Courtesy of the Denver Post
The Denver Post reported this morning that Denver Big Air has been cancelled this year.
Event organizers cite funding problems, and a stacked competition schedule as the reasons for the cancellation of the event, which last January set up and 106 foot ramp, covered in snow, in Civic Center park.
The event drew 14,000 people and charged between $45 and $200 for tickets. Despite this, and sponsors like LG and Sprint, it lost money.
While the 2012 Big Air event has been cancelled, The Denver Sports Commission has said they plan to host another snow sports event in 2013.
From the Denver Post:
The Big Air snowboarding spectacle in Civic Center last January will not be returning.
An international schedule packed with Olympics-grooming World Cup snowboarding events as well as funding challenges doomed the high-flying contest’s return to Denver, which saw elite snowboarders screaming down a 106-foot-high ramp before sliding to a snowy stop in front of thousands of spectators gathered in Denver’s downtown park.
“It’s a challenging economic model when using a venue like Civic Center park where you have both free and pay areas,” said Sue Baldwin , the principal organizer of the event with the Metro Denver Sports Commission.
Plus a January competition doesn’t fit the calendar of the International Ski Federation (known as the FIS) for World Cup Big Air contests.
“If we wanted to do it again, they (the FIS) were looking at October through December, which doesn’t work because we could easily have a day like this,” Baldwin said Thursday, with temperatures in the 60s.
The FIS made an exception last year. The federation had an opening in its calendar that worked well with the Colorado gathering of snow athletes and industry players for Denver’s SnowSports Industries America annual Snow Show trade show and Aspen’s Winter X Games.
At a cost of $1.2 million, the two-day Big Air event lost money, even with sponsors such as LG and Sprint and even though it lured 14,000 spectators. The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and the FIS took a share of the event’s sponsorship revenues, which pinched the amount the Denver Sports Commission could generate to pay for the event. The commission, which works to lure high-profile sporting events to Denver, charged $45 to $200 for admission to the event, although a swath of the park was open for free with limited views. Ticket sales could not cover all the costs, though.
“It was difficult with limited commercial rights,” Baldwin said.
While the Denver Sports Commission promises a return of some big winter events in 2013, it is taking 2012 off from hosting a snow-sports contest in downtown Denver.
