With new X Games venues, everything feels a little smaller

Frankly, the Coliseum is capable of making the populations of entire cities disappear in its vastness. Seal Beach would be a mere appetizer. Bellflower only starts to make a truly serious dent.

Little wonder it made certain sections look like a ghost town with dust flying through it at the X Games, despite 25,860 on hand Thursday and 32,100 more Saturday, many lured by the debut of super rally, a rally car event.

“It certainly is a massive complex, isn’t it?” Chris Stiepock, vice president and general manager of the X Games said Sunday, the final day of the Games.

The move to hold events at the Coliseum was an attempt at a more-compact Games, with the focus on Staples Center, LA Live and Nokia Theatre.

In previous X Games, some events were held at Home Depot Center.

“Usually when you move to a new venue, from Year 1 to Year 2, the improvement is exponential,” Stiepock said.

He called super rally “phenomenal” but added: “What you saw there was mini-super rally” because of space considerations and because the competitors were looking for better passing zones down the line.

Empty seats certainly aren’t aesthetically pleasing in the eyes of viewers and executives, but one outsized, difficult-to-fill venue does not tell the complete story of the four-day X Games in terms of attendance and buzz.

This was the biggest event in the history of LA Live, an AEG official noted, and Stiepock was pleased with how X Fest, free to the public, turned out, contrary to his fears.

“I had visions of bedlam,” he said.

The X Games certainly are not made for anyone with a Type A personality, featuring a … well, somewhat flexible schedule. For instance, the last event of the X Games, the motocross speed & style final, began 41 minutes after the scheduled starting time.

Then there’s the unexpected from the kids themselves. Teenager Pedro Barros of Brazil was so pumped after winning the skateboard park final that he dropped a certain four-letter word on live TV.

“That’s what winning the X Games does to you, I guess,” said Barros, 15. “You get excited. I don’t speak English that well.”

Joked bronze medalist Andy Macdonald: “Blame it on the Portuguese. In Portuguese, that just means thank you.”

Skateboarding street

Alexis Sablone won gold in the women’s skateboarding street final after a near-flawless run on the obstacle-laden course gave her a score of 86.00. Seventeen-year-old Leticia Bufoni of Brazil took the silver. Sablone said she couldn’t sleep Saturday night.

Tossing and turning?

“Turning,” she said. “I was back and forth between: Should I figure it out? Or should I just stop thinking? I tried to figure it out a little bit and I was just trying to go to sleep. And failing.”

Legends standing tall

If there was an award for best news conference of the day, it would have gone to the skateboard park legend riders, especially when the winner asked that someone take his son to the bathroom.

(The toddler’s first name, by the way, was Classic. Classic.)

The riders are veterans who have been on the skating scene for the last 30 years. Gold medalist Christian Hosoi talked about the changes he has seen in skateboarding and weighed in on how awards have changed over the years.

“Medals were something that the Olympics had,” Hasoi said.

“We had ribbons,” chimed in Steve Caballero, the bronze medalist.

“We did have those trophies from the early ‘70s that were terrible,” silver medal winner Chris Miller said. “They were so funny.”

BMX street

Garrett Reynolds won his third consecutive BMX street gold medal.

“I didn’t think I’d be able to do it, honestly,” he said. “Brian [Kachinsky] and [Dennis] Enarson were killing it all day in practice.”

Reynolds had secured the win before his final run but added a victory lap and a six-point cushion between himself and Enarson, the silver medalist. Kachinsky won bronze in his third appearance at the X Games. In a statement that could be honest or self-deprecating, he said he knows he is “not the best rider out there.” Reynolds and Enarson disagreed and booed Kachinsky’s comments.

lisa.dillman@latimes.com

twitter.com/reallisa

Times staff writers DeAntae Prince and Laura Myers contributed to this report.