JULY 2014


JULY 2014 | | RAGE monthly


monthly


49


GAY GAMES IX SO MANY REASONS TO GO


The Gay Games are just about as big as the International Olympics in terms of the number of athletic participants the events draw, say organizers. While world-class cities includ- ing, Stockholm, Munich and Davos/St. Moritz have pulled out of the competition to host the 2022 Olympic Games because of lack of support among local residents... Washington D.C. and Boston lost out to Cleveland in a vigorous competition to host Gay Games 9. The experiences of recent host cities to the Olympic Games seems to have borne out what economists have been saying for decades. The quadrennial events almost always cost more than expected to host—yet generates less revenue and durable usefulness of the purpose-built infra- structure that comes with the games.


While the International Olympic Organizing Committee has even failed to keep


Krakow, Poland interested in hosting the 2022 games, the Federation of Gay Games has cities like Paris clamoring to host its event. (In fact, Paris will host Gay Games 10 in 2018.) Just why did Cleveland, Ohio beat out cities like Boston and Washington D.C. for Gay


Games 2014? “One reason is the community and the region went all out and showed how much they wanted the games,” says Tom Nobbe, executive director of Gay Games 9. “This region’s LGBT community is one-hundred percent behind the effort and so is the rest of the region’s community.” Noting that northeast Ohio is home to about 2.5 mil- lion people, Nobbe replies, “The region is one of the best-kept secrets with a very well accepted, highly integrated and very large LGBT community. We hope to change that lack of awareness nationally and internationally this summer,” Nobbe, who is a native of Cleveland, told The Rage Monthly.


by thom senzee photography by john faier


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