondering about attendance this year. Several times the commentators said they felt the attendance would be as big if not bigger than last year but I was looking at some of the spectator areas and they looked pretty empty and this article confirms the drop.
Now granted two things to factor. One: last year was what you would call a novelty year. Brand new city, new venue, lots of hype which typically brings out the fans for the experience.
Two: athough it doesn't pertain to overall attendance numbers rather than what specific sporting events are more popular than others but when your watching on TV and you see fairly empty spectator areas in the stands or on the hill slopes that doesn't play well with marketing. I know and understand that COTA is a big venue that covers a large area but possibly for the future they should consolidate spectator seating and viewing areas to make the crowds look a little larger especially when watching on TV.
I also think they could do more Downtown. Many of these types of sports are urban based. Especially the BMX Bikes and skateboards. Last year's half pipe on Congress was awesome, looked great and made sense. Having a huge pile of dirt where they had to pole jump over didn't make as much sense from an urban perspective. It may be a bit more of a hassle for people living in and around the DT area but they should have most of the skateboard and bike competitions there. If we can have a 3 day F1 festival DT then surely we can have 3 days of XGame events.
I know that biggest reason why they chose COTA was because they wanted an all in one venue to host the majority of events in one place as well as to grow and expand with new types of events and we saw that happen this year. Whether or not the X Games sees success or decline is up to ESPN, ABC, the competitors and the fans. I also think the guys running the Circuit of the Americas are still not promoting and marketing events like they should on a local level. When MOTOGP came through all I saw were some billboards here and there but that was about it. Not only that I wanted to see it on TV but had gotten so busy around that time that I didn't even know it was going on that weekend until after the fact. Not good local advertising at all.
The owners of COTA need to get their act together and bring in more car races too, you know because of that beautiful 3.4 mile world class circuit that just sits there 80% of the year. Yea they have companies and automakers out there testing their latest models but come on, it should be about more than that. I would love to see Indy race at COTA. Heck promote the few races you have besides F1 and you just may actually see a lot more people attending them.
Sorry for my rant. This was originally about the X Games then I went off on a tangent. I just want to see more public use out of COTA besides a couple of races, the X Games and concerts. They have so much land still that could be utilized and with the Nland Surf Park currently under construction nearby they have so many opportunities go beyond what they have now and truely make a year-round multipurpose sports and entertainment destination that could bring in millions of visitors.
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