Empire State Games officially kaput
- The Empire State Sports Foundation filed papers this month stating its intention to disband
- The Games were born out of New York state%27s unsuccessful bid for the 1976 Olympics
- It was the oldest and largest of similar amateur sporting events held in dozens of states
- Funding began drying up as early as September 2012%2C according to tax records
Don't call it a comeback — a local effort to rekindle the moribund Empire State Games has flamed out.
The Empire State Sports Foundation, a Brighton-based nonprofit organization whose aim to revive the popular Olympic-style summertime sporting event fueled hope among amateur athletes and media attention across the state, filed papers this month stating its intention to disband.
The papers, filed in state Supreme Court, show the foundation is insolvent, owing debts topping $158,000 to multiple creditors.
Vincent Hope, the foundation's president, called the development disappointing but declined to elaborate during a brief telephone interview.
"It's unfortunate because this was all for the kids," Hope said.
This time last year, Hope sounded a more optimistic tone as the group eyed 2014 for a return of the games.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't believe it was not only feasible but actually happening," Hope told the Staten Island Advance. "We've got everything in place ... We're doing things right."
Born out of New York state's unsuccessful bid for the 1976 Summer Olympics, the Empire State Games was the oldest and largest of similar amateur sporting events held in dozens of states.
The Empire State Sports Foundation launched in late 2011 after state budget cuts that year forced the government-funded games into permanent hibernation. Foundation officials announced at the time that they had secured a 10-year agreement with the state to revive the multisport competition in July 2013 with private financing.
Financial statements filed in court, however, suggest that the foundation was in trouble early, even as it garnered headlines and courted marquee names to bolster its cause and attract donations.
Funding began drying up as early as September 2012, according to tax records, a month before the foundation introduced soccer star Abby Wambach and New Jersey Devils winger and Greece native Stephen Gionta as honorary members of its board of governors to great fanfare.
Michael Carey, the son of former Gov. Hugh Carey, whose administration launched the Empire State Games in 1978, was to lead the board.
But within weeks of kicking off a fundraising campaign in December 2012, the foundation's chief operating officer, Scott Bell, resigned and the operation fell apart.
Bell, a vice president at The Mullen Group, which runs the Monroe County Sports Commission, the county's sports tourism arm, did not return phone messages seeking comment.
"The foundation's key executive (chief operating officer) resigned Dec. 31, 2012," read the foundation's tax statement filed in October. "With no staff or resources, subsequent months have been spent recruiting a new leadership team and reshaping the (the foundation's) governance structure.
"Privatizing the 30-year legacy of New York's Olympic-styled Empire State Games ... remains our primary goal."
The foundation announced early last year that the games would be pushed back to 2014.
But as the months wore on with no details of the event, many observers concluded that the games were dead. This month's court filing just confirmed their suspicions.
The foundation is slated to argue its case for dissolution in court on May 13. The argument is a formality required by the state's nonprofit law.
"Certainly I'm disappointed," said Fred Smith, a Columbia County resident who directed the games from 1995 to 2010.
"I know they gave it all that they had," Smith, 66, continued. "All that it took to put on the games was a bit underrated in terms of how much work had to be done."
Tax records show the foundation raised about $110,000. Before the state stopped sponsoring the games, its annual subsidy hovered shy of $2 million.
Dan Keefe, a spokesman for the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, which granted the foundation the right to use the Empire State Games name and brand to solicit funds and organize the games, said the agency was notified recently that the foundation would fold.
"We appreciate the effort the foundation has made," Keefe said.
Andre Claridge, of Albany-based PC Public Affairs, which is owed $30,000 for marketing services it performed for the foundation, said the biggest obstacle to reviving the games was the convincing upstate business leaders to invest.
"They're just not in a strong financial position, so there was a lot of risk there for them," Claridge said.
In their heyday, the Empire State Games reportedly drew more than 100,000 people and was the premier stage for amateur athletes to showcase their talents.
Featured sports ran the gamut from the high profile, like basketball and soccer, to those under the radar, like fencing and archery. Athletes were housed and fed on college campuses.
Offshoots of the competition, including the Empire State Winter Games, Empire State Senior Games and Empire State Games for the Physically Challenged are still active.
"It's very sad," Dave Hennessey, the longtime track and field coach at Penfield High School who coached teams at the summer games, said of the failure to revive the event.
"I was at every one. And I had kids who were at every one," Hennessey, 61, added. "Those sweatsuits meant something. The medals, they meant something."
DANDREATTA@Gannett.com
JAMESJ@DemocratandChronicle.com
