Yesterday, the Action Sports Tour (AST) was a big deal, with the five-stop summer Dew Tour and the three-stop Winter Dew Tour getting ready to launch.  Today, it’s world got a whole lot bigger as it has partnered with the Maloof Money Cup, King of Wake series and the AMA Motocross Championship to have a monster offering of seven action sports tours comprising more than 25 individual pro events and more than 75 total events (including the amateur Free Flow tour).  It’s name?  ALLI: The Alliance of Action Sports.  It’s co-owned by NBC Sports and MTV, and shows that Viacom/MTV is serious about this action sports thing.

Watch out ESPN, there’s a new big dog in town.

Read on for all the details.

NBC SPORTS AND MTV ANNOUNCE THE CREATION OF ALLI, THE ALLIANCE OF ACTION SPORTS

Alli to include seven national & international action sports properties, adding new partnerships with Maloof Money Cup, AMA Motocross Championship & King of Wake series to popular Dew Tour franchise

NEW YORK – December 1, 2008 – NBC Sports and MTV, a division of Viacom’s MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA and VIA.B), announced today the creation of Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports™.  Alli is a global business that joins the former Action Sports Tour properties (AST) with Maloof Money Cup, AMA Motocross Championship and King of Wake series to create the most diverse and robust action-sports offering in the world. The new umbrella brand, which will continue to be co-owned by NBC Sports and MTV, will offer a schedule of seven national and international action sports tours and events, multimedia content and production, a digital hub and consumer-facing lifestyle brand.

Building on the successful foundation of AST, Alli will serve as the owner and operator of the Dew Tour and Winter Dew Tour, Free Flow Tour, and the China Invitational. In addition, Alli has formed partnerships with industry leaders and premier properties: Maloof Money Cup, the AMA Motocross Championships, and the King of Wake series.  Alli partners will continue to manage their respective events with the added benefit of television programming on NBC Sports and MTV, global media content distribution, sponsorship sales, and marketing and promotion across all platforms. A soon-to-be-launched digital hub will also serve as the online destination for all Alli properties and a leading source of all action sports content and news.

This announcement comes six months after the groundbreaking joint venture between NBC and MTV around the AST and its related businesses.  This wide-ranging, strategic partnership expanded the business across NBC and MTV’s multiple screens, including action sports competition and youth-focused lifestyle programming, cross-promotion, multi-platform content and distribution, consumer products licensing and an enhanced digital offering.  Moving forward under the Alli brand, the partnership will include over 80 hours of original programming offered annually across NBC, USA Network, MTV and MTV2

“Alli’s mission is to facilitate the momentous growth of action sports by showcasing both the competition and lifestyle aspect of these sports.  We believe these are the sports of a new generation and Alli will bring together the best properties, athletes, and brands globally for the fans of action sports,” says Wade Martin, President of Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports.

“When NBC Sports launched the Dew Tour we knew there would be an opportunity to expand into other action sports.  We are excited to bring the best programming across the entire action sports genre on multiple media distribution platforms to our audience,” says Kevin Monaghan, Senior Vice President, Business Development, NBC Sports & Olympics.

Added Jeff Yapp, Executive Vice President of Program Enterprises for MTV Networks Music & Logo Group, “This is a major step in building the business we imagined when we first partnered with NBC Sports. Building our online platform, creating a lifestyle brand, and expanding original content will positively impact the network of partners, athletes, fans and the action sports industry as a whole, which is everything that the alliance represents”.

An overview of the Alli properties is as follows:

Maloof Money Cup

Held for the first time in 2008, the Maloof Money Cup, owned and operated by the Maloof family, has quickly become the premier skateboarding event within the community and attracts every top athlete.  Including three professional competitions – Men’s and Women’s Pro Street, and Men’s Pro Vert – and the Amateur Championships, it boasts the largest single event purse in skateboarding with over $450,000 in prize money.

AMA Motocross Championship

AMA Motocross Championship is the top outdoor series in motocross and draws elite rider talent from all around the world. The MX Sports-organized series, which began in 1972, spans 12 races across the U.S., and at the end of each year, the AMA National Motocross Championship titles are awarded based on the riders’ performances over the entire series.

