Austin to Host X Games

Austin, Texas, will host one of six stops on the Global X Games circuit for the next four years. After deciding to move on from long-time host city Los Angeles following the 2013 X Games, planned for August 1–4, the action sports brand selected Austin from a pool of four finalists, which included Chicago, Detroit and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Austin’s first X Games is scheduled for May 15–18, 2014, with the majority of the events taking place at Circuit of The Americas, a 1,600-acre sports and entertainment venue located 20 minutes southeast of Austin’s downtown. Opened in 2012, the venue recently hosted the U.S. Grand Prix Formula One race, which attracted some 260,000 fans during its debut weekend last November.

“If you haven’t visited the venue, you would probably think of it as only a motor sports venue,” said Bobby Epstein, the venue’s chairman and founding partner. “But when you get there, you see that it’s designed to host big events. We’ve got 1,600 acres. It’s really a campus. And as part of that, there’s a tremendous park area and a beautiful amphitheater. The other components of COTA are not afterthoughts. It’s more than a racetrack.”

ESPN, owner of the X Games, is also continuing to evaluate proposals for its North American Winter X Games stop. Aspen, Colorado, has hosted the event since 2002, but the city’s contract with ESPN is set to expire following the 2014 edition. It is expected that ESPN will announce future hosts for the event in the fall.