A new LGBT sports presence is coming to town.
The board of the William Way LGBT Community Center last week voted in favor of the creation of the Out Philadelphia Athletic League.
The league is a program of William Way and aims to unite the myriad LGBT sports entities throughout the area. Among its areas of focus is providing assistance to LGBT sports organizations in attaining facilities and permits and in attending regional, national and international sports tournaments. OPAL may also spearhead the creation of new intramural sports clubs, as well as stage cross-sporting events.
“This grew out of conversations with different teams, groups and leagues about the need to have a bigger sense of community on a more consistent basis,” said OPAL executive committee president Jeff Sotland, the former commissioner of the City of Brotherly Love Softball League. “All the teams have historically come together pretty well every four years for the Gay Games but we have never really had a cohesive, strong relationship amongst all the sports.”
Local participation in the Gay Games has been organized by Team Philadelphia, whose marketing director, Bob Szwajkos, welcomed the launch of OPAL.
“I’ve been a supporter of this from day one,” he said. “This provides us with the next steps we want to take. Bringing the teams together through the center provides substantial resources that were previously unavailable collectively.”
Szwajkos said Team Philadelphia will continue to function alongside OPAL.
“William Way can be a jumping-off point for where we’re going to go next,” he said. “I don’t know exactly where that’s going to be, but it can only be better working with William Way.”
Sotland said the executive committee has garnered interest from the LGBT softball, soccer, swim, kickball, bowling, rugby and tennis groups. The football club, he noted, is focused on staging the Gay Bowl this fall, but organizers plan to meet with club leaders after that event.
With the interested clubs, said executive committee vice president Perry Monastero, OPAL’s reach would extend to about 1,500 athletes.
Sotland said that, during initial discussions, planners learned that the leagues often grappled with organizational challenges, which could be facilitated by having a large, established entity like William Way as a partner.
“It’s about leveraging our size in dealing with the city,” he said. “Once we got the discussion going, we learned that facilities issues are one of the biggest problems. They either didn’t have the bargaining power or didn’t have the resources or know-how to work with the city or public or Catholic schools for facilities.”
“When groups have coalesced in other cities, they had stronger, louder voices with City Council, recreation departments, the people in charge of facilities at schools and universities,” Monastero added. “That was one of the top things groups were having issues with: Where do we do this? Where do we play kickball? Where do we swim? Where do we play volleyball? Volleyball couldn’t meet for a while because of that. There’s been a basketball group trying to get started, and they need facilities. The idea is to create more solid opportunities in terms of locations.”
In addition to OPAL serving as a liaison with potential facilities, it can also be essential in helping the groups secure funding and sponsorships.
“It adds more credibility and credence to an organization when it’s supported by a fiscal conduit,” Monastero said. “And it adds a sense of transparency too.”
The organization itself will not need a vast amount of funding to function, Sotland said. Operations will be supported by membership fees — which have not yet been determined but are expected to be nominal — plus fundraising events and potential grants.
“It’s not really designed to be about the money aspect of it because how much would we have to spend money on, since we’re here to support leagues that already exist?” Sotland posited, noting the agency will not impede upon league sponsors. “We don’t want to pull money away from the people we’re supposed to be supporting. For instance, Miller Lite is a big sponsor of CBLSL and said they might be interested in working with us, and we would and will, but we told them not if it’s at the risk of the softball league losing any sponsorships. That’s 100-percent not our goal; we’re not going to be a drain on resources but rather add to people’s resources.”
OPAL will not need to apply for its own 501(C)(3) status, as it will be an official program of William Way, which has its own tax-exempt nonprofit status.
Sotland said OPAL will function financially independently from William Way but its funding will be organized under the center, which, through its executive director and the executive committee, will have oversight over the entity.
“It’s financially neutral to both [OPAL and William Way]. Money, for the most part, will never transfer from one to the other; whatever money is raised will stay within this organization,” Sotland said. “However, if you want money from this organization, the check will come from an account under the name of William Way, and there will be a signatory from the sports committee and from William Way on the check to make sure everything is above board.”
OPAL will stage events throughout the year to cater to athletes across all demographics, which organizers hope will assist with recruitment. Sotland said that, once the organization’s website and social-media presence is established in the coming months, events will be announced.
Besides Sotland and Monastero, OPAL’s executive committee includes sports chair Kurt Douglass, social chair Robert Lenahan, treasurer Brian Wentz and secretary Adam Beck.