King of Wake

As the elite pro wakeboarding circuit, the King of Wake series has attracted the sport’s top riders from throughout the globe. With more than $300,000 in prize money over the eight-event season, riders compete over the course of the year to be named the “King of Wake” – an award based on points accumulated at each stop of the series. Events include Wake Games, Pro Wakeboard Tour (5 events), WWA National Championships, and WWA World Championships. The King of Wake is organized by World Sports & Marketing – the leading wake event producers since 1988.

Dew Tour

The Dew Tour, the premier season-long series in action sports, consists of five major, multi-sport events, featuring skateboarding (park and vert), BMX (park, vert, and dirt), and FMX.  Dew Tour is the most watched and attended action sports property in the world with over 250k spectators, 41 million total viewers and reaches over 100 countries worldwide. The events extend across the country, have a cumulative points system, and a $3.5 million competitive purse. The Dew Tour has been the cornerstone property of AST over the last four years, and its success has now enabled the formation of Alli, the Alliance of Action Sports. It crowns year-end champions including past Dew Cup winners Ryan Sheckler, Shaun White, Bucky Lasek, Jamie Bestwick, and Nate Adams.

Winter Dew Tour

The Winter Dew Tour is launching in December of ’08, and will expand Alli’s footprint into the winter action sports. It consists of three major, multi-sport events spanning across the country, with a cumulative points system, and a $1.5 million competitive purse.  The tour will feature 29 hours of original television programming. Each event features men and women’s snowboard (superpipe and slopestyle), and men’s freeskiing (superpipe and slopestyle).  Top athletes, Shaun White, Hannah Teter, Travis Rice, Simon Dumont, and Danny Kass, are already planning to compete.

Free Flow Tour

The Free Flow Tour, the Dew Tour’s official amateur series, provides amateur athletes the opportunity to earn a chance to compete against the pros in the Dew Tour.  The Free Flow Tour consists of 50 events across 26 cities in the U.S., featuring skateboarding and BMX. The winners of the Free Flow Tour Finals compete against the pros at the Dew Tour’s PlayStation Pro in Orlando, Fla.  Past Free Flow Tour winners include Chaz Ortiz (2007 Dew Cup Winner, Skate Park) and Mike Spinner (2008 Dew Tour Second Place, BMX Park).

China Invitational

The China Invitational is Alli’s first international expansion initiative. The inaugural China Invitational was held in April 2008 in Beijing, China and featured the top skateboarders competing in vert and park disciplines before a capacity crowd.

What does that mean exactly?  Good question.  I thought at first it meant that Ryan was the new spokesperson from Wendy’s Restaurants and that he would overtake the red headed girl as their spokesperson.  But actually the contest starts with you, the fans.  Voting, which began August 25th at the AST Dew Tour Portland Invitational.  Fans could view videos on AST.com where they would text which clip was their favorite.  Here were the other nominees…

- Ryan Guettler (BMX Dirt), pulled an impressive tailwhip Superman seat grab out of his bag of tricks during Finals. He’s currently ranked in the top 10 for season point’s standings. 

- Chad Kagy (BMX Vert), completed a flatspin 540 double tailwhip, which helped him take the win from defending Dew Cup champion Jamie Bestwick.

- Bucky Lasek (Skateboard Vert), pulled a stylish boneless rodeo frontside 540, and although Bob Burquist took the win, Lasek still holds the lead in the Race for the Cup.

- Daniel Dhers (BMX Park), marked a Dew Tour milestone when he completed the first 720 Can Can in AST competition. This trick helped him secure his third win of the season.

Sheckler wins $5,000, a PLAYSTATION®3 and a library of games to reward his skills.  Online polls open on the Monday following each event.

Secondly, Saturday night marked the premiere of the show “The Contenders” on MTV2 — one of the fruits of the marriage of the AST with MTV — now I didn’t get to see the premiere, which was all about following Jamie Bestwick, Bucky Lasek, Chaz Ortiz and P-Rod.  It’s repeating at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday.  And probably more times than that.  But you have to have MTV2 and I don’t get it.

