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Amsterdam wants to host Gay Games of 2017
DutchAmsterdam.nl — The City of Amsterdam is interested in again hosting the Gay Games.
Gay Games — initially refered to as ‘Gay Olympics’ until legal action by the international Olympic Committie forced a name changed — is the world’s largest sporting and cultural event organized by and specifically for LGBT athletes.
Amsterdam first hosted the Gay Games in 1998 and would like to do so again in 2017. The Dutch cabinet supports the city’s plans.
Alderman Carolien Gehrels (sports) is talking with gay sports organizations, as well as with the organizer of the World Outgames, an alternative Gay Games taking place in Antwerp in 2013. While the city would facilitate the games, it would be up to the sports organizations to organize them.
“Antwerp is running into all kind of organizational problems, and we want to learn from that,” Gehrels says in Dutch daily Het Parool.
She also says that given the Antwerp event in 2013 she doesn’t know whether it is feasible to hold the Gay Games in Amsterdam in 2017.
Hosting the Gay Games may improve Amsterdam’s image as the Gay Capital — an image somewhat tarnished by a spate of violent attacks on gays.
In addition, in hosting the Gay Games Amsterdam would get an opportunity to show it can host such a large event — which, with an eye toward the city’s candidacy for the Olympic Games in 2028, would come in handy.
The Gay Games event would also bring the city some much-needed cash. According to the Amsterdam Tourist Board, gay visitors spend an average of €160 a day — thirty percent more than heterosexual visitors.
A quarter of a million people, including 12,000 participating athletes, visited the 1998 Gay Games in Amsterdam. — – DutchAmsterdam.nl
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