Over the past few months, rumors have percolated that the Dew Tour would be slimming down. Then, on Monday, April 16, those rumors were confirmed as Alli Sports announced that the 2012 Dew Tour would be comprised of three "large-scale, premium, 'grand-slam' style events."In conjunction with a renewed four-year partnership with Mountain Dew, Wade Martin, President & CEO of Alli Sports said, "The action sports landscape has grown and changed dramatically since we launched the Dew Tour in 2005."
Yet Martin's reasoning that the growth of the action sports landscape would lead to a shrinking tour seems counterintuitive. A more accurate conclusion might be that the industry is in fact shrinking during the recent hard economic times. "The multi-stop series format was what the industry wanted and needed then." said Martin. "The Dew Tour changed the industry forever, taking the sports to a whole new level. The new Dew Tour, which will include three major events across beach, city, and mountain venues, represents what the athletes and industry want and need today."
However, the slimmed schedule is drawing mixed reviews from competitors in both the summer and winter sports. Seth Hill, a pro snowboarder who has competed in all of the Winter Dew Tour events for the past two years said, "I loved the three tour stops. If they are only going to do one winter contest, it has to be big, like X Games big, and it's just a bit early in the season for that large of a contest."
Paul Rodriguez, pro skater and Mountain Dew athlete, looks forward to the change and commented, "Bringing the events to venues that have such a strong history in skate will step up the level of competition, and I'm looking forward to seeing it all come together."
It will be interesting to see if the new condensed format will help or hinder the progression of action sports. Less contests means fewer chances for athletes to showcase their talents to the mainstream, which may cause a decline in the number of sponsorships available. However, a smaller competitive schedule gives riders a bit of a reprieve from the overly saturated contest circuit, which may help them to perform better at other events.
Here are the dates for the 2012 Dew Tour Schedule:
Beach: Ocean City, Maryland- August 16-19
City: San Francisco, California- October 18-21
Mountain: Breckenridge, Colorado- December 13-16
Source: http://www.grindtv.com/skate/blog/33347/dew+tour+slims+to+3+events+in+2012/
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