For more than three decades, the X Games have carried skateboarding, BMX and freestyle motocross into stadiums, mountains and major cities around the world.
This weekend, the event finally comes to New Orleans.
From Friday, July 24, through Sunday, July 26, the Caesars Superdome will be transformed from an NFL stadium into a massive indoor action-sports arena filled with concrete-style skate courses, towering vert ramps, BMX jumps, packed dirt and freestyle motocross launch ramps.
More than 100 athletes are expected to compete across 18 events as New Orleans hosts the first championship weekend in the history of the new MoonPay X Games League. The competition will determine both individual X Games medalists and the inaugural XGL summer champion.
It will also mark the first time the X Games have ever been held in New Orleans.
Because there is no previous edition to evaluate, Magnolia Coast Sports will not give this event a traditional EVENT Guide score. Instead, consider this a preview of one of the largest and most unusual sporting events to arrive on the Gulf Coast in years.
Friday: An Immediate Introduction to the X Games
The gates open at 3 p.m. Friday, with competition beginning at 5:15 p.m.
The opening night will move quickly through several different sports:
5:15 p.m. — BMX Street
6:15 p.m. — Moto X Best Whip
7 p.m. — Men’s Scooter Park Best Trick
8 p.m. — Women’s Skateboard Vert
8:50 p.m. — Men’s Skateboard Street Best Trick
Friday may be the best sampler of the entire event. In less than five hours, fans will see BMX street riding, airborne motorcycles, the X Games debut of scooter, women’s vert and a men’s street Best Trick finale.
After competition ends, the weekend moves next door to the Smoothie King Center.
Doors open at 9:15 p.m. for Friday night’s concert featuring Metro Boomin and J.I.D.
Saturday: The Longest Day of Competition
Saturday offers the deepest schedule of the weekend.
Gates open at 11 a.m., followed by eight hours of competition:
1 p.m. — Women’s Skateboard Vert Best Trick
2 p.m. — Dave Mirra BMX Park Best Trick
2:30 p.m. — Men’s Skateboard Vert Best Trick
3 p.m. — Men’s Skateboard Street
4:30 p.m. — Moto X Best Trick
6 p.m. — Men’s BMX Dirt
7:15 p.m. — Men’s Skateboard Park
8:15 p.m. — Women’s Skateboard Street
Saturday is where the championship weekend should begin to feel relentless. Fans will move from the vert ramp to the street course, from Moto X to BMX Dirt and then back to skateboarding for two major evening finals.
The night concludes with another concert at the Smoothie King Center featuring electronic music artists Subtronics and BUNT. Doors are scheduled to open at 8:45 p.m.
Sunday: Championship Weekend Reaches Its Finale
Sunday begins with gates opening at 10 a.m. Competition starts at noon:
12 p.m. — Women’s BMX Park
1 p.m. — Men’s Skateboard Vert
2 p.m. — Women’s Skateboard Park
3:30 p.m. — BMX Dirt Best Trick
5 p.m. — Men’s Skateboard Park Best Trick
5:30 p.m. — Women’s Skateboard Street Best Trick
6:15 p.m. — Men’s BMX Park
The weekend ends with three consecutive Best Trick or park contests, providing a finale built around progression rather than caution.
BMX Dirt Best Trick may produce the largest aerial tricks of Sunday, while the men’s and women’s skateboard Best Trick events give athletes one final opportunity to attempt something that might not make sense during a traditional scored run.
Men’s BMX Park closes the entire competition at 6:15 p.m.
A New Era for the X Games Begins in New Orleans
This is not simply another stop on the traditional X Games calendar.
The 2026 season introduced a team-based league system in which athletes compete for four clubs: XC Los Angeles, XC New York, XC São Paulo and XC Tokyo. Forty athletes were selected for the four teams, while a larger group of free agents has remained available throughout the season.
Rather than athletes arriving for one isolated weekend, results have accumulated across a summer schedule that began in Sacramento and continued in Chiba, Japan. New Orleans serves as the finale, bringing those season-long standings into a championship event.
