2015 World Police and Fire Games start this week
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| The Fairfax County Police Department’s soccer team. [FCPD] |
The 2015 World Police and Fire Games, the biggest sports competition in Fairfax County history, starts this week.
bring more than 10,000 athletes from police and fire departments from all 50
states and more than 68 countries here to compete in 60 events. The 2015 games are
hosted by Fairfax County, but events are scattered all over the region.
The opening
ceremony takes places Friday, June 26 at 6 p.m. at RFK Stadium in D.C.,
featuring entertainer, Sugar Ray, the Madison Rising patriotic rock band, a parade of athletes, and the lighting
of the cauldron. Free tickets for the ceremony can be ordered online.
athletes from Fairfax County are expected to participate, including 340 firefighters and 260 police officers. Neither
the police nor fire departments are releasing the names of athletes in advance. Fairfax County will have teams in ice hockey, softball, baseball, dodgeball, honor guard, lacrosse, track and field, flag football, and basketball 5×5.
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| The 2015 World Games mascot. |
All events are free and open to the public. While there are common sports, like
boxing, cycling, soccer, and weightlifting, there are other competitions
that test the special skills of firefighters and police officers. For example,
the ultimate firefighter competition takes place July 1-3, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at
Springfield Town Center, and a precision motorcycling competition for police
officers is June 27, 7 a.m.-5 p.m., at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly.
events in the Annandale area. Softball will be at Wakefield Park Sunday, June
28, through Friday, July 3, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. (and to 10 p.m. on June 30).
martial arts competitions will be at the Ernst Center at Northern Virginia Community College in Annandale, including tae kwon do on June 29 and 30, 10 a.m.-6 p.m., and karate on July 1 and 2, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.
will be at George Mason University, including baseball, basketball,
bodybuilding, boxing, judo, swimming, tennis, and volleyball. See the 2015 World
Games website for the complete schedule. Weather delays will be posted online.
The only events where tickets might be needed are bodybuilding on June 27 and the final day of boxing on July 3. Both of those events will be at the GMU Center for the Arts.
several activities open to the public in the Athletes Village at Reston Town
Center, including live entertainment every night at Champions Square.
volunteers has closed. There are more than 5,500 people in the volunteer
database, and more than 1,000 of them have completed the online orientation.
volunteers have been invited to a rally June 24, 6:30-7 p.m. at Reston Town
Hall with live music and remarks by Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon
Bulova, Fairfax County Fire Chief Richard Bowers, and Fairfax 2015 board chair
Kevin Reynolds, president of Cardinal Bank.
estimates the games will cost $16-$17 million, says Roy Shrout, deputy
coordinator with the Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management. The
Commonwealth of Virginia committed $1 million to the games, and corporate
sponsors have also contributed. The games are expected to generate $60-$80
million for the local economy.
5 responses to “2015 World Police and Fire Games start this week”
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Can't wait to see the following events….
Shoot the unarmed, file a false report, and every ones favorite Civil Asset Forfeiture. What a waste of tax payer money.
"The games are expected to generate $60-$80 million for the local economy."
Follow the math and see…County spent $16 Million of tax dollars, $80Million in revenue for the local economy (DC Metro area) lets say Fairfax sees $40M. Now of that $40M of revenue local taxes are collected, let say 5%, Fairfax County picks up $2M in tax revenue. So for $16M spend we get $2M back , net loss of $14M.
Even if you change the tax assumption to 10%, we still lose $12Million.
I suppose the argument to be made here would be a tax loss of 12 million is offset by ~40 million being injected into the local economy. Not my area of expertise but that doesn't sound like too bad a deal.
This reminds me of Lorton Arts Center tax logic. Fairfax really needs an internal Inspector General, BOS spending is out of control.