With three months to go, Auckland's Proud To Play multi-sports festival has taken shape with all the major elements in place. West Auckland's Trusts Arena will be a major focus for Proud To Play One of the team creating the community-based event is Craig Watson who says registrations are already open for eleven sports and a further two are in the works and a significant support sponsor is on board. The organising team is small but focused, Watson says. “We currently have Dion Leslie and myself taking the lead on the event, I'm looking after contracts, agreements, the governance side as well as sponsorship and Deon is handling the sports.” Leslie was one of those involved in making the 2011 Wellington Outgames such a success, he has been living in Auckland for some time and is bringing his experience and skills to Proud To Play. “We also have Anna at Eventfinder who is helping us with event support, David Balham is helping with fundraising and getting grants and that sort of thing. We're also getting the ball rolling on the opening ceremony which events maestro Julian Cook is working with us on.” Watson says the organising team has lost their volunteer coordinator due to job commitments so they are putting the word out for a replacement, plus it would be cool to have perhaps a small handful of others to come on board and spread the load. The central organising team isn't creating each sporting event, that's primarily being done by Auckland's already-established glbti sports teams. “Most of the sporting events are being supported by the teams but where they don't have the resources to manage a big event like this we are working with venues that the teams already work with including several venues in West Auckland who want to see this event happen and therefore are supporting us with the organisation.” Will there be a physical focus for the events? “We've tried to bring all the venues for which it doesn't really matter where they are played, into the West Auckland area so that we create a bit of a hub there. We got funding from the Waitakere Licensing Trust to sponsor the Trusts Arena and the West Wave pool which will cover those venue costs. Because those are in West Auckland it made sense to look for other venues to hold other sporting events nearby.” But not everyhting will be out west. “Sports that need to be more central, like the touch rugby which is already planned for Victoria park, the road running will be on the waterfront, the ocean swim will be at Mission Bay, all those events will likely command a more central audience.” Watson is confident funding targets will be met. He says the organising team has deliberately been very conservative in their budgeting. “Compared to what was being planned for an Outgames we have stripped the event right back to a sports-focused event and the only other aspect is we are looking at a pool party, an opening ceremony, a brief closing ceremony and we're in the throes of organising a youth conference at the moment. “All the sports will pay for themselves but we are going to require some funding for things like medals, some equipment purchase, but we're not talking big dollars.” As to what level of competition is expected for Proud To Play, Watson says it will vary from the casual and give it a go end of the spectrum right up to hard-core and driven. “For instance, we know that quite a few of the swimmers will be bringing their A game and that we will potentially have records broken. We're looking forward to that level of competition and we'll be set up to handle that. The Auckland Swimming Association, the West Wave pool and Team Auckland Master Swimmers are all working together to make sure it's a very well run competition with the ability to do timings and validate records.” But as with all community events, funding is still the key. Watson says organisations or individuals able to donate even small amount to help young people attend the youth hui for free or to contribute to he cost of running Proud To Play can do so at the Give A Little website. Jay Bennie - 6th November 2015