Ticket prices, discontinued concerts among changes for 2024 X Winter Games

No concerts and paid viewing for this year’s Winter X Games were hot topics for Tuesday’s Pitkin County Board of Commissioners (BOCC) work session.

SkiCo’s senior operation manager Joey Woletmath and Valerie Ryan with Sports Content Creation LLC went before the commissioners to share the progress of the special event permit process and to get input from the BOCC on specific topics.

The 2024 Winter X Games is scheduled from Jan. 26-28 at Buttermilk Ski Area, and while in years past fans have enjoyed live music free viewing, Ryan explained that this year, changes have been made to both in an effort to enhance the audience experience.

“Driving revenue is always a key factor when you’re planning an event, but we also looked at commentary from our fans,” she said. “The ability to actually get to the front without having to wait in a line and risk not even being able to get up into the viewing corrals because if we hit capacity at certain times, they won’t even be able to get into the corral.” 

She added that roughly 80% of the competitions will still be free, with a lot of viewing available behind the X Games corral viewing section that will be charging for admission. The tickets are running from $30 during the day and go to $45 for evening, with superpipe going as high as $70.

Commissioner Francie Jacober expressed her concerns over the public’s reaction to a paid “premiere” sectioned-off area that would place the free observers section further away. She also raised concerns with the decision to discontinue live music, posing the question of whether generating more money and/or poor concert attendance were motivating factors behind this year’s changes.

“I’m just thinking of the people downvalley who come up here, and they’re so excited about it, and now they have to pay to get close, and there are no concerts; it’s like yikes, it’s really different,” she said.

Ryan said the decision to discontinue concerts wasn’t from a lack of attendance but was more centered around the idea of placing the focus on the competitions themselves, citing timing as a factor, as well. One of the measures taken this year to ensure the focus stays on the competitions was the addition of two new events: women’s knuckle huck snowboarding and skiing.

Commissioner Kelly McNicholas Kury shared Jacober’s concerns, especially with the issue of charging money, pointing out that the price of attending a Friday night superpipe for a family of four totals $260. Kury also voiced being displeased over the changes not being flagged sooner than weeks before the event is scheduled to take place.

“This is such an event that is kind of an imposition on the community, yet the benefit has been that it’s been so accessible; so I don’t think it’s going to be received well,” she said. “Usually when these special event permits come to us just weeks before the event, not much has changed over time. This, to me, is quite a significant difference, and I don’t love it, honestly, I’m not comfortable about it.”

Ryan responded by explaining that with new admission prices, a locals discount of 15% is currently being promoted and reminded BOCC that there is still free viewing available directly behind the paid viewing. She added that in addition to the paid premiere areas not offering much seating, it’s also not generating much revenue – it’s simply to allow for “core fans” to have guaranteed access to the areas they want to attend.

For those more interested in catching the games at home, She said the X Games will still be aired on ABC and ESPN, as well as streamed for free on xgames.com and Twitch and Youtube.

To reach Jonson Kuhn, email him at jkuhn@aspentimes.com.