If you want to watch the remaining three episodes, the second episode airs Sept. 27, a third on Oct. 11 and the last one Nov. 1. The shows will first air at 8:30 p.m. ET, and are scheduled for re-airing seven subsequent times.

At least you can watch a preview of the show below.

AST DEW TOUR DRAWS RECORD TV AUDIENCE
Wendy’s Invitational Live Sunday Broadcast Receives 2.7 Overnight Rating On NBC

NEW YORK – August 26, 2008 – The AST Dew Tour, today announced the live Sunday, August 24 broadcast of the Wendy’s Invitational in Portland, Ore. took in a 2.7 overnight rating. This marks the highest rated Dew Tour broadcast in its four-year history along with being the highest rated daytime action sports broadcast in history. Sunday’s broadcast benefited from an NBC Olympic broadcast “lead-in,” the final day of the Beijing Olympic Games.

Immediately following NBC’s last competition telecast from Beijing, NBC aired live coverage of the BMX Park finals from the Wendy’s Invitational in Portland, Ore. on Sunday, August 24 (4 – 6 p.m. ET.) The Dew Tour broadcast was the third highest rated sports program over the weekend behind only television’s powerhouses, the Olympics and NFL.

“The NBC Beijing lead-in gave us the opportunity to expose first time-viewers to the world’s best action sports athletes,” said Wade Martin, AST President. “These are amazing engaging athletes and competitions, and we look forward to building on the momentum this broadcast has provided.”

The complete 2008 AST Dew Tour schedule is as follows:

Event            Date            Location
Panasonic Open    June 19-22        Baltimore, Md.-Camden Yards Sports Complex
Right Guard Open    July 17-20        Cleveland, OH-North Coast Harbor
Wendy’s Invitational    Aug. 21-24        Portland, Ore.-Rose Quarter
Toyota Challenge    Sept. 11-14        Salt Lake City, UT-EnergySolutions Arena
PlayStation® Pro    Oct. 16-19        Orlando, Fla.-Amway Arena

But if that’s still not strong enough for you, Eric Koston will join the tour in Portland.  Koston alone can raise expectations on anything he participates in.  Even if it were something as crappy as a choir boy contest.  This isn’t the first time he’s been participated in the Dew Tour — he was there waaaaay back in 2006 — but back then Sheckler was dominating the contests and considered the park courses his domain…  Oops.

Perhaps related to that, Dew Tour officials also announced a brand-new plaza-inspired street course vs. the BMX Park course from the first two stops.  Nice that they introduced that after the open qualifiers. I’m hoping to see some neon colored vert transitions.  Check out TWS for a peek at it.  It’ll be interesting to see how this improves/disrupts the choreographed. Hopefully this will earn the Dew Tour the respect they deserve.  Now go “Do The Dew!”

What happens when you mix the most extreme sodas with one of the most extreme TV stations?  “Dew Underground” that’s what!  And I didn’t even make that up.  Fuel TV will be featuring an unprecedented look at the culture surrounding the AST Dew Tour and the athletes associated with its. 

“Dew Underground” content will be posted on the FUEL TV, Mountain Dew, and AST websites, as well as on Hulu.com and myspace.com. In addition, FUEL TV will make “Dew Underground” podcasts available via iTunes.

“We’re very excited about our new partnership with Mountain Dew and the AST Dew Tour to produce this new show and distribute this content across our multiple platforms,” says CJ Olivares, FUEL TV’s General Manager. “This show will highlight the new era of content distribution and how FUEL TV works directly with partners to create unique branded content that maximizes their exposure.”

“Dew continues to push the limits in its action-sports activation,” says John Stamatis, Senior Marketing Manager, Pepsi Sports Group. “The days of screaming at the audience are over. Dew sees two-way dialogue as critical to connecting with today’s hard-to-reach teen. The onsite experience will definitely be unique and localized, with some of the key content from the local market living on air and online. If your activation isn’t cool enough to film, then you shouldn’t be doing it at all!”