Bringing it Home
The Gay Softball World Series Comes to Columbus
by Elliot Fishman
The “Boys of Summer” will take on extra meaning this August when Columbus plays host to five thousand athletes and fans at the largest annual LGBT sporting event in the world.
The Gay Softball World Series (GSWS) will be held August 16-21, at Berliner Park on Columbus’s south side, and both the event organizers and city officials agree that this is a very big deal.
“This is a really unique moment in Columbus – an opportunity to showcase our city and our GLBT community,” said Brian Lawrence, co-executive director of the local planning committee.
“People from every major city in the country will spend a week in Columbus,” said Dallas Aldridge, the other executive director. “There aren’t many other times where that happens in this city.”
The tournament is held every year under the auspices of the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA), whose members consist of softball leagues from 38 cities in the U.S. and Canada, including the Columbus Lesbian and Gay Softball Association (CLGSA).
Those member leagues will each send up to eight teams – two for each of the NAGAA’ s four divisions – who will play slow pitch softball on all 31 softball fields at Berliner Park, which has been rented out for the entire tournament.
“It will be fun just to go to the softball fields and watch some of the best softball teams in the country,” Lawrence said.
And because the entire park has been rented, fans will be able to purchase beer at the games.
In addition to the softball competition, the all-volunteer local host committee has planned a number of other activities for locals and visitors alike. In a first for Columbus, a thousand tickets are reserved for A Night Out with the Columbus Clippers, on Tuesday, August 17. Local organizers will maintain the NAGAAA tradition of raising money for AIDS-related charities by sponsoring a talent show on Wednesday, August 18, with proceeds going to the Columbus AIDS Task Force and Camp Sunrise. And, the series concludes with an August 21 Short North Block Party, on High Street between Buttles and Hubbard.
“Between the players, partners, fans, umpires, locals and visitors who come in for the party, we think the entire city is going to be taken over [by the GSWS],” said Aldridge, who is a volunteer director of the event, as is Lawrence. “It’s going to be an incredible experience for the entire community.”
Getting the Bid
Columbusites will also be interested to know that Columbus beat out Dallas in bidding for the Series, thanks to a combination of hard work, civic involvement and excellent facilities.
“Two years ago, we had just joined the NAGAAA and hadn’t even participated in a series,” said Lawrence,” but we decided to bid on hosting it in 2010. “I thought, Columbus has one of the largest gay softball leagues in the country. Why wouldn’t we want to be part of the larger softball community?”
So in 2008, Lawrence, Aldridge and the other members of the CLGSA board began to put together a formal bid to host the 2010 games.
“We knew we had to sell the (NAGAAA) delegates on two things,” said Aldridge. “First, we had to sell them on the fact that we could produce a high-quality softball tournament. And second, we had to sell them on Columbus as a destination.”
To do this, Lawrence and Aldridge enlisted the support of the city’s mayor and city council, and of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission.
The politicians’ response came quickly. “At BRAVO’s A Night Out reception,” said Aldridge,” I cornered Mayor Coleman, Councilwoman (Priscilla) Tyson, and Councilman (Andy) Ginther. I told them about our bid, asked them if they would get behind it, and they all said yes.”
Mayor Coleman, in fact, made a video address to the NAGAA delegates as part of the Columbus bid package. Councilwoman Tyson, who is chair of the council’s Recreation and Parks Committee, linked the organizers with Columbus Recreation & Parks Commissioner Alan McKnight, and Councilman Ginther connected the committee with other city support.
It was the Sports Commission, however, which was key to the bid’s success.
“[Commission Executive Director] Linda Logan and her team got on board with us right away,” said Lawrence. “They even sent one of their staff members to Seattle to help present the bid.”
Aldridge explained that in order to present a solid bid, the organizers had to have commitments for hotel rooms and facilities “even before we knew we could have the Series here.”
“The Sports Commission helped us get those commitments up front,” he said.
Consequently, the GSWS has four downtown host hotels: The Renaissance Columbus Hotel, the Hyatt on Capital Square, the Residence Inn and the Hyatt Regency.
“We’ll have 4,600 host hotel nights for the week,” said Lawrence.
The Sports Commission’s Logan said the CLGSA leaders have been “one of our favorite groups to work with.”
“They have a lot of passion for what they are doing, they’re well organized and they are extremely creative,” she said.
In addition to making the hospitality connections, Logan said the Commission helped produce videos and other materials to complete the bid package. One video, she said, stood out as an example of the host committee’s creativity.
“They did a reenactment of what it would be like for participants in Columbus, from the time they got off the plane through the softball games themselves and then out to the clubs. I thought that was a really great idea,” Logan said.
In August 2008, Columbus representatives flew to Seattle to make their pitch to the NAGAAA delegates, who were assembled there for that year’s Gay Softball World Series.
“It was hard work,” said Aldridge. He and Lawrence said that they had to make a formal presentation, host a delegates’ reception, which showed the kind of hospitality that, could be expected and help the decision makers understand why the Columbus tournament would be a success.
Their efforts won over the delegates, who voted overwhelmingly – 35 to 5, with one abstention – to hold the 2010 Series in Columbus.
“I think we showed them that we could put on the kind of quality tournament they wanted, and that participants would have a great time in Columbus,” Lawrence said.
Berliner Park also turned out to be a significant asset to the Columbus bidders.
“Thirty-one fields, all in one place,” said NAGAAA Commissioner Roy Melani, when asked what one thing made Columbus’s bid successful. “We’ve never been able to hold all of the games in one location before Columbus.”
