COTA Will Host 2014 X Games
The Texas capital will host an X Games summer event for four years beginning in May 2014 at the new 1,500-acre Circuit of The Americas sports and entertainment complex in southeast Austin.
The selection follows a highly competitive eight-month long process in which Austin ultimately edged out Chicago, Detroit and Charlotte, N.C.
“We are incredibly excited to partner with the Circuit of the Americas to bring the X Games to Austin in May," said Scott Guglielmino, senior vice president, ESPN programming and X Games. “We believe that Bobby Epstein, his team and the fantastic Circuit of The Americas facility provide a unique opportunity to grow the X Games in a new region of the country and in a city that has a proven track record of embracing big events. Throughout the site selection process we were very fortunate to have great interest from Chicago, Charlotte and Detroit. Ultimately, the combination of resources, support and fit brought us to Austin and we couldn’t be happier."
“We’re ecstatic to be selected and thrilled to help bring ESPN’s X Games to Austin," Circuit Founding Partner Bobby Epstein said. “The X Games is a remarkably cool event that perfectly fits Austin’s culture and our world-class sports and entertainment venue. We want to thank the Central Texas community and its leadership, the Austin Sports Commission and the local action sports community for getting behind us, as well as project lead Paul Thornton and the entire Circuit of The Americas team for the hard work that went into preparing and securing this bid. It’s been a wonderfully collaborative effort and a big win for Texas that will pay off for years to come in terms of the X Games economic benefit to our region."
“It’s an honor to be selected by ESPN to host this prestigious international competition, and the City of Austin welcomes the thousands of competitors, fans and media representatives that will join us for the summer edition of the X Games next year," Austin Mayor Lee Leffingwell said. “The X Games celebrate fitness, courage and individuality — traits greatly valued by our community — and we look forward to showing the world all of the wonderful things Austin has to offer. We also want to commend the three other cities in contention, Charlotte, Chicago and Detroit, for their excellent campaigns and a hard-fought competition."
X Games Austin will be held May 15-18, 2014.