In
1982, when Olympic decathlete Dr. Tom Waddell gathered 1,300
athletes together in San Francisco for the first Gay Games,
there was no way to foresee how the event might evolve. What
began with Waddell’s basic idea that "doing one's personal
best should be the paramount goal in any athletic endeavor"
has proven to be the catalyst for a quarter-century
explosion in LGBT athletic participation.
Waddell died shortly after Gay Games II in 1986, but not
before he had planted the roots of an impressive and
resilient legacy. But now, 23 years and six Games later, the
global LGBT sporting and cultural event, which has
experienced remarkable expansion despite a history of
financial shortcomings, faces its most significant obstacle
to date. In 2006, for the first time, the Gay Games and its
organizers will share the spotlight with a rival event.
 |
| Bodybuilding
competition at Gay Games VI in Sydney, 2002 (Brent
Mullins photo).
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Next
summer the
Gay Games, which have been organized since 1989
by host city committees chosen by the Federation of Gay
Games, will be held in Chicago July 15-22.
A week later and a small hop over the U.S.-Canadian border,
the inaugural
Outgames, organized by Montreal 2006 with
close ties to the Gay & Lesbian International Sport
Association, will take place in Montreal from
July 29
to Aug. 5.
With less
than a
year to go before both events, organizers say that
registration meets or exceeds expectations, with Chicago
aiming for 12,000 athletes and Montreal for 16,000. It is
still hard to determine where the majority of organized
sports groups and their athletes will go. In informal
conversations and in posts to the Outsports discussion
board, athletes seem evenly divided between the two events.
Whether one side can claim superiority after hosting its
respective event next year may not even be the most
important question. Many of the Games’ participants are more
concerned with the future of the movement.
The
bitter conflicts and decision-making that culminated in two
separate events is the result of more than two years of
contentious battles in which athletes and organizers were
quick to pick sides, dividing a community whose mantra had
been unity and inclusion.
The
Split
In
2001, the Federation of Gay Games selected Montreal to host
the 2006 Gay Games. However, by November 2003 a contract was
still unsigned as Montreal organizers and the FGG were
deadlocked in disagreements over the control and scope of
the event. Eventually, the Montreal organizers decided to
walk away from further negotiations and, on Nov. 9, 2003,
announced that they would stage their own event autonomous
from the FGG. First called Rendez-Vous Montreal 2006, the
event was later renamed Outgames after the formation of
GLISA in January 2004. Meanwhile the FGG chose Chicago over
Los Angeles as the new host of the 2006 Gay Games.
The
resulting scenario, which originally erupted in frustration
and finger pointing, has evolved into a more ideological
debate over the significance of the Gay Games’ legacy,
the practical matters of size and cost of hosting a large multisport event, and the future of the global LGBT sports
movement.
Though
the mission statements of both the FGG and GLISA are
remarkably similar, one Montreal organizer described the
groups as having “two separate visions.” In fact, the core
goals of each -- striving for a personal best,
inclusiveness, and staging their respective events -- are
identical. The only difference between the missions appears
to be that the FGG is primarily focused on holding their
traditional quadrennial Gay Games while GLISA has adopted a
broader aim to sanction multiple events and to build a
global LGBT sports community that can best coexist within
the mainstream sports calendar.
Rachel
Corbett, executive director of GLISA and
managing director of the Centre
for Sport and Law in St. Catharines, Ontario, said
GLISA was formed to serve several purposes and that a
“quadrennial games is a natural by-product of building a
sports system.” GLISA’s goal, she said, is to create a
network of sporting organizations that will create
opportunities for more people to participate in sport.
“Ninety-nine percent of LGBT athletes will never participate
in an international event,” she said, adding that GLISA
supports more localized events such as the annual Euro
Games.
Commenting on the FGG’s Gay Games, Corbett said, “It’s a
games every four years. There’s not much else to their
mandate.”
But
ahead of the outcome of next summer’s separate events and
the effect that it will have on each organization,
comparisons at this point seem premature. Kile Ozier, a
swimmer from New York who is loyal to FGG and the Gay Games
said, “You have a 20-year-old organization and a 2-year-old
organization. They’re not equal. They just aren’t.”
The
last few years of turmoil have left athletes wondering if
there is a market that can sustain two international
multisport LGBT events into the future. As the summer of
2006 draws closer there appears to be less and less finger
pointing and a greater sense that a lot will be learned over
the course of three weeks next summer, which will shape the
LGBT sporting world for years to come.
“I
think Montréal 2006’s decision to have a separate event and
GLISA’s decision to continue a separate event after 2006 did
affect the spirit and enthusiasm of the LGBT sport community
-- at least at first,” said Kathleen Webster, FGG
co-president. “Change is difficult and it takes time to
accept and adjust.”
The Fundraising Battle
Competition created by the rival events and the
determination to reverse a pattern of financial woes (the
last four Gay Games lost money, with Amsterdam in 1998 and
Sydney 2002 coming close to being canceled) have spurred
both groups to launch aggressive marketing campaigns that
have attracted record sponsorship deals and drawn numbers of
early registrants. Both Chicago and Montreal have rolled out
campaigns that will unfold in stages as the Games approach.
