Admit it: You've come across the X Games on ESPN sometime over the past 20 years and thought to yourself, "Hmm - I wonder if that root canal needs re-drilling?"
X Games Minneapolis: Five reasons to get excited about the event
It's not the Super Bowl or the Final Four. But the Summer X Games are a big event in their own right, and here's why you should look forward to next summer's festivities at U.S. Bank Stadium.
July 20, 2016 at 11:24PM
OK - maybe not that drastic. But there's no denying the X Games do not move the sports needs like, say, the Super Bowl or the Final Four - the two crown jewel events coming to the new U.S. Bank Stadium in the years ahead.
Yet before either of those star-studded spectacles come to town the X Games will roar into downtown Minneapolis next summer and again in 2018.
Like the Red Bull Crashed Ice event in St. Paul or closing time after a grandstand show at the State Fair, the people watching figures to be fantastic at an event like this one.
Here are five more reasons to get amped up for X Games Minneapolis.
See Minneapolis like never before. In addition to the action inside the stadium, an artist's rendering of the Minneapolis X Games set-up shows the massive plaza west of the stadium used for an amphitheater-like outdoor concert venue (acts such as Blink-182, Metallica and Nicki Minaj have appeared in the past) and the street course for BMX and skateboard disciplines.
Hear a little music. Watch a few tricks. Walk away in awe.
The Games are green. Fourteen-time X Games gold medalist skateboarder Bob Burnquist is one of the founders of Action Sports Environmental Coalition. He's helped the X Games have a smaller impact on the environment. Twelve years ago he pushed the X Games to use Forest Stewardship Council certified wood for all of the skate ramps. The X Games also feature on-site recycling campaigns and other go-green measures. Who can't get behind that?
Learn a new language. If you know what it means to take a digger after attempting a switch-stance 540 stalefish - well, how was your trip to Austin for this summer's X Games? For most, the language associated with the X Games is foreign as it comes. Embrace it while you seek out a BMXer getting maximum amplitude on his nac-nac truck driver.
See history. Flips. Spins. Broken bones. Something of note always happens at the X Games. Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk landed the first competition 900 in 1999.
(Side note: Last month, 17 years to the day, Hawk at age 48 landed another 900)
Even when things don't go right, at least there is never a lack of effort. Shaun White in 2005 attempted to land a 1080 (that's three full airborne revolutions on a skateboard ramp) 29 times.
It's still never been done in summer X Games competition.
Cheer on the locals. Rochester native Alec Majerus is an up-and-coming skateboard pro who should have a little extra spin in his wheels next summer. The 20-year-old won a bronze medal as an X Games rookie in 2014 performing in the street course.
Despite the national trend of more players opting out of bowl games, Gophers QB Max Brosmer and offensive lineman Quinn Carroll both intend to finish out in a bowl.