Melani explained that no other cities have the kind of large softball facility found at Berliner. “Typically, we have to spread the games over three or four complexes,” he said, which means a significant duplication of administration and volunteers.
Lawrence added that the single site means “a lot more fun for both the players and the fans.”
In Milwaukee, site of the 2009 series, he said, one complex was “maybe 45 minutes on one side of the city, and one was 45 minutes on the other side.” The organizers did a great job, he said, “but you couldn’t play a game in one place and then make it to watch a game in another.” Berliner Park will make that easy, he said.
Melani also noted that “everything is convenient” in Columbus, with hotels, softball fields and social activities within just a few miles from one another. Logan agreed that convenience and central location are assets Columbus often sells when it tries to bring any sporting event to the area.
The size of Columbus’s lesbian and gay softball league was another reason for the successful bid, said Melani. “Columbus has the same number of teams as cities like Chicago, L.A. and San Francisco,” he said, so the delegates thought it made sense to include the city in its rotation of hosts.
Finally, he said, the “excellent host committee” convinced the delegates that participants would have a great time in Columbus.
“I’m very confident they’re going to do a great job,” Melani said, “when we had our winter board meetings in Columbus last month, the hospitality was second to none.”
Community Impact
Lawrence, Aldridge and Logan all stressed the positive economic impact the GSWS will have in Central Ohio.
“We estimate the Series will bring somewhere between $5 and $6 million [in tourism dollars to Columbus],” said Aldridge – a figure which Logan confirmed.
“You have five thousand people in hotels, eating out, going to the clubs, going shopping,” said Lawrence. “That’s going to help the Columbus economy a lot.”
NAGAAA’s Melani said that wherever the Gay Softball World Series is held, its economic impact is felt.
“In Seattle, we had a $6 million impact,” he said, and in Milwaukee, it was about $5 million. “It’s quite an economic event to bring 4 or 5 thousand people to a city for an entire week.”
The social and political impact of the event also should not be underestimated, said Lawrence and Aldridge.
“Sports has the ability to change perceptions about gay and lesbian people,” said Aldridge, who said he thinks the fact that thousands of gays will come to Columbus to play softball will challenge some anti-gay stereotypes.
That ability to challenge prejudice is reflected in the official theme for the tournament, which is “Stand Tall, Play Ball.”
“I think it’s going to be great for the city of Columbus,” and its LGBT community, said Lawrence, adding that the tournament is something for everyone to be proud of. “It makes a statement about the kind of city Columbus is,” he said.
Both directors noted that Stonewall Columbus has been extremely helpful in providing meeting space and other support for the organizers.
Aldridge also noted that both Columbus and Ohio have recently become centers for LGBT sporting events – including volleyball, bowling, and the upcoming 2012 Gay Games in Cleveland.
Logan said the Series “really shows our diversity.” “We’re known for college sports and Olympic-type sports,” she said. “This really adds to the diversity of the kind of sporting events we can host – not to mention the diversity of the gay and lesbian community.” She added that she hopes Columbus will be “part of the regular rotation” of hosts for the NAGAAA tournament.
Melani cautioned that “we are totally, 100% softball, and we’re not a political event.” Still, he said, “while we don’t come to make a gay statement, we make a statement just by being there.”
Interestingly, none of the people interviewed expressed any concerns about anti-gay protests surrounding the games. Logan said there was “absolutely no resistance” to bringing a gay sporting event to the city, and Melani said that no such incidents have occurred in other host cities.
Aldridge noted that because the organizers have leased Berliner Park for the week, “it will be easier to control who is and isn’t there.” He said there will be a small police presence at the games, “mostly because we’re selling beer.”
Paying the Bills
So how much will it cost to host the Gay Softball World Series, and who pays for it?
All parties stressed that no taxpayer money was being used to underwrite to subsidize the event. “It’s all being privately funded,” said Lawrence.
Lawrence also explained that the participating teams and leagues pay a fee to NAGAAA, which pays for the tournament itself. That leaves it up to the host committee to “pay for the fun,” he said.
Aldridge said it will likely cost upwards of $300,000 to produce the various events and hospitality which make the event successful. Much of that number – about half – will be in-kind donations, including possible coverage by Out-Q Radio.
The cash is being raised through sponsorships and fundraisers. Coors beer has signed on as a major sponsor, as have gay bars and clubs such as Club Diversity, Union, Havana, Axis, Exile, Score, Level and Wall Street. Tradewinds and Q Bar are raising sponsorship money.
Business sponsorships, Lawrence said, run from $500 to sponsor a softball field, to $10,000 to sponsor an official party.
Individuals can also support the GSWS by joining the “Home Run Club” with tax-deductible contributions of $100 to $1,000. Lawrence explained that donations can be made to the NAGAAA, which is a charitable, 501(c)(3) organization.
Volunteers Needed
The biggest challenge ahead, say Aldridge and Lawrence, is recruiting and organizing volunteers. An estimated 300 volunteers will be needed for the week.
“We already have 120 to 130 people who have volunteered through our website,” said Lawrence,” but we’re going to need a lot more between now and August.”
Aldridge said his biggest concern is that the Columbus LGBT community is largely unaware that a world-class event is coming to Columbus. Lawrence agreed.
“We’ve been living with this for two years,” he said. “Now we have to get the word out.”
The Gay Softball World Series runs from August 16-21, 2010. For more information or to volunteer: http://www.gaysoftballworldseries.com.
