Leading off today: New York's crumbling economic condition forced Empire State Games officials to announce today that they are substantially downsizing the 2009 edition of the event and will ask athletes to pay up to $285 to participate.
With state funding discontinued for the 2009-10 fiscal year, open and masters division competition has been suspended for the 2009 Summer and 2010 Winter Games — a deeper cut than had been anticipated, The Times-Herald Record reported.
"In a time of unprecedented fiscal crisis, the unfortunate reality is that reductions have to be made across every area of government,” said Carol Ash, commissioner of the state office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, which oversees the ESGs. "We have sought to strike an appropriate balance that allows the Games to continue for high school and physically challenged athletes, while also helping the state address its record $15.4 billion deficit."
Scholastic division athletes will be charged $285 to compete in the Summer Games and $100 for the Winter Games. The summer fee covers transportation, food and lodging; athletes at the Winter Games have always handled their own food and lodging.
Scholastic competition in boxing, fencing and shooting will be cut from the 2009 Summer Games, scheduled for July 22-26 in the Poughkeepsie area, the paper reported. The open and masters divisions divisions at the 2009 Summer and 2010 Winter Games have been eliminated, and the Senior Games next June have been scraped as well. The 2009 Winter Games will be contested minus bobsled, luge, and skeleton events.
There will be no fee for the Games for the Physically Challenged in May on Long Island and October in Brockport, but competition for athletes aged 5-21 will be streamlined.
Past Summer ESGs have included up to 7,000 athletes and coaches and attracted up to 10,000 visitors over four days of competition and the opening ceremonies. The economic impact, frequently put at $8 million to $12 million, will now be far less.
Hudson Valley regional director Frank Intervallo said instituting athe $285 fee will be devastating.
"I think this is the end of the Games as we know them," he told the paper. "I don’t think we’re going to recover from this. We’re going to see only those athletes who can afford to participate, and that’s what the Games are not about. . . . There has to be some alternative, some way of finding
