Arisa Trew competes during X Games at Utah State Fairpark and Event Center on June 27, 2025 in Salt Lake City, UT.(Photo by Aaron Baker/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Two years ago, MSP Sports Capital, which acquired a majority interest in X Games from ESPN in 2022, announced a plan to fundamentally change the action sports franchise forever.

No longer would X Games mean a standalone summer and winter event each year. Instead, taking a page out of the Formula 1 playbook, X Games would morph into a global team-based league, one that would see athletes compete for individual finishes as well as team points, with a winner crowned at the end of each summer and winter season.

If successful, it could transform one of the world’s most recognizable sports brands from an annual event business into a year-round professional league.

The league launches on Friday with four summer clubs—Los Angeles, New York, São Paulo and Tokyo—with four winter clubs to follow in 2027. Athletes are drafted onto city-based teams that retain their rights for multiple seasons.

Nearly 100 athletes will compete this summer across 18 skateboarding and BMX disciplines over a three-stop season beginning in Sacramento, continuing in Chiba, Japan, and concluding with a championship in New Orleans. At each event, athletes still compete for individual medals, but their results also contribute points toward a season-long team championship.

The format is intentionally familiar to fans accustomed to Formula 1 standings, while preserving the individual performances that have always defined action sports.

Investment firm UNA Sports Group recently acquired both New York franchises—summer and winter—while Summit Ventures purchased São Paulo, partnering with Brazilian skateboarding legend Bob Burnquist as general manager. Additional franchise sales are expected in the coming months.

Instead of relying primarily on sponsorships and event revenue, X Games can now generate franchise fees, long-term media rights, local sponsorship inventory and recurring team value.

Historically, action sports athletes have earned money through prize purses, endorsements and appearance fees. But XGL creates an entirely different incentive structure.

Athletes are drafted, become faces of clubs, appear in league content throughout the season and participate in a championship where a $500,000 purse is on the line for the winning club.

Sports leagues increasingly recognize that personality drives fandom as much as competition. Formula 1’s global boom was accelerated by Netflix’s Drive to Survive. Golf followed with Full Swing. Tennis, cycling and college football have embraced similar documentary storytelling.

As part of its strategy to capture new fans around the globe, X Games is launching a four-part, behind-the-scenes series, Dropping In. It follows athletes including Nyjah Huston, Sky Brown, Chloe Covell, Arisa Trew and Ryan Williams through the inaugural draft and opening season.

“People don’t fall in love with leagues,” X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom said. “They fall in love with people.”

Perhaps the most radical departure from traditional action sports is the draft itself. More than 180 athletes opted in to the draft held in March at Cosm Los Angeles for the four summer clubs, with 40 selected. Each club assembled a roster of ten athletes through a snake draft, selecting equal numbers of men and women.

Aussie skateboarder Chloe Covell, who has earned eight X Games medals (five golds) since her debut in 2022, went to XC New York with the first overall pick.

XC Los Angeles selected 17-time X Games medalist skateboarder and Southern California native Tom Schaar with its first pick.

XC Tokyo drafted eight-time X Games gold medalist skateboarder Arisa Trew. To close out the first round, XC São Paulo fittingly selected Brazilian skater Gui Khury, who has the most medals of any teenager in X Games history, with 15.

The full results of the summer draft can be found here.

XGL Summer Disciplines

Skate

Street

Park

Vert

BMX

Men’s street

Park

Men’s dirt

The winter draft will take place on September 16, also at Cosm Los Angeles.

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Ski and snowboard superstars that will look to join one of the four winter clubs include freeski powerhouses Eileen Gu and Kelly Sildaru; 2026 Winter Olympics gold medalist snowboarder Kokomo Murase; 14-time X Games medalist freeskier Alex Hall; Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris, the most-decorated athlete in Winter X Games history; rising star Luca Harrington of New Zealand; five-time reigning X Games SuperPipe gold medalist Scotty James; and X Games Knuckle Huck gold medalist Zeb Powell.

XGL Winter Disciplines

Snowboard

SuperPipe

Big Air

Slopestyle

Knuckle Huck

Ski

SuperPipe

Big Air

Slopestyle

Knuckle Huck

X Games executives are careful to stress that traditional X Games competitions aren’t disappearing and opportunities for individual medals remain.

Moto X—arguably the fan-favorite attraction—remains part of X Games programming even though it isn’t currently included in league standings. Ski and snowboard streetstyle, which have had X Games demos that have transformed into medal events, aren’t included in the league structure, but may have standalone competitions.

The challenge organizers now face is whether fans will embrace clubs with the same passion they’ve historically reserved for individual athletes.

If they do, X Games will have accomplished something never seen before in action sports: a sustainable, year-round league with recurring narratives, franchise value and dramatically expanded commercial opportunities.

On Friday, we’ll finally see that league format in action. X Games Sacramento 2026, which runs June 26–28, will serve as the first stop of the inaugural summer season.