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TWSSF to evolve with X Games bid

Local Organizing Committee looks to council for funding
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bright future If Whistler is successful in its bid to host the Winter X Games, it won't be the first X Games branded event in the resort. In May 2003 Whistler hosted the X Games Global Championship superpipe competition. Pictured here Phillipe Belange.

If Whistler's bid to host the X Games next year is successful, there will be no iconic Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival (TWSSF) topping off the winter season for the first time in 17 years.

Instead, there will be X Fest — taking all the arts and culture of TWSSF and merging it with the sports of X Games for a 10-day winter festival, the likes of which in size and scale have never been seen before.

The TWSSF, which has become the defining Whistler brand anchoring the winter calendar, has been shepherded by Sue Eckersley for more than a decade, and so the thought of it "evolving" into the global machine that is the X Games comes with bittersweet emotions. And yet, it may be because of its very success that the TWSSF can morph into something bigger and more extraordinary than ever imagined.

And X Fest could be here to stay for three years, beginning in 2013.

"It's really a merging of what's best in both worlds," explained Eckersley, of Whistler's bid to host the X Games.

"We determined the best opportunity was to combine the strengths of the TWSSF with the global powerhouse of the X Games brand and with ESPN as a broadcaster."

On Jan. 2, Whistler Blackcomb, Tourism Whistler and Whistler Sport Legacies submitted a bid to the X Games for the April 10-13 timeslot in 2013. But there's one difference. Instead of the four-day event proposed by X Games organizers, Whistler wants to hold a 10-day festival from April 5-14, 2013.

It is designed to take all that's good about TWSSF — the sold-out filmmaker showdown, the pro photographer showdown, the fashion, the music, the all- night dance parties — and top it off with the four days of winter action sport events that have come to define the X Games.

And that could be what tips the scales in Whistler's favour when the winning locations are announced.

Dave Brownlie, chief operating officer of Whistler Blackcomb, described X Fest as:

"A merger of the two most powerful brands in the snow sport industry with one of the best ... ski resorts in the world. It would just be an unmatched event and festival and spectacle."

He presented the bid to council on Tuesday night.

That X Games brand is looking to expand, from two annual events to six — three in the winter, three in the summer. For the past decade, the Winter X Games have been held at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado. It has become the second busiest period after Christmas.

To put its economic impact into perspective, Tourism Whistler's president Barrett Fisher said 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," she said.

"When we look at what is that next big thing, we believe that the X Games would be that next big thing."

X Games comes with 24 hours of live TV on ESPN targeting 300 million households and hundreds of hours of repeated broadcasts with a global reach of 200 countries and 46 networks in 16 different languages.

Fisher estimates a $41.3 million economic impact to Whistler, which grows to $77.2 million in the province.

"We do think it would be very positive to every sector of our tourism economy," said Fisher.

It's also a way, said Brownlie, to showcase some of Whistler's Olympic legacies.

Whistler Olympic Park in the Callaghan Valley would be the site for all snowmobile competitions. The Whistler Sliding Centre would be the broadcast and logistics compound. The mountains would host the SuperPipe, Skier and Boarder Cross and Slopestyle while the village would be the site of the Big Air and the concert series.

But the resort partners, now formed into the Local Organizing Committee (LOC), weren't just before council to update them on the bid; they were also looking for money.

"The one thing that's quite different than what happened when we saw the Olympics come to our country is in fact ESPN picks up the majority of the cost of the event," said Brownlie.

The LOC's goal is to raise $3-5 million — one of the keys to a successful bid.

Whistler Blackcomb and Tourism Whistler have put up $500,000 together on an annual basis. Sponsorship sales could be in the range of $2 million.

"We're going forward in seeking government support, which is ultimately to be determined," said Brownlie, adding that in addition to the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) organizers are also looking to the provincial and federal tourism and sport ministries.

There was no decision at the meeting. Municipal staff has been asked to do due diligence about the financial aspect.

"We have to be absolutely confident on that side of things," said Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden, adding that council expects a resolution to come before it at the Feb. 7 meeting.

ESPN is expected to announce the shortlisted cities at the end of January. Next month there will be a site inspection.

And while a win for Whistler could spell the temporary end of its iconic festival brand, it's not really the end TWSSF.

"There's been a lot of time and effort by countless people... to build a brand that we own and that we have solely determined the direction of," said Eckersley, who is producer of the TWSSF, which is owned by Whistler Blackcomb and Tourism Whistler but which, she said, really the community owns.

"At the end of the day I think the spirit of the TWSSF will live on in the X Games."