The X Games, the premier action sports event in the world, will be held July 31 through August 3, 2008 from The Home Depot Center and STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, Calif. In 2008, the annual event will take place days before many of the athletes will leave for Beijing to compete in the 2008 Olympic Games.

The X Games features athletes from across the globe competing for medals and prize money in the following sports:  skateboarding, motocross, BMX, rally car racing and surfing.  Practice and elimination for the events will be held July 29-30, 2008, and all X Games competitions will take place at either The Home Depot Center & STAPLES Center.  X Games 14 will be covered live on ESPN’s family of networks, including ABC, as well as across ESPN’s many digital media assets including EXPN.com and ESPN360.com.  The event has been held in Los Angeles for five years, and will remain in in the city through at least 2009.

POPULARITY OF X GAMES

The success of X Games 13, held in Los Angeles Aug. 3 - 6, 2006 was a watershed for the event, reflecting the evolving ways that fans engage sports today.  The event was a success across television and online media, as well as in person.  Online, X Games video clips were viewed nearly 3 million times on ESPN.com, EXPN.com and ESPN360.  EXPN.com (ESPN.com’s action sports hub) had its highest overall traffic ever for an X Games. On television, 35.6 million people tuned into X Games 12 and telecasts of the event were the highest-rated ever among young male viewers.  Additionally, X Games content and videos were popular on ESPN mobile platforms.  In Los Angeles, more than 138,000 fans attended the competition at The Home Depot Center and STAPLES Center, an increase of nearly 13 percent over X Games 11 in 2005.