General Manager of Sport and Education, Dave Castro sat down for a lengthy interview and sprinkled a little bit more information regarding the 2024 CrossFit Games that will take place in Fort Worth, Texas. According to him, there will be a change in the format and that 95% of the events will be indoors.
Dave Castro was interviewed by Mike Ritland in his personal podcast where they talk about the US Navy Seal, Castro’s involvement with the community and, of course, CrossFit. And as usual, Castro revealed a few extra bits of information regarding the upcoming 2024 CrossFit Games.
As reported earlier by BOXROX, the 2024 CrossFit Games will not be returning to Madison, Wisconsin, but rather Fort Worth, in Texas.
The venue chosen was the Dickies Arena, a multi-event venue built in 2019 that had huge concerts such as Paul McCartney and Eric Clapton, but also other interesting events like Monster Truck and NCAA gymnastic championships.
Source: Dickies ArenaBelow you will read a short version of Dave Castro’s interview with Mike Ritland.
Dave Castro Reveals More Details About the 2024 CrossFit Games in Texas
Before getting fired, Dave Castro toured Dickies Arena in 2021 to move the Games to a different venue in 2023. “Toured the venue, loved it, then we toured another venue in Alabama. Also really liked that one, Birmingham.”
Then Castro was fired and then rehired back to the team. Once he was back, for the sake of freshness, Dave Castro was responsible for changing things up.
“We’re going to change the format of the CrossFit Games, going to a venue like Dickies would be perfect.”
Although CrossFit Inc. still had one more year with Madison agreed, Castro had to tell them the organisation was moving away. “We’re going to have a different footprint,” with a new model in a new location.
So what is this new format Castro keeps talking about? As BOXROX wrote previously, the biggest concern of the CrossFit Games was the heat stroke that athletes could suffer during WODs. But that is one of the reasons Dickies Arena was chosen.
“95% of the events are going to be inside the arena, cause it’s air-conditioned,” Castro revealed.
Castro believes they can sell out Dickies Arena at 15,000 people or maybe a thousand less, depending on how they distribute the place.
BOXROX wrote previously that CrossFit possibly would have to pay zero dollars in the end for renting the venue. That is because the bid from Dickies Arena in 2019 to be the new home of the Fittest on Earth had many concessions to CrossFit HQ of more than U$1 million. Castro, in this interview, said he didn’t know exactly how were the concessions and couldn’t talk much about it either.
It is possible that there was a new bid, or new concessions, from Dickies Arena for the 2024 CrossFit Games and the information provided earlier is outdated. But the fact remains that a Sports Commission from Fort Worth and Dickies Arena wanted the CrossFit Games to be played out in their venue since 2019.
As a fun side note, Castro said that CrossFit founder Greg Glassman once said he wanted athletes to “have a softball throw” at the Games. Not only that, but with both arms, once with the dominant, and once with the weaker arm. And Castro said they wouldn’t do it, because there would be a lot of memes coming out of it and some of the most athletic people managed to throw about 20 or 30 yards with their good arm – it could put a comedic scene by accident.
You can watch Dave Castro talking about the 2024 CrossFit in the video below.
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Image Sources
- Dickies Arena DFW: Dickies Arena
- Dave Castro: Courtesy of CrossFit Inc.