After three years, X Games is leaving the Circuit of The Americas, the 1,600-acre sports and entertainment venue 20 minutes from downtown Austin, Texas, ESPN announced today. ESPN has chosen Minneapolis, Minnesota, as the next U.S. host city for the games. Prior to Austin, Los Angeles held the games for eleven consecutive years.
The games will be held at the brand new U.S. Bank Stadium located in downtown Minneapolis. The venue will also host a round of Monster Energy Supercross in 2017 on February 18.
X Games will also move to later in the summer after being held in early June during the Austin years. In 2017, the event will take place July 13-16. The following year it will be held July 19-22.
“We are thrilled to bring the X Games to Minneapolis next July,” said Tim Reed, vice president, ESPN X Games. “We believe that teaming up with the City of Minneapolis, Minnesota Sports Facility Authority (MSFA), SMG and Meet Minneapolis and the truly impressive new, state-of-the-art U.S. Bank Stadium will provide an extraordinary opportunity to grow the X Games in a new region of the country and in a city that’s quickly becoming recognized as a premier sports and entertainment destination. It was a very competitive bid process and we feel privileged to have had such great interest and thank the multiple cities that participated in the process. Ultimately, the combination of resources, support, fit and passion from the Minneapolis team brought us here and we couldn’t be happier.”
“We are very excited that the X Games will be the first large scale event in the stadium,” added Michele Kelm-Helgen, chair of the Minnesota Sports Facility Authority. “The X Games will be in Minnesota for 2017 & 2018. We intend to put on such a great event that we hope they consider making U.S. Bank Stadium their permanent home.”