“There
will be a much more focused campaign between now and next
spring,” said Kevin Boyer, marketing committee chair and
co-vice chair of Chicago Games, Inc.
Such
campaigns demand an effort that has necessitated hiring
full-time employees, something not seen at this level in the
organization of earlier Gay Games. Boyer said that Chicago
Games, Inc., or CGI, has three full-time employees dedicated
to marketing, with a fourth and a fifth to come as the year
progresses. Until April, 75% of CGI’s work was done by
volunteers. Now that the Gay Games are just a year away, a
transition has started and eventually full-time employees
will be doing 75% of the work. CGI currently has 11
full-time employees working out of the Chicago office.
Montreal 2006 has 28 full-time employees assigned to the
Outgames, and for the past three years has employees
dedicated to
marketing communications, logistics, sports, culture, a
separate human rights conference, finance/accounting, and
administration.
“Full-time employment will peak at 60 people, and up to
3,000 volunteers will join the team at ‘game time,’” said
Tom
Czerniecki, marketing director of Rendez-vous Montreal 2006.
“The notion of a full-time professional staff is key to
ensuring the best-quality games.”
Czerniecki said his team’s marketing goals included
registering 16,000 participants (currently at 6,500),
continuing to pursue sponsorship development,
launching the ticketing and merchandizing programs, and
meeting with LGBT organizations world-wide to attract
participants to the Outgames. Montreal is also seeking to
extend the Canadian television broadcast rights with Radio
Canada to reach an international audience. As of now Radio
Canada (which broadcasts the Olympic Games for
French-speaking viewers in Canada in a partnership with the
English-speaking CBC) plans to show the Opening Ceremonies
live on national broadcast network television. An expansion
into English-speaking rights would be a significant increase
in exposure.
Because Chicago’s selection as the 2006 host city came later
than usual in the quadrennial calendar, Boyer said his
marketing team’s first task was to communicate to the world
that the Games would be in Chicago and to explain what
happened with Montreal.
“We
had to go from zero to 60 in a much shorter period of time,”
Boyer said. “Right now we’re in the tail end of creating
visibility of the Gay Games movement and Chicago as the
host. What is the Gay Games? Why are they important?” Boyer
said these questions of visibility are especially important
in places like South America, where he sees the largest
potential of growth in attracting new participants.
But if
the shortened timetable posed unique challenges for CGI, it
also offered a few significant advantages. The two years
lost to the unsuccessful negotiations over how to keep the
Gay Games in Montreal, for example, meant that there were
two years when money wasn’t being spent on marketing and
other expenses. Boyer said this left CGI well-positioned
financially when it was time to launch the Chicago marketing
campaign.
While
it is important to note that the exact figures of many
sponsorship deals go unreported, and other numbers are
inflated by the inclusion of “in-kind” or “service”
donations that are difficult to value, organizers contend
that the financial support consolidated by both Chicago and
Montreal is breaking past Gay Games records.
Chicago already has “private sector sponsorships of $3
million, more than any previous Gay Games host,” Webster
said. She also explained that the strong support from The
City of Chicago (which is partnering with CGI, but not
assuming any financial responsibility) is being augmented by
a $4.5 million sponsored advertising campaign involving
almost 30 media sponsors.
Perhaps the most significant deal secured by the Chicago
organizers is an arrangement with Q Television, a new cable
television network dedicated to LGBT content. The deal,
described as a “multimillion dollar cash and barter” deal,
includes TV and radio rights amounting to $1.7 million in
cash and $1.5 million in advertising and programming. It is
reported to be the largest corporate sponsor for any LGBT
sporting event.
Q
Television, which plans to reach 150 markets worldwide by
July 2006, according to a December 2004 press release, said
it will unscramble its signal for the eight days of the Gay
Games, in effect offering wide coverage for free to
subscribers of cable television. But, without further
details being released, it is unclear how this will work for
international viewers who do not or cannot subscribe to Q
Televisions regular programming. Q Television is currently
only available for subscribers in New York City, San
Francisco, and Massachusetts via RCN Cable; in Maine via
Time Warner; or via satellite television.
Chicago has also secured a $1.06 million deal with PlanetOut,
Inc., as well as deals with various gay magazines and media
companies, and notably Kraft Foods and Harris Bank, which
have
drawn criticism from conservative groups for their
support of the Gay Games.
In Montreal, marketing director Tom
Czerniecki
reports that they have already obtained $5 million in cash
support as well as $12 million in in-kind and services
sponsorships. Major sponsors include three levels of
government (federal, provincial, and city), as well as the
local tourism board, which has committed “over $2 million”
for 3 years. Other significant cash and strategic
contributions come from Radio-Canada, Labatt Beer, and Air
Canada, which “represent an overall contribution of nearly
$500,000,” he said.
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