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Utah Making Play To Be Action Sports Stronghold
For the most part, outsiders give the state of Utah a pretty bad rap. We’ve all heard it before. And while in many cases that may be justified (trippy liquor laws, crazy chicks, religious extremism) ,as far as action sport’s communities go, it holds one of the best, brightest, and diverse scenes that I’ve ever come across.
The massive interest and participation in everything from skateboarding, wakeboarding, bmx, fmx, and skiing & snowboarding culminated at the Dew Tour this past September when roughly 64,000 strong attended the festivities at EnergySolutions Arena in Salt Lake City over a four-day period. One of these days saw attendance reach a single day record for the Dew Tour as the crowd on hand numbered right around 26,000.
“We have 2,500 to 3,000 more total attendance than the next highest-attended city, so ticket revenue was up here. And they know Utah is a good action sports state, so perhaps there will be more opportunities for us in the future.” -Utah Sports Commission president Jeff Robbins
Zexsports mentions the “they” that Robbins is referring to “are two television heavyweights, NBC Sports and MTV, which earlier this month announced the formation of Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports.” But money mongering corporations aside, Robbins has a solid point. The level of interest and enthusiasm for action sports in the Beehive State is up there with the best of them. Any event done right in Utah is sure to draw a large and rowdy crowd.
World class mountains and terrain sparks, a healthy and vibrant skate scene, unreal terrain for fmx and wakeboarding can all be found alive and well in Utah. So while you may have to put up with nonsensical liquor laws and crazies, there’s no doubt that Utah is every bit as deserving to be recognized as an action sports stronghold as anywhere else in the world.
Posted by Shaun on Monday, January 5th, 2009 in Industry.
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January 5th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
I wonder if this post will bring back all the crazies who are boycotting utah? I won’t mention these said crazies’ sexual orrientation either.
January 5th, 2009 at 8:03 pm
Nice post man!
And don’t forget the Utah Governor… he’s an action sports enthusiast too
January 5th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Its true when i lived in San Diego barely any of my neighbors surfed, skated, rode dirt bikes.. nothing, they just worked. Up here 2 out of 3 neighbors on my street have Dirt Bikes or ATV’s, a boat or Wave Runner and a season pass to a resort, it is a part of life out here for a large amount of people. It would be sick to get more events, they would fill the seats for sure.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:45 am
how do you become the action sports capital with no surf?
May 14th, 2009 at 11:05 am
@ hoon- you don’t, which is why I stopped short of calling it such. However with everything else that’s available there and a massive population of young, dedicated action sports enthusiasts; Utah is definitely worthy of being called an action sports stronghold.
May 14th, 2009 at 11:10 am
I agree that Utah is a stronghold, they have the best snow, good skating & wakeboarding, great MX, etc. But agree without surf, will never be capital. San Diego is the place that seems to have it all, plus you have all the brands headquartered right here. But in reality the surf in san diego is only really good a handful of days each year. most days, though grateful to surf, i do wish i was somewhere else with decent surf.
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