WSJ: Buffalo Rescues Empire Games

The Wall Street Journal — Last fall, John Koelmel settled into his couch after work and started flipping through the paper when an article caught his eye. The Empire State Games were in trouble again.

Started in 1978, the Games are the oldest state-run, Olympic-style competition in the country, attracting as many as 30,000 aspirants each year who compete in tryouts held across the state for about 6,000 slots.

Mike Tyson, Sarah Hughes and Patrick Kane, who scored the winning goal in this year’s Stanley Cup Finals, are among the stars who once participated in the Games, living and eating with teammates in dorm rooms that evoke an Olympic Village and participating in elaborate opening ceremonies.

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