Gol-ly... the X Games? Here?
Okay, so much for the unbridled enthusiasm. Now how about we deal with some of the harder questions.
Let me start by saying I neither support nor oppose bringing the X Games spinoff to Whistler. I'm just hoping for some clarification and an enlightened debate, as opposed to the blind boosterism that often supports the bling of high-wattage sporting events dangled in front of eager potential host sites.
To recap, ESPN — Entertainment and Sports Programming Network — owns the X Games, a winter festival of ski, snowboard and snowmobile events that take place over four days around the end of January in Aspen, Colorado. The X Games began in 1997 at Big Bear Lake, California, and jumped around for a couple of years before landing in Aspen where they've been held since 2002. The current contract with Aspen expires this year.
But that has nothing to do with Whistler. Whistler isn't bidding to replace Aspen and bring the X Games here at the end of January. ESPN has decided, as networks have historically done with, for example, sitcoms, to spinoff the X Games and expand the franchise by adding additional winter and summer X Games. Whistler is bidding to bring an X Games to town in April of 2013 for a three-year trial.
In the absence of the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival, the only issue worth discussing would be who pays. But the fact is Global X, or whatever it's going to be called — for the sake of convenience, let's just call it the X Games — will bump up against TWSSF and require some kind of marriage of convenience, not to say a merger, acquisition or Borgian assimilation.
So right off the bat, the issue becomes what exactly is the incremental pop we're likely to enjoy from this union? If one of the keys to future tourism growth in Whistler is hosting more high-profile events, wouldn't it be in our best interest to host events at times we don't already throw blockbuster events? You don't generally diversify your portfolio by larding on more of what you've already got. If the X Games were coming in, say, March, there wouldn't, again, be anything to talk about... except who pays.
But what this merger really entails is turning over — or perhaps more accurately replacing — the athletic events currently hosted by TWSSF to ESPN and adding some others and raising the profile of those events through the tie-in with the X Games brand and the exposure flowing out of ESPN's television coverage.
What are the benefits of that?
Tourism Whistler's president, Barrett Fisher, was quoted as saying, "... the Aspen X Games attracted 114,000 in four days in 2011, its hotel rooms 100 per cent occupied. We in fact think we can grow that number."
I think it's dangerous to extrapolate Aspen's January numbers to project Whistler's potential April numbers for several reasons. As it stands now, Aspen's X Games are sui generis, they stand on their own as their own brand. Hiving off the idea of the X Games does not ensure similar numbers for Whistler's version in April. One only has to ponder the dilution factor at work with NHL expansion teams to understand one plus one doesn't always make two.
Aspen's games take place in the middle of winter, which is to say the middle of snow sport season. Whistler's games would take place in April. You don't have to hang around a ski town very long to realize the general populace — even bread and butter skiers — have pretty much lost interest in winter snow sports once spring has rolled around. Only the hardcore are left. That's one of the things that make spring skiing so satisfying.
So what would the real numbers be? How many more tourists would attend an X Games/TWSSF event than already attend TWSSF? And let's be honest in our projections and back out the army of people ESPN would bring along to broadcast the event. How many people would actually watch it on ESPN and other stations? Who would they be? Hardcore snoweaters who already know about Whistler or channel surfers? How would it likely shape their vacation decisions? I don't know the answers but I do know what's been discussed thus far is facile and presumptive.
Whistler Blackcomb, Tourism Whistler and Whistler Sport Legacies submitted the bid for the X Games and have formed a Local Organizing Committee. They want to raise between $3 and $5 million dollars to facilitate the games. WB and TW have put in $500k each. They hope to raise sponsorship money in the $2 million range. They want the rest from, well, us.
When you think about who exactly is going to benefit from this marriage, I don't see where local government fits on that list. WB? Sure. Local hotels? Maybe, since many of the incremental rooms will be giveaways. Restaurants and shops? Most likely. Local government? Prove it.
Now let's consider what we're putting at risk. Simply stated, the single most successful, home-grown, perennially voted best party of the year, monster mountain culture festival on the continent.
Oh I know. TWSSF isn't going to be absorbed. All the cultural events you know and love will still be there. True and true. As far as it goes.
But the addition of the X Games will bring big money with it and, as we all know, money changes everything. TWSSF has always been run on a shoestring. Cheap is in its DNA. So is passion. What isn't in it is public money. The RMOW's contribution to TWSSF in the 16 years it's been around continues to hover near zero. It was only a couple of years ago it turned down a request to even help defray some of the increased policing costs. This ain't the struggling film festival after all.
ESPN will change that. Prize money will be bigger. The last time that happened at TWSSF, with the addition of a one-year big snowboard maker sponsor, it took years for the snowboarders to come back. Money blinded them and they started to think they should get that kind of dough every year.
Salaries will be bigger. Maybe not as big as during the Olympics but way bigger than TWSSF pays. More money sloshing around will bid up the market for entertainment and the cultural events. After all, why should they be the underfed child of the festival?
And just suppose the three-year experiment isn't deemed a sufficient success by ESPN to keep it running. Do you think we can just put TWSSF back together again after the circus leaves? Chances are much better we'll be sitting around in April saying, "Hey, remember how cool this place was when we used to have the World Ski and Snowboard Festival?"
When we're considering spending public money for this, I'd like someone to ask why we've never been asked to spend money on the festival before and how we might spend it better to drive business at another time of year. Among other questions.
