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Posted inThe Roundup

The Roundup | How the sausage gets made with X Games attendance numbers

Curtis Wackerle by Curtis Wackerle February 16, 2023February 16, 2023
Snowboarders and skiers greet the fans during X Games practice on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, at Buttermilk Ski Area in Aspen. Winter X Games was scaled back from a four-day affair to three days beginning in 2021 and the huge concerts of the pre-COVID-19 years have not returned. Credit: Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
The Roundup: A weekly roundup of Aspen Journalism's original stories
A weekly letter from the newsroom and roundup of Aspen Journalism’s original stories.
This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is AJ-mailchimp-sub-header-letter-from-the-newsroom-1200x133px-1170x130.jpg
Snowboarders and skiers greet the fans during X Games practice on Friday, Jan. 27, 2023, at Buttermilk Ski Area in Aspen. Winter X Games was scaled back from a four-day affair to three days beginning in 2021 and the huge concerts of the pre-COVID-19 years have not returned. Credit: Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

When Aspen Journalism got an invited to check out the operations center staffed by the Pitkin County incident management team assembled to help handle the public safety aspects of Winter X Games, we saw it as an opening for our data desk to mine the rich vein of metrics coming out of what has historically been community’s largest special event. 

What we thought would be a fairly straight forward report took a turn when it became clear that the new operator of X Games would not be sharing a total attendance estimate for this year’s three-day action-sports festival. 

So we looked to other sources to gauge how big the X Games were this year compared to years past. And we got a lesson in “how the sausage gets made” in terms of where those six-figure attendance totals put out by previous X Games operator ESPN came from. 

Relevant data points related to X Games include total attendance, law enforcement contacts, lodging occupancy rates, number of bus riders, percentage of parking utilized. Facts and figures that are accessible. Other readings are harder to gauge — economic impact, median age of visitors, the marketing value of three days of TV coverage. 

That that new operator would be gun shy in publicizing an attendance total they could be confident in the accuracy of likely signals that they just need another year under their belt of running the complex festival to get the hang of counting all the people coming through. But one thing is certain: X Games is a unique event for Aspen and there are many ways to evaluate its impact on the community.

Check out that story, as well as the latest from our weekly ongoing data tracking projects, below.

Thank you for reading, and supporting, Aspen Journalism.

With gratitude,
– Curtis Wackerle
Editor and Executive Director

Recent reporting from Aspen Journalism
Credit: Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times

X Games bus ridership rebounds but still lagging pre-COVID years

New operator declines to release total attendance estimate; incident management team says crowd was “well behaved,” no arrests made.

By Laurine Lassalle | February 15, 2023

The new operator of Winter X Games is not releasing estimated attendance totals from last month’s event, although other data indicates that crowds were up from last year but still lagging the massive numbers seen during the pre-COVID-19 years.

Continue reading…

Data dashboard: New occupancy record for Aspen last month

Roaring Fork basin snowpack reaches over 120% of normal

By Laurine Lassalle | February 15, 2023

• Paid occupancy in Aspen reached 77.5% in January, up from 69.7% last year — a new record for January.
• Snowmass recorded its fifth best January with 72.8% paid occupancy, up from 2022’s 67.3%.
• Lake Powell’s elevation is down to 3,522.3 feet, or 2.7 feet below target elevation.

Continue reading…

Tracking the Curve

Garfield County has reported 28 new COVID-19 cases since last week. Eagle County has added 24 cases, while Pitkin County has recorded 13 cases since Feb. 8.

By Laurine Lassalle | February 16, 2023

Garfield County has reported 28 new COVID-19 cases since last week. Eagle County has added 24 cases, while Pitkin County has recorded 13 cases since Feb. 8.

Continue reading…

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Curtis Wackerle

Curtis Wackerle

Curtis Wackerle is the editor and executive director of Aspen Journalism and the editor and reporter on the Connie Harvey Environment Desk. Curtis has also served as editor, managing editor, and reporter... More by Curtis Wackerle

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