I’m told that snocross won’t be part of the “entertainment package” at the upcoming ESPN X Games. Joining snocross in the spectator-only category will be Speed & Style.
Snowmobile-related events that are still part of the X Games venue include freestyle and best trick.
Sounds like there was budget cutting going on at ESPN, with a reduction in total air time for the entire event.
Frankly, I’m not entirely surprised by the announcement, as snocross appeared to be the only true form of racing that existed at winter X Games. In addition to being a legitimate sport, snocross required more than 2.7 seconds of viewer attention to “understand.”
Indeed, any youthful viewership tuning into snocross was required to stop texting for a few minutes and actually watch a race. It was a lot to ask from the audience, apparently, thus the decision was made to retain only the events that can be consumed in less time than it takes to hit “send.”
If you can’t already tell by the sarcasm, I consider this a loss for the snowmobile industry, as the one sled event that had the only serious clout was snocross.
But I like to be a glass-is-half-full kind of guy. So I’m hopefull the snowmobile racing industry can move beyond this bottle of television whiskey and start drinking from something more fiscally sustainable and that showcases all that’s great about sled racing.
What that is, exactly, remains to be seen.
Any ideas?