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Rick Alessandri
Managing Dir - ESPN X Games
Join us online for group Y TWITTER THURSDAYS! Every Thursday, we will be interviewing key Action Sports industry figures–execs, professionals & athletes on Twitter
Twitter INTERVIEW WITH Rick Alessandri
Managing Director, X Games Franchise
ON TWITTER, JULY 23, 2009
@groupY What is your official title?
@RickAlessandri Senior Vice President, ESPN Enterprises and Managing Director, X Games Franchise
@groupY Tell us about what we will see new at this year’s X Games?
@RickAlessandri The Big Air Rail Jam will be unreal…hitting a rail after launching off the Big Air Ramp will be incredible…the new park course is huge and made from concrete…we’ve already had Lance Mountain @LanceMountain and Andy Mac @andymacdonald practicing and they were both incredibly stoked by the new course…and the addition of James Stewart @js7 to X is a huge addition…watching him go head-to-head versus The G.O.A.T. Ricky Carmichael @4Carmichael in Step-Up will be amazing… by the way, the Moto X Best Trick comp is going to be completely insane…do NOT miss it!!
@groupY X Games is expanding internationally. Which countries have you added & why?
@RickAlessandri We’ve added Mexico, Brazil, Shanghai and this past week announced a winter event next March in France. X Games and action sports translate globally. Outside of football (soccer for you US fans), action sports are hugely popular around the world. A kid skating is Brazil is not different than one in Madrid, San Diego or Dubai.
@groupY Before X Games what other ESPN departments, companies and projects were you involved in?
@RickAlessandri I came to ESPN through an acquisition (SportsTicker). Since joining ESPN, I’ve worked for our President, George Bodenheimer as Assistant to the President as well as running our consumer products unit, credit card and golf school business and home entertainment group. I also was very involved in our early mobile products.
@groupY How many people run the day to day for the X Games? How many do you employ for the actual competition dates?
@RickAlessandri We have a full-time staff of 30 and during the events we can ramp up to close to 1200. It’s an amazingly well-run machine thanks to folks like Jack Wienert, Chris Stiepock, Phil Orlins, John Gassner and Linda Moore.
@groupY Have you seen viewership increase over the years? Also with webcasts, how has that played a role in expanding your audience?
@RickAlessandri Viewership continues to grow, especially among the younger male demos (which advertisers covert). At ESPN, we don’t care which platform our audience consumes our content. We want to serve the action sports fan wherever they wish to consume the product. In addition to our television networks, we offer content across the web, ESPN360.com @ESPN360 mobile and print platforms.
@groupY How actively involved are the athletes in the way the competitions are run & courses are created?
@RickAlessandri We constantly seek their input. It’s very challenging trying to please everyone as each athlete has his/her style so ultimately our Sports & Competition Committee has to be the final arbiter.
@groupY How do you balance between Endemic & non-Endemic brand sponsors without it affecting one another or the event?
@RickAlessandri It’s an interesting process. Given X Games is the definitive action sports event, we get significant interest from those sponsors not generally involved in this genre but wanting to reach a young demo. We must balance that with the authenticity an endemic brands to the event. I think our Sales team does a terrific job finding a good balance between those two types of advertisers. Our X Fest area generally includes many smaller, endemic brands that don’t have the big media budgets many of our gold and associate sponsors have but allows them to participate at X Games.
@groupY Where do you see the X Games within the next 2-5 years?
@RickAlessandri I think the next 15 years of X Games will be our most dramatic in terms of growth. We’ve been able to continue to progress the event over the last 15 years but I believe we can’t rest on our past success. We need to continually challenge ourselves and the industry.
@groupY How do you decide which sports to have & which ones to eliminate?
@RickAlessandri We have the most amazing Sports & Competition team in the business. That team is always evaluating what sports are resonating in the action sports community and ultimately they determine which sports make the cut. What’s great about our international events is our ability to include sports that are relevant to their local communities. For instance, having bouldering and rock climbing in our X Games Asia event makes tremendous sense.
@groupY What does your daily routine look like … take us through it?
@RickAlessandri I have a two-hour commute to NYC from Princeton, NJ so I leave the house around 5:15a…my first hour is reading ESPN.com.action, various blogs, newspapers and clips about the action sports world. I usually have a slew of meetings throughout the day…lots of phone calls. I also run the ESPN Zones @ESPNZoneLALIVE business so some of my day is spent thinking about that business. Most of my X Games staff is based in CT and LA so I try and travel to both places regularly. My train ride home consists of reading more clips or books (on my Kindle)…get home by 630pm.
