X Games Minneapolis: Five reasons to get excited about the event

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?"

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.