new X Games venues

With new X Games venues, everything feels a little smaller
Attendance is strong this year after the Games shifted to a more compact footprint that focused on downtown venues, but the Coliseum has a way of making the crowds that show up there disappear.
August 01, 2010|By Lisa Dillman
Frankly, the Coliseum is capable of making the populations of entire cities disappear in its vastness. Seal Beach would be a mere appetizer. Bellflower only starts to make a truly serious dent.

Little wonder it made certain sections look like a ghost town with dust flying through it at the X Games, despite 25,860 on hand Thursday and 32,100 more Saturday, many lured by the debut of super rally, a rally car event.


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"It certainly is a massive complex, isn't it?" Chris Stiepock, vice president and general manager of the X Games said Sunday, the final day of the Games.

The move to hold events at the Coliseum was an attempt at a more-compact Games, with the focus on Staples Center, LA Live and Nokia Theatre.

In previous X Games, some events were held at Home Depot Center.

"Usually when you move to a new venue, from Year 1 to Year 2, the improvement is exponential," Stiepock said.

He called super rally "phenomenal" but added: "What you saw there was mini-super rally" because of space considerations and because the competitors were looking for better passing zones down the line.

Empty seats certainly aren't aesthetically pleasing in the eyes of viewers and executives, but one outsized, difficult-to-fill venue does not tell the complete story of the four-day X Games in terms of attendance and buzz.

This was the biggest event in the history of LA Live, an AEG official noted, and Stiepock was pleased with how X Fest, free to the public, turned out, contrary to his fears.

"I had visions of bedlam," he said.

The X Games certainly are not made for anyone with a Type A personality, featuring a … well, somewhat flexible schedule. For instance, the last event of the X Games, the motocross speed & style final, began 41 minutes after the scheduled starting time.

Then there's the unexpected from the kids themselves. Teenager Pedro Barros of Brazil was so pumped after winning the skateboard park final that he dropped a certain four-letter word on live TV.

"That's what winning the X Games does to you, I guess," said Barros, 15. "You get excited. I don't speak English that well."

Joked bronze medalist Andy Macdonald: "Blame it on the Portuguese. In Portuguese, that just means thank you."