@groupY what sports are you actively involved in?
@RickAlessandri I ride a little motocross with my son Maxwell (11)…he kicks my butt… I still play a little basketball. I also have a Honda 1300 VTX which I get out on as often as I can…
@groupY What type of music do you listen too?
@RickAlessandri Everything. From Foo Fighters, Green Day and Lil Wayne to Sinatra. Recently, I’ve gotten into Kings of Leon and Silversun Pickups…
@groupY Do you travel much? If so where?
@RickAlessandri …usually CT and Los Angeles. Some international travel…
@groupY What do you like and don’t like about working with the action sports industry?
@RickAlessandri I love the athletes’ passion and spirit. I used to be a sports reporter and I can tell you that most of the athletes in this/our industry are very different than any other sport. These athletes are wonderful to deal with, wonderful to fans and they love what they do. While the industry has grown dramatically over the last 15 years, I do think we need to find ways to work more collaboratively together.
@groupY Has the X Games been using Social Media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Myspace)? If so, has it been successful with creating buzz and ticket sales?
@RickAlessandri Absolutely. We have a presence across all the social networking platforms. I think Twitter is the best medium for marketing and buzz while FB and MySpace offer more interactivity and community-based content. We also did a deal recently with Loop’d @loopdnetwork which allows us to reach the core action sports fan.
@groupY What’s the best advice you were told?
@RickAlessandri “It’s ok to make a mistake…once” by my old boss at SportsTicker - Peter Bavasi. I agree completely. If you’re not making a mistake now and then then you’re not taking enough chances and risks.
@groupY How did ESPN & X Games get involved with the Action Sports Conference @ASCXGames?
@RickAlessandri We’ve known Mark / Liz of group Y and the team involved with ASC for quite some time (it’s a small community) and we have always wanted to do some form of action sports business summit around the games. The entire action sports community is focused on X Games next week and this is a perfect opportunity to bring the key players together to share ideas and thoughts and to network with one another.
@groupY Since you will be the intro speaker, what can the attendees expect?
@RickAlessandri Some really great video…
@groupY What do you like about group Y and it’s events?
@RickAlessandri I’ve only had the pleasure attending one in person. I enjoyed listening to Toby Boost @tbost and to the networking opportunity.
@groupY Are the rumors true about Kelly Slater @slater9 & ESPN creating a new surf tour?
we have had numerous discussions with many folks about our potential involvement in surfing…Kelly and his team are definitely in the mix
We now open the questions to We now open the questions to @groupY twitter followers…..
@SBombeck What was the impetus for the Action Sports Conference this year?
@RickAlessandri I think the timing was right…with the right partner…and, now more than ever, I think we need to come together as an industry.
@degbert Where do you see the future of actions sports 10 years from now? Do you think skateboarding or BMX will be equal to baseball?
@RickAlessandri I do think these sports will continue to grow and exceed traditional stick ‘n ball sports as far as participation goes…kids today want more individuality than ever before..and these sports provide that…I also think action sports - outside of soccer - attracts a global audience
@cgeorge110 Some have talked about more action sports being added to the Olympics - What are your thoughts and how would that affect X Games?
@RickAlessandri I don’t think the addition of any of these sports will impact X. X Games already has achieved significant status by providing the best athletes the best courses to perform on and them exposing them to the broadest possible audience. I think the Olympics serves a global audience, as does FIFA. I think X has the potential to be on that level…
@ESPN_Snow Are there any significant differences worth discussing between Winter X Aspen and the newly announced Winter X Tignes?
@RickAlessandri Other than several thousand miles…we’re not sure yet…we expect our Europe event to grow quickly as evidenced by the significant interest we’ve had over the past week.
@cgeorge110 How has the economic slowdown affected the X-Games? Is it solely in sponsorships or have ad/ticket sales been affected as well?
@RickAlessandri It’s impacted everyone. The primary issue for us has been sponsorship (which is off a bit), our ticket prices are so affordable that we really haven’t seen any impact there…
@ScottDeYager As some of these sports make it to the Olympics, does this build up the XGames…or ultimately hurt it?
@RickAlessandri I think the Olympics will provide some additional exposure - if they add more action sports - and that exposure will not negatively impact our event.
@gunslinger19 Whats your personal favorite sport in the X-Games?
@RickAlessandri that’s like asking which of my three kids I love most….I really enjoy watching all of them…they each have their own uniqueness
@groupY Any parting words to the Twitter universe?
@RickAlessandri Watch the X Games on ESPN and ABC next Thu thru Sun and log on to Xgames.com @ESPNXGames for the latest news and info.
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