FREE Standard Shipping on Orders Over $75

Racks and Accessories to Organize, Store, and Display Your Boards & Gear

Monday, July 22, 2013

Summer X Games Moving to Austin, Texas from 2014-2018

By Andrew Sachs
The Summer X Games are headed to Austin, Texas from 2014 through 2018, replacing Los Angeles as the U.S.'s stop on the X games' annual summer world tour.  Austin beat out Chicago, Detroit and Charlotte for the rights to host the games for the next 4 years.  Los Angeles's reign of 11 years (!) hosting the X Games will end on August 4th, when the X Games close out in LA.



"Keep Austin Weird" is Austin's motto, the capital city of Texas, and for many years it has remained a "weird" city.  More recently, the city has also come to be known as "the Live Music Capital of the World", claiming more music venues per capita than any other U.S. city.  In that vein, Austin may be most well known for South-by-Southwest (SXSW), the music/film/interactive festival the city hosts each year in March.


Austin has been making a big sports push in addition to its thriving music scene.  It just opened the Circuit of the Americas (COTA), a 1,500+ acre sports and entertainment complex that this past November hosted what is the only Formula One race in the U.S, attended by over 250,000 fans.  Austin's winning bid for the X Games has many of the games being hosted at COTA's complex, which needless to say is more than just a race track.


Austin's supporters also played a huge role in the city's landing of the X Games.  Facebook groups and twitter followings sprouted up in support of Austin as host city.  And a huge rally in the downtown area, complete with demos and - you guessed it - concerts, punctuated Austin's bid and the city's ability to host a knockout X Games.  Everything's bigger in Texas and I'm sure it will be no exception for the X Games.