Federation of Gay Games announces shortlist of host bids has been reduced to three, with Auckland, Brisbane, San Diego, Taipei, and Toronto all cut…
Cities in either Germany, Spain or Mexico will host Gay Games XII in 2026, the Federation of Gay Games has announced.
The latest round of the bidding process was held during the FGG General Assembly on Sunday, with only Munich, Valencia and Guadalajara left vying to become the host city for the 12th edition of the major international multi-sports event in five years’ time.
Bid organisers from Auckland, Brisbane, San Diego, Taipei, and Toronto all learned they were unsuccessful in their efforts to follow Hong Kong, who will host Gay Games XI in November 2022.
FGG wishes to thank all eight bid cities who truly put forth wonderful bids that illuminated the Federation’s principles, and we look forward to continuing the process with these three finalists.
David Killian, Officer of Site Selection, FGG
The first Gay Games was held in San Francisco in 1982 and has grown to become one of the world’s biggest participation events, with over 10,000 people competing in 36 different sports at the last staging in Paris in 2018.
In August last year, Liverpool and Dublin were among 12 cities dropped from the process when the shortlist of 20 entrants was reduced to eight.
The FGG says the eventual winning bid can expect to boost their city economy by around $100m from the nine-day event period in summer 2026 due to the huge influx of athletes, coaches and spectators that the Games generates.
An FGG press release issued through EIN Presswire read: “Site inspections are the next steps in the bid process, to begin tentatively in June/July 2021, ultimately depending on the status of COVID-19.
“The final vote determining the host of Gay Games XII will take place at the FGG’s Annual General Assembly meeting in Hong Kong in November 2021.”
Announcing the news to its followers on Facebook, the Munich bid organisers wrote: “We are incredibly proud that we have achieved this important goal and congratulate the remaining two colleagues on this success!
“We are sure that Munich is allowed to have justified hopes… the Olympic Park games will be given a unique setting. We will continue to fight for the success of the application with a dedicated and steadily growing team.”
Pilar Bernabe, Valencia’s deputy mayor, shared her delight on Twitter at the news of the city bid‘s progress to the next round.
For more information about the Gay Games, visit the Federation of Gay Games website
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