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Not that this isn't anything the EXPN team hasn't handled before. But consider its recent schedule: EXPN.com's entire production department has just moved from Los Angeles to Seattle, and in the course of a few weeks, the team has had to shuffle positions, restaff, and redesign the entire EXPN.com site.

The new site launches shortly before the games take place August 17-22 on Pier 30 and 32 in San Francisco. And to hear executive producer Loren Schwartz describe it, that's when the real fun begins.

"We've got to set up a mirror of our production system in a big-ass tent on a pier in San Francisco," he says.

Even from EXPN.com's swank offices in Seattle's landmark Smith Tower, the site's production system is no easy thing to master. The designers, armed with tools like Adobe® Photoshop®, Adobe Illustrator®, Adobe GoLive®, and Adobe LiveMotion™, create mock-ups of front-end pages that the Web producers integrate into the company's proprietary content-management system. Editors then pour their content into the publishing system.

The goal of the site's redesign is to make the site faster and more efficient for the EXPN team, as well as for the site's visitors. The old EXPN.com featured an expansive Flash interface, which slowed down production and made the site unwieldy for visitors with less then state-of-the-art systems, says ESPN.com Creative Director Dan Benshoff.

"I don't think it's necessarily bad to have a site built in Flash," he says. "But you need to have an [alternative design] for people who don't have that capability."

To that end, EXPN.com's designers are working hard on keeping the look and feel of the old site, streamlining the design with more HTML, and keeping the Flash at a more manageable level. Other changes are afoot, too.

"We're making the navigation more consistent," says Schwartz. "We're going to integrate more tightly with television and leverage that relationship, [so] there will be more video on the site. We also hope to make the content deeper."

The depth of the site's content should be apparent during the X Games. EXPN.com will create more live streaming media and bring back features that were popular last year, such as the best trick, which gives site visitors a chance to vote for their favorite skateboarding trick after seeing a live video on the site. Other highlights include the X Games Raw, which comprises unedited footage of the games.

"It's extended coverage," says Schwartz, "which is more than you can get on television. Plus it's live."

In the past, EXPN.com presented X Games coverage on a separate mini-site. This time, coverage of the X Games will be integrated into the heart of the EXPN site. "Before, they didn't really mesh well, and they were completely separate," says Benshoff. "Now, they'll essentially be the same thing. From a usability standpoint, I think it will be better for people to come to one place and find everything."

And as for presenting a counterculture viewpoint on behalf of a Fortune 500 company? (EXPN.com and ESPN.com are part of Disney's Go Network.) If you find the thought of Mickey Mouse hurtling down a slope on a street luge a bit incongruous, you're forgiven. The EXPN.com team claims that Disney doesn't flex much mouse muscle, leaving the site with the perks of a big company without the hassles.

"We do get a discount at the Disney Store," says Jackilyn Huber, an EXPN.com producer. "I've used it."