BOULDER, Colo. — The MoonPay X Games League (XGL) has officially finalized the leadership structure for its inaugural winter competition cycle, naming four prominent action sports veterans as general managers and confirming X Games Club Whistler (XC Whistler) as its fourth and final founding Winter Club. The milestone announcement on August 13, 2026, paves the way for the historic XGL Winter Draft scheduled for September 16 in Los Angeles, setting the stage for the league’s debut winter season in January 2027.
The appointments complete the foundational management tier for XGL’s winter expansion, following a successful inaugural summer season that signaled robust audience growth for the restructured action sports property. With the winter clubs now fully established, attention turns to roster construction, strategic athlete acquisition, and the integration of a team-based model into elite skiing and snowboarding.
Complete Leadership Roster for the Inaugural Winter Season
The selection of general managers reflects a strategic blend of Olympic pedigree, commercial acumen, and deep cultural roots within the global action sports community. Each general manager will be tasked with building and managing a 10-athlete roster comprising the world’s elite skiers and snowboarders.
XC Golden State will be spearheaded by Olympic champion, World Cup titlist, and freeskiing pioneer Jonny Moseley. A defining figure in modern winter sports, Moseley’s gold medal performance at the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics fundamentally altered the trajectory of competitive skiing, making him the first athlete to secure podium finishes at both the Olympics and the X Games. Drawing on his extensive subsequent career as a mainstream sports broadcaster and industry ambassador, Moseley aims to leverage his regional ties to Northern California and Lake Tahoe to build a championship-contending franchise.
XC New York will be led by action sports marketing executive Dave Sypniewski, whose extensive commercial background includes pivotal roles with industry-defining brands and publications such as Burton, Thrasher, and Boost Mobile. Sypniewski will be supported by Special Advisor Barrett Christy Cummins, an 11-time X Games medalist, U.S. Olympian, and U.S. Ski & Snowboard Hall of Fame inductee. The leadership pairing aims to translate the championship momentum of XC New York’s summer counterpart—which captured the inaugural XGL summer title in New Orleans—into the winter circuit.
XC Park City introduces Sharalee “Haze” Hazen, an established experiential strategist and athlete marketing leader. Hazen, who previously served as general manager of XC Los Angeles during the XGL summer season and co-created The Uninvited Invitational, brings robust expertise in athlete advocacy and brand development. Her leadership will focus on establishing a strong, athlete-centric competitive identity for the Park City franchise.
XC Whistler, newly confirmed as the league’s final winter club, will be managed by Canadian media executive and entrepreneur Ryan Stutt. With over two decades of experience documenting and shaping winter sports culture—including founding leading Canadian ski and snowboard outlets Forecast Ski and King Snow, and directing the award-winning documentary Our Kind of Chaos—Stutt is positioned to infuse the franchise with the heritage and performance standards synonymous with Whistler’s storied landscape.
Building on Summer Momentum and Broadcast Growth
The expansion into winter sports follows a highly successful debut summer campaign for the XGL, which was launched in 2026 as a year-round, team-based, co-ed league under the ownership of private equity firm MSP Sports Capital. MSP Sports Capital, founded by veteran sports investors Jeff Moorad and Jahm Najafi, manages the X Games portfolio with a strategic focus on scaling mature sports assets through commercial innovation and structured league formats.
The inaugural summer season demonstrated significant audience engagement, reaching 18.3 million U.S. television viewers across ABC and ESPN—representing a 78.5 percent increase compared to broadcast metrics from 2025. The season culminated in a dramatic finale in New Orleans, where XC New York secured the inaugural XGL championship by a razor-thin 10-point margin over XC Tokyo, finishing with 2,640 points to Tokyo’s 2,630.
League executives note that the transition to a team-based structure fundamentally alters the competitive paradigm of action sports. Historically defined by individual performances at isolated annual events, the XGL framework introduces multi-event season standings, long-term roster strategies, and enhanced compensation models that extend beyond traditional event prize purses.
X Games Chief Executive Officer Jeremy Bloom emphasized the unique challenges facing the newly appointed general managers ahead of the upcoming draft.
"For the first time in X Games history, someone has to build a championship roster, not just produce a championship run," Bloom stated. "That makes the GM role incredibly important. Jonny, Dave, Haze, and Ryan each bring deep credibility with athletes, real roots in these sports, and a different point of view on how to build a winning club. They now get to make the first roster decisions in X Games history that will impact an entire winter season."
The XGL Winter Draft and Strategic Implications
The operational blueprint for the winter season centers on the upcoming XGL Winter Draft on September 16, 2026. Hosted at Cosm Los Angeles, the event will utilize an immersive viewing environment where general managers will make their selections from a pool of elite global talent. A limited allocation of Superfan tickets has been made available to the public via the official X Games portal.
Following the draft, the inaugural MoonPay X Games League Winter Season is scheduled to commence in January 2027 in Aspen, Colorado, with additional host cities and event dates slated for announcement in the coming months.
Industry analysts suggest that the structured league model represents a calculated effort to institutionalize action sports in alignment with traditional major league sports properties. By anchoring teams to specific geographic markets—Golden State, New York, Park City, Whistler, and their summer counterparts—the league aims to cultivate sustained fan loyalty, secure long-term corporate sponsorships, and provide athletes with predictable, multi-tiered earning structures.
As the action sports industry watches the convergence of traditional independent competition and franchised team sports, the success of the four winter general managers in constructing cohesive, versatile rosters will serve as a critical benchmark for the long-term viability of the XGL format.
