The league will offer more than $1.5 million (€1.3 million) in prizes and aims to pull together what has long been a spread-out, confusing calendar. Most halfpipe contests are standalone events with inconsistent TV and streaming schedules: Winter X Games, Dew Tour and a series of grand prix stops that aren’t always interconnected.

"We really want to be that premier thing, where it’s amazing to go to the Olympics and win a medal, but this is like winning Wimbledon or the NBA finals. It’s almost more prestigious," White said, according to the Associated Press. 

The halfpipe legend says the idea for The Snow League was planted in his brain many years ago, during a season in which he entered every single major competition he could—not just in halfpipe, but slopestyle and rail jams as well—and went undefeated.

"I’d never done that before," White said. "I’ll never forget getting to the end of the season and getting interviewed, and this person was like, ‘What an incredible accomplishment, what a season, but how does it feel not to be the world champion?’ In that moment I realised there’s such a disconnect in our sport—so many big events that don’t really feed into each other."

Featuring a global competition format, the league’s first event in March 2025 will be held in the US, with the remaining four held at winter resort destinations around the world. Five men’s and women’s snowboard halfpipe events, with freeskiing introduced midway through the season are planned for the inaugural event, with plans to add other disciplines, such as slopestyle and big air, in the future. The world’s top 20 men and top 16 women —chosen via a modified ranking from the World Snowboard Points List—will accumulate points based on their results from each event, with a world champion being crowned after the last event.

Each event will include a training day and two days of competition: a qualifying day —with athletes seeded into four heats, with a best-of-two run format— and a championship day, where eight men and eight women will compete in a head-to-head bracket format with quarterfinals, semifinals and finals rounds. 

Two-time Olympic gold medallist Chloe Kim said she is "thrilled" about The Snow League. 

"It’ll be great to have competitions that focus more on the athletes, giving us more opportunities to shine and do what we do best: snowboard," Kim said. "I’m grateful to Shaun for giving back to the sport and his unwavering mission to uplift it."