Los Angeles, Calif. – Last year tells the story of a breakthrough for Nitro Circus, the action sports entertainment collective led by extreme sports legend Travis Pastrana.
With more than 500,000 tickets sold, the Nitro Circus Live touring show cemented its status as the reigning live action sports event on the planet. Nitro Circus athletes advanced the sport across multiple disciplines, landing an astronomical number of world’s firsts including Josh Sheehan’s huge triple back flip on a motorbike and Jed Mildon’s massive quadruple BMX back flip, both of which made worldwide headlines. Also, the Nitro Circus brand partnered with iconic companies including NBC Sports, Toyota, Sony and more.
“We achieved fantastic successes in 2015 and have big plans for the new year which is already off to a great start,” said Michael Porra, Nitro Circus CEO and creative director, “Our marathon tour already includes stops in Europe, North America and Australia with more cities announced soon.”
More than 200,000 tickets have already been sold for 2016 so far. “The Nitro World Games, an absolute reinvention of action sports competition, will debut at Salt Lake City’s Rice-Eccles Stadium on July 16 and air live in primetime on NBC. New sponsorship and licensing agreements are also in the pipeline,” Porra continued.
The year 2015 was a banner year for Nitro Circus Live, which broke numerous attendance records while logging the most road miles in its history. Running almost non-stop from January through November, Nitro Circus Live played more than 100 shows in 11 countries on four continents, visiting new territories along the way. The trek included 40 North American dates; its most extensive tour to date that featured a sold-out Canadian leg.
Nitro Circus Live took Japan by storm selling 80,000 tickets at just four performances in a spectacular debut (the two Tokyo Dome shows drew Nitro’s largest weekend attendance ever). Nitro Circus Live also returned to Europe, Australia and New Zealand.
Nitro Circus athletes took action sports to new heights. In addition to Josh Sheehan’s and Jed Mildon’s accomplishments, Ryan Williams was a one-man wrecking crew, obliterating records on both BMX and scooter seemingly at will. His world firsts over the past 12 months include the first triple front flip, first front flip no-hander and the first double-seat-grab front flip, all on BMX, and the first triple back flip and the first 1080 front flip on scooter.
Nirro Circus Live athlete Clinton Moore emerged as a new force in freestyle motocross (FMX), taking the 2015 X-Fighters crown. Moore topped established stars like Tom Pagès and Josh Sheehan. During the seven-month competition, Moore never left the top three on the leaderboard.
“The Nitro Circus brand reached new heights in 2015,” says Porra. Following its move from Australia to the U.S.A. at the end of 2014 and an expansion that saw the company more than double in size, Forbes magazine named Nitro Circus as #22 on its 2015 list of 100 “Most Promising Companies” in America. Last May, Nitro Circus formed a multi-year partnership with NBC Sports Ventures.
Nitro Circus programming, including compelling specials like the quad flip documentary, Revolution Day: The Chase for the Biggest Trick in Action Sports History, now airs regularly in the U.S. on NBC and NBCSN and streams on NBC Sports Live Extra. The all-new docu-series, “Nitro Circus: Crazy Train,” debuted on NBCSN last October.
Action Figures, Travis Pastrana’s first directorial effort, was released worldwide to great success. On iTunes, Action Figures held the No. 1 spot for sports movie worldwide for more than a month, reaching No. 3 in Australia for all movies while cracking the Top 10 for all movies in the U.S. at launch. This accelerated production schedule was made possible by the infusion of top-level industry executives like veteran filmmaker Trip Taylor (the “Jackass” and “Bad Grandpa” series).
Nitro Circus received more media exposure last year than ever before. Appearing in September on CBS’ “The Late Show with James Corden,” Pastrana took Corden on the ride of his life in a RZR and made late night television history while trending on Facebook and Twitter for more than a week.
In the U.S., Nitro was also seen on CNBC, ABC, ESPN, Fox Sports and Fox News. In Canada, Nitro Circus scored national coverage on CTV, City TV, TSN and Sportsnet while Pastrana also appeared overseas with Ronnie Wood from the Rolling Stones and Ellie Goulding on the UK’s smash hit TV show “TFI Friday.”
Nitro Circus has had a record-breaking year online as well. Nitro Circus content reached more than 100 million people every month through social platforms, driven by an aggressive slate of original digital content. Nitro Circus boasts the most engaged audience in sports in terms of social interaction online.
Nitro Circus announced several new corporate partnerships across a variety of sectors. In addition to agreements with Toyota and Sony, Nitro Circus teamed with Wicked Tango Whiskey for a groundbreaking, fully integrated sponsorship. Thanks to this innovative partnership, Wicked Tango can reach consumers via Nitro’s diverse range of assets (TV programming, digital content, athlete endorsements and global touring) and engage them in new ways. For the first time, Nitro Circus toys, apparel and gaming are coming to retailers in 2016.
For additional Nitro Circus news, exclusive behind-the-scenes content, tour updates and more, go to http://www.nitrocircus.com.
Follow Nitro Circus Live on Twitter: @nitrocircus and Facebook: www.facebook.com/NitroCircus.
2016 North American Tour Dates (announced so far). A complete list can be found at www.nitrocircus.com/tour
U.S.
pril 15 Shreveport, LA Independence Stadium
April 16 Little Rock, AR War Memorial Stadium
April 22 Albuquerque, NM University Stadium
April 23 Tucson, AZ Tucson Rodeo Grounds
April 30 Colorado Springs, CO Falcon Stadium
May 6 Reno, NV ACES Ballpark
May 7 Eugene, OR Autzen Stadium
May 13 Missoula, MT Ogren Park Allegiance Field
May 15 Billings, MO METRA PARK
June 18 Boise, ID Boise Memorial Stadium
July 1 Oklahoma City, OK Taft Stadium
July 2 Springfield, MO Plaster Stadium
July 3 Wichita, KS Lawrence-Dumont Stadium
July 9 Louisville, KY Papa John's Cardinal Stadium
July 22 Sioux Falls, SD The Sioux Falls Birdcage
July 23 Lincoln, NE Seacrest Field
Aug. 26 Augusta, GA Lake Olmstead Stadium
Aug. 27 Birmingham, AL Metropolitan Stadium
Sept. 3 Fayetteville, AR Fayetteville Motor Speedway
Oct. 1 Salinas, CA Salinas Sports Complex
Canada
May 21 Calgary, AB Calgary Stampede
May 27 Lloydminster, AB Exhibition Center
May 28 Edmonton, AB Commonwealth Stadium
June 4 Regina, SK Mosaic Stadium
June 10 Fort McMurray, AB Shell Place, MacDonald Island Park
July 16 London, ON Wester Farin Raceway
July 29 Moncton, NB Moncton Stadium
July 30 Halifax, NS Scotia Speedway
Aug. 6 St. John's, NL Eastbound International Raceway
Sept. 9 Medicine Hat, AB Exhibition Center
Sept. 16 Prince George, BC PGARA Speedway
Sept. 17 Grand Praire, AB Evergreen Park
Sept. 24 Victoria, BC Athletic Park