X Games coming to Cal Expo for next three summers. ‘Shot in the arm Sacramento needs’
One of the biggest events in extreme sports is coming to California’s capital region.
The summer X Games, which will be celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2025, will descend on Cal Expo in Sacramento for the next three years starting in August.
“They just fell in love with the amount of space they had,” said Steve Dooner, the CEO of California Dreamin’ Entertainment, which partnered with the games’ owners at MSP Sports Capital to bring the event to Sacramento.
“And X Games just said, ‘Make it as big as you want it.’ This is a big event and Lord knows, we have the acreage which in a lot of places they didn’t have.”
The move to Sacramento marks the first time the festival has been in Northern California since 1999 and 2000, when it took place on Pier 30 and Pier 32 in San Francisco. Since then, the X Games have been held in Southern California 14 times, as well as other cities such as Philadelphia, Austin and Minneapolis. The games also went international by going to Norway, Brazil, Japan, Barcelona and Munich. The Winter X Games have been exclusively in Aspen, Colorado.
“Some of the biggest moments in X Games history took place in the San Francisco Bay,” said Jeremy Bloom, X Games CEO. “25-years later, we’re thrilled to bring X Games back to Northern California to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the brand.”
Last year’s event was held at the Ventura County Fairgrounds outside Los Angeles. And while it provided a scenic location with proximity to L.A., there were logistical challenges that organizers hope to solve at Cal Expo, home to California’s State Fair.
Dooner said organizers wanted to keep the X Games on the West Coast while also prioritizing space and parking. Cal Expo says it has roughly 15,000 parking spots; the Ventura County Fairgrounds, by contrast, on its website describes parking as “extremely limited” and urges attendees to park offsite and ride in via shuttle.
Officials hope to draw 35,000 people daily to Cal Expo for an event that will feature world class skateboarding, BMX, Moto-X riding and more. They expect roughly 100 athletes to compete for more than $1 million in prize money.
“It’s the kind of shot in the arm that Sacramento needs,” Dooner said. “It’s something different. Let’s break out of the mold and be known for something different for once. And I think it’ll be a lot of fun.”
The festival will take place Aug. 23-25, a few weeks after Cal Expo hosts the California State Fair from July 11-27. Most of the event venues — like vert ramps, skate parks and Moto-X tracks — will be constructed just north of the Heart Health Park soccer stadium, in the same place as the carnival portion of the fair.
Cal Expo’s indoor spaces will also be used for hospitality, meet-and-greets and staging areas for the athletes to get out of the heat. Dooner said concerts are being planned at Heart Health Park to celebrate opening and closing the games. It’s expected the X Games would take up more than half of Cal Expo’s 350 acres during event weekend.
“Hosting the X Games at Cal Expo underscores Sacramento’s growing reputation as a vibrant hub for world-class events,” Cal Expo and State Fair CEO Tom Martinez said in a statement. “We are excited to partner with X Games and California Dreamin’ Entertainment to bring this unparalleled celebration of action sports and music to our community. This event will not only showcase the talent of incredible athletes but also boost Sacramento’s visibility as a destination for sports and entertainment enthusiasts.”
Sacramento’s newly elected mayor Kevin McCarty, who was sworn into office Tuesday, was on hand for Thursday’s announcement, which he said was his first official event as mayor.
“This is a big deal. Sacramento is a city where we want to have fun, excitement here, (to) bring in sports, arts and culture. And what more than the X Games?” McCarty said. “I grew up in Sacramento. I was a skateboarder so I wore my Vans here, guys. Before the X Games we had these skateboard competitions. So I literally at the old Tower Records on Watt Avenue, saw Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero have a little skateboard competition before ESPN, before the X Games.
“So I saw the X Games before the X Games.”
What about Sacramento’s summer heat?
Planning remains in the early stages, but efforts are being made to account for the region’s triple-digit temperatures common in late August.
Sacramento was the cooler option compared to another potential host city that had been considered: Las Vegas.
“It was one of the biggest concerns that was brought up by MSP,” Dooner said. “The nice thing about the Sacramento area vs. Vegas is, it gets to be 108 degrees, but it cools off in the evening. Vegas does not. We get the on-shore flow, we get the Delta breeze, that will help. We’re going to be doing a lot of shade structures, a lot of cooling stations.”
Another idea being floated by organizers is having a man-made snow apparatus for cooling down and to provide a play area for children.
“No guarantees yet,” Dooner said. “(Our goal) is to blow some snow and actually have ice cold snow for kids to play on. We’re testing it in Scottsdale, and they used in Vegas this last summer. And it stuck around at 115 degrees. So it’s impressive.”
BMX rider Bryce Tryon, who is from Lodi and is slated to make his fifth X Games appearance, said he’s used to events in the extreme heat. Tryon has competed in summer events in Australia and the Middle east, and he’s used to the conditions being from the area.
“I’m going to Abu Dahbi in a couple weeks,” Tryon said. “And the last time I was there it was pretty, pretty dreadful. And I don’t think it can get too much worse than that, because the heat was pretty insane. But I think it’ll be pretty manageable. For a lot of these guys, it’s just part of the sport.”
X Games impact on Sacramento
Sacramento is getting more experience as a host of sizable events. The Aftershock music festival in October at Discovery Park drew roughly 160,000 while Golden Sky, the country festival held a week later at the same venue, brought in another 75,000 attendees.
Visit Sacramento president and CEO Mike Testa said he estimates the X Games will bring in some $7 million to Sacramento’s local economy should they reach their projections of 100,000 people for the three-day event.
“You look at the population in Sacramento, you look at some of the population in Northern California — these are the sports that people do,” Testa said. “This is a little different than being in Minneapolis, where you don’t have these things because of weather. So I think based on the location of where we are in Northern California, I think it’ll be extremely popular, not only for the people in Sacramento, but folks in the Bay Area, different parts of northern Nevada and different parts of California.”
The city has taken steps to grow as a sports destination since the Kings opened Golden 1 Center downtown in 2016. The Athletics are planning to bring Major League Baseball to West Sacramento for three seasons starting in March between their move away from Oakland and to a new ballpark in Las Vegas they hope to open in 2028.
Additionally, the Sacramento Republic FC soccer team is finalizing its plans for a new stadium that’s part of a $321 million project in the Railyards that will expand downtown to the north. They hope to open in 2027.
MSP Sports Capital purchased a controlling stake of the X Games in 2022, but ESPN remains a minority and television partner of the event, which will air on ESPN and ABC.
This story was originally published December 12, 2024 at 10:09 AM.
