Federation of Gay Games

Outsports.com Interview - 28 September 2003

This is an edited, accurate version of Federation of Gay Games Secretary Charlie Carson’s report of his conversation with Outsports on 28 September 2003, submitted to the Federation’s Executive Committee and Montréal Liaison Task Force a few hours after that interview.  As previously reported and told to Montréal 2006 via letter, Mr. Carson spoke with Outsports with the authority of the Federation's Executive Committee and the Montréal Liaison Task Force.

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[opening pleasantries]

Carson:  Our basic viewpoint regarding the current situation is that the Federation is still negotiating with Montreal and we remain optimistic that we can reach agreement about the Gay Games in Montreal in 2006.

Outsports’ Cyd Ziegler:  What are the chief sticking points?

Carson:  I knew you were going to ask that, and right now, because we want to keep negotiations on track, I have to decline to get into specifics.

Outsports:  We hear they still want to have a Gay Games of 20,000 people, which of course is twice the size of the Olympics.

Carson:  We put out a press release back in May that said we have been talking with them about plans for an event similar to the size of past Gay Games.

Outsports:  We hear they want to lower the license fee.  Is that a possibility?

Carson:  All I can say is negotiations are still going on.

Outsports:  Why did you change the system of naming the runner-up city?

Carson:  We made a procedural error in 1997.  We should have taken a second ballot to determine the second place city when instead, by agreement with everyone ahead of time, we named as runner-up the city with the next highest number of votes in the same ballot that Sydney won.  For this time, we decided not to name a runner-up.

Outsports:  Will the runner-up ever be announced?

Carson:  Yes.  It’s always been scheduled to be announced at this coming annual meeting.  Of course that will be after the November 7 deadline so it has absolutely no effect on the negotiations with Montreal.

Outsports:  Can you tell me what’s the license fee?

Carson:  The same as for Sydney.  Around $650,000.  All bidding organizations for 2006 were given that amount as the potential license fee back in 2001.

Outsports:  Are you open to lowering it?

Carson:  That gets into a negotiating area and again we prefer not to comment on that.

Outsports:  There’s a rumor that the Federation is broke.

Carson:  No, we’re not broke.  Of course we’re a typical volunteer organization but we’re OK.  Might as well also go on record as saying that we have not received any money from Montreal 2006.

Outsports:  Have they offered any?

Carson:  No.

Outsports:  What happens if you don’t reach agreement?

Carson:  We have directors discussing our own Plan B.  While of course we are hoping to work things out, anyone would understand that we have to be prepared.

Outsports:  The word is that they’ve threatened to sue you.  Is that true?

Carson:  You have to understand that in a negotiation both sides have their own interests to protect and we just consider everything that’s been said to be part of the negotiation.  And, again, our position is that we continue to remain optimistic that we can work things out.

Outsports:  I understand there’s a press release floating around [about the negotiations].

Carson:  I can tell you that’s not true because as you know I’m the one who writes them.  That doesn’t mean if the situation changes I won’t be doing something quickly.  One bit of news that will be coming out is we’ve gotten back the results of the participation survey from Sydney and we’ll be getting something out about that soon, and Outsports will of course be one of the first ones to get it.  There were a few surprises but in general the results are backing up a lot of what have just been anecdotes previously.

Outsports:  There’s a rumor that they might go ahead and organize a big event with sports but just not call it the Gay Games.  What does the Federation think about that?

Carson:  That would be their decision.

Outsports:  But surely they recognize the value of the Gay Games brand.

Carson:  I think they do because we're still in negotiations.

Outsports:  There’s a belief that Montreal is organizing a party with some sports events.  What’s your reaction to that?

Carson:  No, Montreal 2006, the organization, is organizing 30 sports, an opening and closing ceremony and some cultural events.

Outsports:  Why would people think that?

Carson:  Well, it is true, though, that the dates coincide with their annual pride festival.  The main reason for that is their summer is relatively short, and the Federation agreed to those dates.  Of course we had the Gay Games with the pride festival in New York and people have their varying opinions about how that worked.

[general conversation]

Carson:  I want to be clear that my personal opinion expressed in the Sydney Star Observer is my opinion and not necessarily that of the Federation board.

[general discussion about the IGLA Championships]

Carson:  M2006 sent Mark and Josée, their new sports director, to the IGLA Championships and there was a great deal of conversation about this situation there, so maybe you might want to speak with IGLA officers about it.

Outsports:  We’ve talked about doing two articles – one about the general situation and another getting the viewpoints of various sports organizations.  I’ll be contacting Montreal this week.  [remark about the local community in Montréal]

Carson:  Our May press release talks about local community relations towards the end, so look at that.

Outsports:  [general remarks about never having been to the Gay Games before Sydney and how it changed his perspective on the event]

Carson:  We truly believe that throughout this period we’ve done our best to keep in mind what’s best for our constituents and the future of the event.  You know, four straight deficits – that has to stop.  I do want to reiterate that we’re still optimistic about reaching agreement to have the 2006 Gay Games in our first choice, Montreal.  If we reach agreement, none of these things will be important because we’ll be going forward.  If we don’t, then of course we’ll be open about the details later.  The Federation has not put out much lately because we believe it’s been in the best interest of negotiations to keep things fairly low key and behind the scenes.

Outsports:  You know that on November 7 I’ll be calling you if I haven’t heard, so I hope you’re not busy that day.

Carson:  I’ll be at work and that’ll be the day I’m trying to get ready to go to the annual meeting and my bosses invariably pile it on the day that I leave to a Federation or swimming event because they know I’m going to be gone for a week.  But I actually hope we’ll have reached agreement before then anyway.

[Thanks from Outsports and goodbyes.]