The announcement that Austin and not Detroit would host the X Games was surely disappointing. But if you think about it for a minute, it was also totally predictable.

While no one could ever prove it, I suspect all their “help us pick the X Games locale” engagement effort was largely fraudulent from the start. From a consultant-driven, bean counter-approved standpoint, it really only makes sense that the X Games went to Austin.

The “Worldwide Leader” is betting big on Texas with ESPN Dallas and the Longhorn Network. The Austin X Games dovetails nicely with ESPN’s corporate goals. They also likely have the behind-the-camera infrastructure in place to easily produce the event in Texas. It’s a plug-and-play venue for ESPN.

This, of course, is the fundamental problem with the preeminent brand in sports media.

It’s not coincidental that ESPN made this fundamentally predictable announcement the same week as yet another Home Run Derby rendered unwatchable by Chris Berman’s tired shtick.

ESPN Defines Self-Parody

There is no horse too dead to beat in Bristol. ESPN has become so boring, predictable and corporate that it’s a self-parody.

ESPN has alienated its core audience with tired shticks (back back back back…eff you, Berman) and Entertainment Tonight production values (remember What’s Now?) that overshadow, you know, athletic achievement.

That’s not conjecture. ESPN’s ratings are down and they’re shedding staff.

They hype the most insufferable collection of has-been talent from Berman to Rick “I had it first on Twitter” Reilly to God damn Darren Rovell and Skip Bayless while ignoring the fresh voices coming from places like Deadspin and the advanced analysis provided by sports economists and sabermaticians.

The truth is, as Will Leitch explained in his 2008 book "God Save The Fan," sports fans don’t really need the ESPNs of the world anymore. You can watch virtually any game in any sport in the world through league-specific cable channels, satellite services or online broadcasting. Statistics, analysis, and conversation are also available anywhere online at any time.

Zero Value Added

The irrelevance of ESPN is especially true for extreme sports where most spectators are also, on some level, participants in those sports. Like golf or sailing enthusiasts, X Games fans don’t need media hype or big names to appreciate a well-executed half-pipe trick.

In truth, ESPN and the X Games needed Detroit’s enthusiasm (or Charlotte’s, to be fair) far more than Detroit needs either ESPN or the X Games.

Local organizers say they’ll attempt to organize an ESPN-less X Games-like event. That’s both a great idea for Detroit and further proof that ESPN simply does not matter.

Even if a Detroit action sports festival can't attract the top-tier competitors who participate in the X Games, it likely won’t matter. The gap (real or perceived) between the best skateboarder in the world and second-tier competition is significantly smaller than the gap between Miguel Cabrera and AAA ballplayers.

A well-organized event will draw the same core group of fans with or without the X Games pedigree.

We’re seeing the same thing happen with soccer as the semi-pro Detroit City Football Club captures fans' imagination as well as any Major League Soccer franchise.

And while ESPN fills airwaves with Mike Lupica and Mitch Albom clutching pearls over steroids, fans — of both traditional and extreme sports — are moving on to better things.