Bill Wassmer, co-chair of Team Seattle, testified before the city council this week to urge the city to support the Gay Games in Seattle 2006. We've been meeting with King County Executive Ron Sims' office and he is very supportive of the idea because he understands the revenue and assets this will bring to the city. We had to bid two years ago and compete with several other cities just to host the committee in Seattle and show off our city. We had to outbid Toronto, Dallas and Montreal just to hold the meeting here. This is a very competitive event.
Sports are very big in Seattle.
We had 157 athletes from Seattle at the Olympics in Amsterdam. Next year the National Softball League will be hosted in Seattle. Gay Games is headquartered in San Francisco, and was founded by Dr. Tom Wadel as a way of promoting positive images of GLBT people through athletics and competition. Ron Sims' current attitude to hosting the Gay Games is very positive and helpful, Wassmer said. The county is very supportive and enthusiastic about using the facilities we're building to attract international events of important.