Austin’s gay sports community got a bit bigger this spring as America’s Finest Kickball League launched in Austin earlier in April with a pickup game in southeast Austin. While Austin’s has plenty of groups that host their own kickball leagues throughout the year, most as part of a larger offering of sports — ATX Sports & Adventures, Austin Sports & Social Club, CLUBWAKA, NAKID Social Sports, just to name a few — none of these groups specifically target the LGBT community.

The league’s first event was a free pick up game at Richard Moya Park near Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. “The response has been amazing!” says America’s Finest Kickball League CEO Keith London. “So many people are excited for our summer league. At our first pick up game we had 39 people!”

The pickup game come ahead of the local league’s inaugural season which is planned to start on Saturday, June 24, 2017 with games on Saturdays from 11 AM – 1 PM. Online registration for the Summer 2017 season closes Saturday, June 10, 2017 with a fee of $65 per person (plus $2.50 processing fee). Another free pick up game is planned for Saturday, April 29, 2017 at 3 PM at Richard Moya Park.

The launch of Austin’s kickball league is just the first for AFKL in Texas with plans to kick off in Dallas on Sunday, July 2 and in Houston on Saturday, August 5. Nationwide, a league in Seattle, WA is tentatively schedule for Saturday, August 12 with plans to launch additional leagues in Las Vegas, New Orleans, Orlando and Tampa in the near future.

For more information about America’s Finest Kickball League, visit www.americasfinestkickballleague.com

Austin’s newest gay sports team may have just started up this summer but it’s already making waves, winning its first national championship in the Open B Division at Gay Bowl XVI. The National Gay Flag Football League’s annual national LGBT flag football tournament hosted by the DC Gay Flag Football League features 48 teams from 22 cities.

The Capitals kicked off pool play late morning Friday with their first game, going up against the South Florida Blue Ocean, winning 38-18. They went on to win their second game Friday afternoon against the Chicago Thunder, 22-19. Their third game of pool play was Saturday morning against fellow Texans, the Houston Hurricanes, where they would eventually win, in double overtime, 33-32. The Capitals ended pool play on Saturday and went in to bracket play later that afternoon the overall third seed.

Austin took on Denver’s Summit (Red) for the first game of bracket play, easily winning 40-13. Sunday morning the Capitals faced off against the Avalanche from Salt Lake City, winning 15-13. In the semifinal games, the Austin faced off again against the Houston Hurricanes, winning 24-12.

The Austin Capitals finished the tournament undefeated in the Open B Division taking home first place with the Denver Summit (Gold) walking away with second place.

In the in the Open A Division, the San Diego Bolts beat out the New York Warriors Black, 26-13, to win that division’s championship, with the New York Shade beating out the Washington Generals, 25-22 to go home with third place. In the Women’s Division, the Mile High Club Blue won against the San Diego Breakers, 33-13, with the Washington Senators taking third in the division after beating the South Florida Cat 5 Black 20-7.

Could the world’s largest sporting and cultural event for LGBT athletes, artists and musicians come to Central Texas? If officials in Austin get their way, it could become a reality. The capital of the Lone Star State is one of 9 cities bidding on the opportunity to host the Gay Games XI in 2022. Founded in 1982, the 2022 games, hosted by the Federation of Gay Games (FGG), are expected to bring over 15,000 participants from more than 70 nations to Central Texas, tentatively August 4-13, 2022, to take part in 35 sports, 8 cultural events and a human rights conference. By comparison, the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil had approximately 11,000 athletes competing in just 28 sports.

Austin’s journey down the road to host the Gay Games is one already several years in the making. Tina Cannon, who ran for Austin City Council 2014 and is now a Senior Policy Advisor for City of Austin District 10 Council Member Sheri Gallo, has been volunteering on her spare time to help bring the Gay Games to Central Texas. “She had reviewed the opp a few years back but didn’t really know where to turn for assistance in town. But the Gay Games staff definitely remembered her excitement and interest and they were very stoked that Austin was indeed interested in hosting,” explained Lance Aldridge, Executive Director of the Austin Sports Commission. “We made contact with her about a year ago and we’ve all run with it since!”

Austin will have to overcome some pretty stiff competition if it hopes to bring the Gay Games to the Live Music Capital of the World. The other cities that have submitted their Letters of Intent and respective fees to participate in the bidding process are: Dallas, TX; Denver, CO; Los Angeles, CA; Salt Lake City, UT; San Francisco, CA; Washington, DC; Guadalajara, Mexico; and Hong Kong. While this will be Austin’s first time to make a bid for the games, the same cannot be said for many of the other candidates. San Francisco hosted the first two Gay Games in 1982 and 1986. Dallas was a candidate city for the 2002 games, Los Angeles for the 2006 games and Washington, D.C. for the 2014 games.

There was unprecedented interest in hosting the 2022 games, with seventeen cities, the most in the Gay Games history, showing interest initially in April 2016. Anaheim, CA; Atlanta, GA; Des Moines, IA; Madison, WI; Minneapolis, MS and San Antonio, TX all chose not to submit their Letters of Intent by the first deadline to continue with the bidding process followed by Cape Town, South Africa and Tel Aviv, Israel who withdrew before the final deadline, stating their intentions to bid for Gay Games XII in 2026.

“Austin is a perfect location to host the 2022 Gay Games,” says Tina Cannon. “Our supportive community and inclusive environment is ideal to be a host city. We are an open, active, health conscious, welcoming city. In additional to having world class facilities and a town that is more than accustomed to large events and festivals, we are a beautiful green city with attractions for the athletes and visiting spectators to enjoy. From our green spaces, swimming holes, love music and cultural scene, Austin is the complete package.”

The Austin Sports Commission will present as a prospective bidding organization at the Federation of Gay Games’ Annual General Assembly for the first time October 21-25 in Sydney, Australia. Next, the prospective bidding organizations must have their final bid book to the Federation by November 30, 2016. “This is a competitive and lengthy process, and we are grateful for all of the organizations’ hard work,” says FGG’s Officer of Site Selection David Killian. “The impact that the Gay Games has in host cities is incredible in terms of culture, sport, economic impact, history and most importantly furthering all matters of LGBT+ equality.”

The FGG’s Site Selection Assembly will vote for the top three candidate cities on February 28, 2017 with site inspections of the three short-listed cities conducted April-May 2017. “The site selection process is one our most vital tasks, and we take great pride in our process,” says FGG co-president Joanie Evans. “Our gratitude to the interested host organizations for sharing our vision of promoting equality in sport and culture.” The vote for the host of Gay Games XI from the three finalist candidate cities will take place at the FGG Annual General Assembly meeting in Paris, France October 2017 with the official announcement of the Gay Games XI host city in January 2018.

If Austin does get through the lengthy bidding process and is ultimately selected as the host city, the potential payoff for Austin could be huge. The 2014 Gay Games in Cleveland and Akron, Ohio, which had about 11,000 athletes participating, had an economic impact of over $52 million on the local economy. The recent 2016 Gay Softball World Series held in Austin by the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance (NAGAAA) this past August, with 3,000 athletes participating, had an estimated economic impact of $5 million.

The Austin Sports Commission is asking for the public’s input on a logo for the Gay Games and giving residents an opportunity to sign up for their mailing list to keep you up-to-date on the bidding process. You can find this online at www.austingaygames2022.com.