That adds a layer of drama that the X Games have not traditionally carried.
Gold medals still matter. Individual tricks and performances still matter. But athletes will also be collecting points for their clubs, giving fans another reason to follow results across skateboarding and BMX.
The Superdome is an appropriate place to launch that kind of championship atmosphere. The building has hosted Super Bowls, Final Fours, college football championships, heavyweight boxing matches, WrestleManias and some of the largest concerts ever staged in the region.
This weekend, dirt bikes, BMX riders and skateboarders will take over the floor.
Turning the Superdome Into an Action-Sports Playground
One of the most fascinating parts of the weekend may be simply seeing how the X Games fit inside the Superdome.Several competition areas must operate within the stadium, including skateboard street and park courses, BMX street, park and dirt layouts, a vert ramp and the launch-and-landing areas required for Moto X.
The field-level viewing area will place some ticket holders close to the BMX, Moto X and vert competitions, while general-admission seating will provide elevated views from around the stadium. The X Games ticket information identifies the field-access section as an arena-level viewing area for BMX, Moto and vert.
The layout should create a completely different atmosphere from an outdoor skatepark or motocross venue.
Every landing, crash and last-second trick will happen beneath the Superdome roof, where the sound of bikes, boards and a large crowd can remain trapped inside the building. Instead of fighting the late-July Louisiana heat or afternoon thunderstorms, the entire competition will unfold in a controlled indoor environment.
Outside the competition areas, fans can expect merchandise booths, sponsor displays, interactive activations and festival-style experiences throughout the stadium. The event has been promoted as more than a sequence of medal rounds, it is intended to function as a three-day action-sports festival.
Skateboarding Takes Center Stage
Skateboarding carries the deepest competition schedule of the weekend, with events in street, park and vert.
Street contests use rails, stairs, ledges, banks and gaps designed to resemble features found in plazas and urban environments. Park competition takes place inside a flowing course of bowls, walls and transitions. Vert sends athletes high above the edge of a massive halfpipe, combining height, rotation and technical control.
Few names in modern skateboarding are more recognizable than Nyjah Huston.
Huston enters New Orleans with 15 X Games gold medals and 26 total medals, making him the most decorated Skateboard Street competitor in event history. Even after spending much of his life at the sport’s highest level, he remains the standard against which the rest of a men’s street field is measured.
The women’s field may be even more compelling.
Australian teenager Arisa Trew arrives with 10 X Games gold medals despite still being in the early stages of her career. She will be among the favorites in park and vert, two events in which her technical ability and willingness to attempt difficult tricks have separated her from much of the field.
She will be joined by athletes such as Sky Brown, a three-time X Games gold medalist, and Australian street standout Chloe Covell, who already owns six gold medals.
Japan remains one of the strongest countries in women’s street skateboarding. Liz Akama is among the leading Japanese athletes scheduled for New Orleans, while the men’s side includes street specialist Sora Shirai.
On vert, Gui Khury continues to redefine what is possible on a skateboard. The Brazilian enters the event with 12 X Games gold medals and has become one of the defining athletes of the modern vert era. American Tom Schaar, a four-time gold medalist, gives the field another veteran capable of winning inside the Superdome.
BMX Brings Street, Dirt and Park to the Dome
BMX will be represented by three distinct styles of competition.
BMX Street uses handrails, ledges, walls and stair sets. BMX Park emphasizes transfers, spins and combinations across ramps and transitions. BMX Dirt sends riders through a sequence of large jumps where speed, timing and commitment are required before the athlete ever leaves the ground.
The street competition is scheduled to open the competitive weekend Friday evening.
Historically, the name most closely associated with BMX Street has been Garrett Reynolds. Reynolds enters the weekend as the most decorated BMX athlete in X Games history, carrying 16 gold medals and 24 total medals into the championship.
The park field is expected to feature established riders from across the world, including athletes such as Kevin Peraza, whose mix of technical park riding and creative lines has made him a familiar X Games presence.
Saturday will also feature the Dave Mirra BMX Park Best Trick, named in honor of one of the most important and recognizable riders in the sport’s history, who passed away in 2016.
