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This year, the Pride Run will not take place the same weekend as the Atlanta Pride festival. The run is also moving to Ansley from its previous home in Grant Park. (Photo by Sher Pruitt)
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HOME > COMMUNITY > SPORTS
By: MATT HENNIE
COMMENTS |
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, there’s not much that ties together the hundreds of gay and lesbian athletes that travel to Atlanta each summer to play soccer and golf and sweat their way through a 3.1-mile run.
But this year, they are finding common ground as victims of the state’s long-running drought and the city of Atlanta’s efforts to protect its parks.
In January, new park restrictions put in place by the city sharply curtailed athletic events and large-scale festivities and set off a chain reaction that is still impacting organizers of disparate events, including the Hotlanta Soccer Classic, the 5th Annual Best Ball Scramble Golf Tournament and the 18th Annual Atlanta Front Runners Pride Run/Walk.
Two of those events — the golf tournament and run — were tied to the Atlanta Pride Festival, which was forced to move to the Atlanta Civic Center and change its usual date from late June to the July 4th weekend. That shift created headaches for sports organizers, who unhitched their events from Pride and announced their own changes.
left the third event — the soccer tournament — scrambling to find another venue to replace the athletic fields of Piedmont Park, where seven teams competed last year over the Memorial Day holiday.
“We are going to have the tournament somewhere,” said Bobby Flournoy, chair of the Hotlanta Soccer Classic, which is sponsored by the Hotlanta Soccer Association. “I can’t say I’m not disappointed we don’t have Piedmont, but we will have the tournament and it will be great.”
There’s an outside chance the tournament may return to Piedmont, he said, though organizers have reserved fields at the Georgia Soccer Park in East Point. The move tripled the cost for fields and presents logistical challenges in getting out-of-town athletes staying in the event’s Midtown host hotel to the fields.
“It is a huge benefit to be able to keep everything in Midtown. It is ground zero for all of the gay guys. Last year, we had so many people just come by and watch the games and we won’t have that this year,” Flournoy said.
Run/Walk, the change in date for Pride prompted organizers to rethink the entire run, which for most of its 18-year history has been staged at Grant Park. The event this year is set for June 28 and will start in Ansley Mall and move through nearby neighborhood streets, according to Mike Spencer, a race organizer and a former Front Runners Atlanta president.
“We think it was time to move it and find a new course,” Spencer said. “Ansley streets are wide and there is very little traffic to contend with once we get in the neighborhood.”
Traditionally held the Saturday morning of Pride, run organizers didn’t want to compete with the 39th Annual Peachtree Road Race, which is set for Friday, July 4.
The Pride run, expected to draw about 600 participants, will raise funds for the Jerusalem House, a facility for homeless people with HIV. The event has raised more than $140,000 for beneficiaries since its inception.
The change in Pride also prompted Eileen Stone, chair of the Best Ball Scramble, to push the event to early June in the hopes of finding cooler temperatures when the 70 or so participants hit the golf course. Historically, the event was held the Saturday morning of Pride.
“It just seemed like doing anything with Pride weekend and the Peachtree Road Race, there was just way too much going on,” Stone said.
The tournament raises funds for the Atlanta Feminist Women’s Chorus. Stone said she hopes this year’s event brings in $5,000 for the chorus, a significant bump over the $3,000 it received last year.
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