Coincidently, on the day I posted about Mark Tewksbury and gay athletics, the organising committee of Gay Games VII announced it had fired its executive director. It's a strange move, coming 10 weeks before the games are due to open. The committee revealed it has $0.8 million cash on hand, relative to a $12 million budget. This does not bode well. More ominous is that the executive director will be replaced by project teams in what sounds like a collective management - just the sort of thing radical leftists love and which could doom the games.
A participant in two Gay Games, a spectator at one and a long-time supporter of gay athletics locally and internationally, I was extremely disappointed when the Federation of Gay Games revoked its approval of Montreal as host of Gay Games VII. It was a decision that seemed to be rooted in a mix of misunderstanding and chauvinism and which was exacerbated when the federation went on to recruit (with some difficulty) a city to replace Montreal as host. Chicago stepped up, in my opinion, too late and while it has put tremendous effort into organising for the July events, I still think the prospects for GG VII is glum. A review of the GG VII website reveals staff contacts have all been removed. The absence of major sponsors who would be expected to make significant financial contributions is blatant. In short there is little indication that the resources are there to pull this thing off. [there are lots of corporate sponsors - official airline, cut-rate advertising and self promotion - but where are the sponsors with the millions of dollars needed to rent facilities? The endorsement of the City of Chicago notably did not include and mention of money!]
Gay Games VI in Sydney almost collapsed a week or two before opening when a financial crisis loomed. I predicted 18 months ago that the Chicago proposal would collapse before the opening ceremonies. The week's events suggest that prediction may be closer to reality.
