City to host Gay Games
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By James Janega
Tribune staff reporter
March 2, 2004, 12:35 PM CST
Chicago today beat Los Angeles to be the host city for the 2006 Gay Games, the Federation of Gay Games announced today.
"I wish you all good luck. I look forward to working with you all," Roberto Mantaci, federation co-president in Paris, told the Chicago organizers in a conference call this morning to announce the results of an Internet vote by the games' directors.
Local organizers gathered around a conference room table in the Loop office of the Hinshaw & Culbertson law firm, office of the counsel for Chicago Games Inc., to hear the decision.
Federation co-president Kathleen Webster of Philadelphia began by reading a statement thanking Chicago and Los Angeles for their bids. The room was silent until she announced Chicago had won. Then, cheers erupted. People jumped up, hugged, shook hands and slapped each other on the back.
"Now what, folks?" asked Sue Connolly, co-chair of Chicago Games.
The remark sparked laughter, but it underscored concerns by many leaders of the local gay and lesbian community whether the city can bring off the event.
Gay Games VII are predicted to host 20,000 participants and 250,000 spectators at dozens of local venues, bring more than 10,000 visitors to Chicago and generate up to $50 million in revenue.
Still, mindful that previous games have been money losers for their host cities, the mayor's advisory council on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues voted last November to oppose the bid. The panel reversed itself in January and gave qualified support.
A final licensing agreement remains to be negotiated between the Chicago organizers and the Gay Games federation. That was where talks broke down last fall between the international group and organizers of the games in Montreal, the city first selected to host the games that begin July 15, 2006.
Montreal instead decided to hold an international gay athletic festival, "Rendez-Vous 2006," to be held two weeks after the Chicago event.
Chicago Games submitted a $6.1 million bid that focuses only on athletic events, with little attention on the social events that typified Gay Games of the past. The proposal dropped prior plans for an arts and humanities festival in Millennium Park, and reduced the number of sports organizers guaranteed to 22 from 30.
This was the second time Chicago bid for the 2006 games.
Three years ago, local organizers bid $30 million for the event, competing against Montreal, Los Angeles and Atlanta. In the latest bidding, only Chicago and Los Angeles submitted proposals.
Founded in San Francisco in 1982, the games lost money in Vancouver in 1990, New York in 1994, Amsterdam in 1998 and Sydney in 2002.
Copyright © 2004, Chicago Tribune