Unlike a full park competition, Best Trick removes much of the need for consistency across an entire run. Riders can concentrate on one major trick, often leading to repeated attempts at something that has never been landed in competition.
Moto X Returns With Height, Style and Consequences
Moto X occupies less time on the schedule than skateboarding or BMX, but it may produce the weekend’s loudest moments.
Some of freestyle motocross’s biggest names are expected to headline the competition, including Axell Hodges, Rob Adelberg, Jackson Strong, Colby Raha and Tyler Bereman. Collectively, the group has captured numerous X Games medals while helping redefine what’s possible on a motorcycle through increasingly technical tricks and massive aerials
Friday’s Moto X Best Whip is less about completing the most rotations and more about style. Riders throw their motorcycles sideways in the air, extending the bike before pulling it back into position for the landing.
Saturday’s Moto X Best Trick raises the danger and difficulty. Competitors launch from a ramp, attempt their most advanced aerial trick and then try to reconnect with a motorcycle that may have rotated or moved beneath them. With only a few attempts available, the margin for error is small.
Inside the Superdome, the sound and speed of Moto X should produce some of the most memorable scenes of the weekend. The controlled stadium environment also gives spectators a clear view of both the takeoff and landing, two parts of a Moto X trick that can be difficult to follow at a sprawling outdoor venue.
That all-or-nothing format is a perfect match for the Superdome crowd.
Scooter Makes Its X Games Debut
One of the weekend’s most historically significant events will take place Friday evening.
For the first time, freestyle scooter will appear on an X Games competition schedule.
Eight riders are expected to participate in Men’s Scooter Park Best Trick, part of a new “Spotlight Events” concept that allows the X Games to test emerging sports and competition formats. Fans watching the broadcast will be given an opportunity to vote on whether scooter should return to future X Games events.
Scooter competition has developed far beyond the image many people associate with children riding around neighborhood sidewalks. The top professionals combine elements of BMX and skateboarding, using flips, spins, tailwhips and technical combinations that require complete control of both the deck and handlebars.
The discipline has long maintained its own international competition scene. New Orleans will now provide it with the largest platform in action sports.
The Music Is Part of the Weekend, Not Background Noise
New Orleans would have been a strange place to host a major sports festival without making music part of the presentation.
The X Games have instead built two separate nighttime concerts into the weekend.
Friday belongs to hip-hop. Metro Boomin, one of the most prominent producers of his generation, headlines alongside Atlanta rapper J.I.D.
Saturday shifts toward electronic music with Subtronics, a Philadelphia-born producer with strong ties to the modern dubstep scene, and German electronic artist BUNT.
The concerts will be held at the Smoothie King Center rather than inside the Superdome competition setup. Single-night concert tickets do not include admission to the sporting events, while combined sports-and-music packages include all three days of competition and floor access to both concerts.
What to Watch This Weekend
The easiest storyline to follow will be the XGL championship standings, but the weekend contains several stories that extend beyond the new league format.
Can Nyjah Huston add another Street gold medal to the most decorated résumé in the discipline’s history?
Can Arisa Trew continue her rapid takeover of women’s park and vert?
Will Gui Khury or Tom Schaar produce the defining moment on the massive vert ramp?
Can Garrett Reynolds add another BMX Street medal to a collection that already places him at the top of the sport?
What will the scooter athletes attempt when their discipline finally reaches the X Games stage?
And what happens when more than 100 of the world’s best action-sports competitors are turned loose inside one of America’s loudest stadiums?
New Orleans has hosted nearly every type of major sporting event imaginable. But it has never hosted anything exactly like this.
For three days, the Superdome will trade football turf for dirt jumps, halfpipes and street courses. Motorcycles will fly beneath the roof. Skateboarders will launch above vert ramps built on the stadium floor. BMX riders will attempt tricks that may not have existed the last time the X Games crowned a champion.
The X Games have always been built around progression—the idea that the next athlete might attempt something the sport has never seen.
This weekend, New Orleans becomes part of that history.
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