According to an article printed in the Atlanta *-Journal Constitutional, over 1,000 skateparks * have been built in the US between January '01 and July '02, and as many as 2,000 more may be built by '04, Heidi Lemon of the Skatepark Association of the USA * says.

While the article acknowledges that most new parks are being built in the Northwest, "particularly in California * and Oregon *", the fact that an Atlanta newspaper is running an article about the emergence of skateparks and "Extreme Sports" is a clear reflection of the continuing and growing popularity of Extreme Sports and especially skateboarding.

"Skateboarding, the most popular of the extreme sports, is expected to have 15 million participants by 2005 *, up from 11.6 million in 2000 *, according to American Sports Data Inc., a sports marketing research company. Meanwhile, participation in baseball in 2000 was 10.9 million, down nearly 30 percent from 1987 *."

Note that this means more people skateboard than play baseball in America, which arguably justifies having as many skateparks as baseball fields.

"When cities build a skate park, they see it's not 40 skaters, it's thousands of skaters," said Skatepark Association's Lemmon.

Statistics and quotes from this article were excerpted from Clint William's "Parks play catch-up on extreme sports", published in the Atlanta-Journal Constitutional on 7/12/02 at http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/metro/0702/12xrec.html

Search this site for more about 1000 skateparks built 18 months *