Not much about Mark Denise says he's a lifelong BMX rider and fan. He works in construction and has a wife and a daughter and no (visible) tattoos. But he loves bicycling motocross so much that he's the main reason Charlotte is a finalist in the biding process that would bring ESPN's 2014 X Games to the Queen City.
Denise and I met outside of a restaurant in Uptown last year, a few weeks after he had submitted the letter of intent to ESPN, which put Charlotte in the running. (He eventually withdrew his letter to allow Charlotte Motor Speedway to submit its own proposal, since many of the events would be held there.)
Armed with piles of research, the Massachusetts native discussed how the X Games would bring Charlotte millions of dollars and potentially put us in the running to host other big sporting events (hint: Olympics). While he might have overestimated our ability to host the Big Games (http://clclt.com/theclog/archives/2013/02/20/charlottes-olympic-dreams-shattered), he was right about the dough the X Games would bring. The 2010 edition brought Los Angeles County $50 million, according to an economic impact report. Even more impressive: The X Games broadcast in all 50 states, 175 countries and more than 380 million homes. Its international reach and recognition makes the Democratic National Convention, which broadcast in about 22 million homes its first night, seem like a church luncheon. And, depending on where you stand in life, the X Games are just cooler than a political convention.
Denise is the first to admit he's a little obsessed with his mission. He created Facebook and LinkedIn pages advertising The Cause and highlighted important parts of that economic impact report for me. He gets zero money if Charlotte is selected and wouldn't ask for recognition from the city, he said. The only selfish perk he's looking forward to is meeting his favorite riders.
As a lifelong enthusiast, he wants to bring the X Games to Charlotte mostly because he wants to introduce more people to the positive aspects of "alternative sports," such as skateboarding, motocross and BMX. During our meeting, he touted the friendliness and communal feel of the alt-sport world, which he explained like this: Are you a traveling rider or 'boarder in need of shelter? Go to your nearest skatepark and ask for a couch. Someone will lend you theirs. With enough interest, maybe City Council would fund a massive skate park, much like ones found across Southern California.
He calls riding bikes and skateboards a form of "individualistic artistic impression" since, like a painter, a rider can choose which way to twirl and twist his or her device.
But the realities of hosting such a massive, high-profile event are undeniable. Can Charlotte withstand — does it even want to withstand? — the hundreds of thousands of visitors that come with the X Games? In 2009, it attracted an estimated 111,200 to live events at L.A.'s Staples Center, which can hold more people than Time Warner Cable Arena and The Home Depot Center. More important than logistics: Is Charlotte cool enough — or cooler than our competitors, Austin and Chicago, anyway — in the eyes of sk8r bois to host the largest, edgiest sports competition in the world?
"Austin and Chicago do have an advantage; Austin has a big skate scene, but so do we now," Denise said. "If I didn't think it was feasible here, I wouldn't have [submitted the proposal]."
We'll find out if he's right this summer.
