2009 Empire State Games called off; event is a casualty of state budget
Empire State planners here hope to overcome budget woes as July ’09 event is canceled
Published: April 02, 2009, 9:06 am
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The state made it official today: The Empire State Games will not be held this year.
"The state’s financial situation combined with specific financial and logistical challenges for potential host communities have led to the determination that the 2009 Empire State Summer Games competition would be suspended," State Parks Commissioner Carol Ash said in a statement.
Ash said a committee will be formed to determine how to restructure the games and create a program for the future, including the summer 2010 event in Buffalo and the Winter Games in Lake Placid.
Local organizers knew this news was coming and began preparing to prevent the same fate from befalling the Summer Games planned for next year.
“They wouldn’t dare,” Lou Reuter, executive director for the Western Region, said of state government leaders, who had — until this year — provided most of the Empire State Games’ funding.
Reuter said the local athletic community sent letters of protest about the ailing state of the Games and to demand that Buffalo remain untouched when its time comes to play host to the Summer Games.
He said an online petition with 7,000 signatures was sent to the office of Gov. David A. Paterson protesting the end of funding for the Games. More such actions are expected, he said.
Whether Paterson has gotten the message, though, is unclear, he said.
“I’m guessing he never expected the [angry] reaction,” Reuter said. “I don’t know how much the governor even knew about the Games or what his level of interest is.”
Empire State Games Director Frederick Smith and other top officials are scheduled to meet Friday in Albany to figure out how to keep the event going, he said.
The Empire State Games, one of the largest amateur athletic events in the nation, features nearly 6,000 of New York best athletes participating in 28 Olympic-style sports.
The Games in Buffalo are planned for July 21-25, 2010, and would mark the event’s 33rd year.
But the event has been in upheaval since organizers learned in January that Paterson— dealing with a deficit that has grown to $17.7 billion — had eliminated its funding. Rather than cancel the Games, however, Albany cut some sports and imposed fees of up to $285 to participate in others.
Organizers for the Games in the Mid-Hudson Valley, to be held in late July, struggled to come up with a way to run the Games in the absence of funding.
But the longer the issue remained unresolved, the harder it was to get the support needed just for the basics, like housing for its thousands of athletes and coaches.
Although Reuter said he is optimistic that the Games in Buffalo will go forward, it was also clear that the anxiety level — already high — had increased.
It was unclear whether any funding would be restored. But Reuter said that organizers will look for outside sponsors to provide funding and that some athletes might pay to play.
“It is my assumption that the Summer Games will go on,” he said.
The Games in Buffalo are projected to add between $10 million and $12 million to the local economy.
Meanwhile:
• The Winter Games will be held in February 2010 in Lake Placid. Scholastic athletes will continue to pay for their own meals and lodging, as they traditionally have done, and they also will be asked to pay a fee of up to $100. There will be no open or masters competitions.
• The Games for the Physically Challenged will be held as planned in May in Long Island, and in Brockport in October for athletes ages 5 to 21.
ncervantes@buffnews.com
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