ESPN has announced their plans to move the 2001 and 2002 X Games from San Francisco to Philadelphia. This announcement was made jointly by ESPN, Comcast Cable, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, and Philadelphia Mayor John Street. According to Mayor Street, "the X Games' selection of Philadelphia for its 2001 and 2002 games will have an economic impact of more than $40 million, including sales of 10,000 hotel room nights each year". Comcast has 8.2 million cable subscribers, and they are one of ESPN's largest affiliates. They are also the owner of First Union Center, where most of the Philadelphia X Games events will occur.

The X Games is one of the largest aggressive sports events in the world, with typically 200,000 spectators, and 350 athletes competing for almost $1 million in prize money. They have been hosted in 3 different cities since they were first established by ESPN in 1995:

1995 - Providence, Rhode Island
1996 - Providence, Rhode Island
1997 - San Diego, California
1998 - San Diego, California
1999 - San Francisco, California
2000 - San Franciscio, California

ESPN plans to expand the X franchise by establishing X Games qualifiers on 5 continents, and they have published a Schedule of International X Games Events on their Web site. In addition to the X Games, ESPN owns and operates several other sporting events, including:

• The Winter X Games
• The Great Outdoor Games
• ESPY Awards
• X Trials
• Tony Hawk Tour
• B3 / Bikes, Blades and Boards
• X Games Global Challenge (coming in 2002)