re: The 2022 World Games in Birmingham

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There was also a story on Fox 6 yesterday about the businesses at the merchant’s tent were complaining because there was literally no business/foot traffic.

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I walked through the tent next to Protective Stadium. The merchandise had nothing to do with the World Games. It was just clothes and the type of items you see at the kiosks at the mall. Nobody wants to shop for that stuff in an air-conditioned mall, why would they want to shop for it in 100 degree heat in a tent.

We were in town already and went to the opening ceremony. The acts that performed were good and the drone light show was really cool. On the negative side, it demonstrated the need to pay extra for a good producer. The coordination and sequence of events looked extremely unrehearsed and embarrassing to say it kindly. The CEO of the games has two weeks to fix all that crap before the closing ceremony.

We decided to stay an extra day and go to one of the events. My wife chose the dance competition, which was fine with me since it was indoors. Apparently the individual events are all run by the parent group of each sport. The event we went to was very well organized and professional. The dance competition was two separate groups. There was a cheer leading type dance group and ball room dancing group. I've never watched Dancing With The Stars, but guess it was all similar. It was a lot of fun to watch and we stayed the entire 4 1/2 hours. We were on the third row and surrounded by athletes and their families.

The city has done a great job cleaning up everything and making it easy to park and get to events. From the number of international visitors walking around town and at the event we went to, it looks like it will be a success.