Wausau convention bureau buys Badger State Games

Posted by Tom Held of the Journal Sentinel on Oct. 18, 2011

The demise of the Badger State Games was short-lived.

Two months after the Wisconsin Sports Development Corporation announced the end of the Olympic-style events, the Wausau Convention and Visitors Bureau resurrected the brand, according to a report by the Journal Sentinel's Don Walker.

The Wausua agency has paid $15,000 to purchase the brand name, "Badger State Games," and plans to stage winter and summer events.

Winter events will be held Feb. 3 through Feb. 5 next year in Wausau. The number of winter events will be reduced.

The summer events will stay in the Fox Cities area for at least three years, with at least five events, and perhaps more. Wrestling, swimming, soccer, track and field, and basketball are by far the most popular events and will be retained, said Darien Schaefer, the bureau's executive director.

The shift to local ownership comes nearly two years after a split that left the Badger State Games without about $1000,000 in operating money and local organizers.

5 Comments for "Wausau convention bureau buys Badger State Games"

Too little too late as far as the Nordic portion of the games are concerned. Cross country skiing, which used to be two days of competition with huge participation, will never come back to Wausau.

First off, Wisconsin Sports Development Council poisoned the waters with years of bad organizing and poor grooming. Juniors were driven away years ago when WSDC decided they needed to charge adult fees for a 4 km race. Masters have been bypassing BSG for the City of Lakes Loppet in Minnesota in greater numbers.

Secondly, new races in Lakewood and Minocqua have stepped up and filled that gap in the schedule. So it would take something really extraordinary to draw a decent field to Wausau again. At least for Nordic.
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earthmoover Oct 19, 2011 8:15 AM
Very nice, Earthmover. Mr. Glass-is-half-empty... I give credit to the Wausau group for stepping up to continue this fine tradition of athletic competition in our state. Negative people need not participate.
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GBWisc4 Oct 19, 2011 9:29 AM
The Nordic Skiing event of Badger State Winter Games has never left the Wausau Area. This year there were 622 athletes at the Nordic Event.

I understand Earthmover's concerns. There are certainly some past issues that we plan to address. We are excited to have the ability to now make those changes and rebuild the Nordic event.

We also know that some other communities were quick to start up new events to try and fill the void if the Badger State Winter Games didn't continue. Well, the Winter Games are continuing and we look forward to competing with these other communities and their new events for the athletes.

I hope Earthmover and other Nordic athletes and enthusiasts give us the opportunity to earn their continued participation. We will be making additional announcements regarding this event and others in early November.

In the meantime, I welcome Earthmover and anyone else to share their experiences and suggestions to make the Badger State Winter Games Nordic event an exceptional athlete experience.

Games On!

Darien Schaefer
Executive Director
Wausau/Central Wisconsin CVB
219 Jefferson Street, Wausau, WI 54403
715-355-8788
dschaefer@visitwausau.com
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WausauAreaCVB Oct 19, 2011 12:53 PM
Nothing half empty about it. Just a statement of facts. The series was better run before WSDC took over. What they did to the juniors was ridiculous. In fact the coaches were so mad, they helped facilitate moving the Madison Capital Sprints one year to the weekend opposite BSG just to register their discontent (by the way GBWisc4, the prime mover behind that effort was a well know coach in your city). They ultimately reversed themselves on the fees but the junior races never saw the same level of participation.

Secondly, the BSG used to have that weekend all to themselves in Wisconsin. They don't anymore. And the competition has a head start on them now promotion-wise. The Minocqua group got designation as a Birkie qualifier so the BSG aren't even the only Birkie qualifier on that weekend.

Personally, I loved BSG back in the day. You could get in two quality races in a weekend. Fine Birkie tune-up. Liked coming up to Wausau with the family for the weekend. And more power to them if they can get it back together. I'd personally love to see it.

But right now, me and a lot of my skiing friends in the MKE area have already made tentative plans to head to Lakewood that weekend. That's not being a 'glass half empty' kind of guy. That's just the way it is.
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earthmoover Oct 19, 2011 2:11 PM
Darien, Thanks for adding to the discussion.
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T. Held Oct 19, 2011 2:45 PM

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[quote=earthmoover]Nothing half empty about it.  Just a statement of facts.  The series was better run before WSDC took over.  What they did to the juniors was ridiculous.  In fact the coaches were so mad, they helped facilitate moving the Madison Capital Sprints one year to the weekend opposite BSG just to register their discontent (by the way GBWisc4, the prime mover behind that effort was a well know coach in your city).  They ultimately reversed themselves on the fees but the junior races never saw the same level of participation.

Secondly, the BSG used to have that weekend all to themselves in Wisconsin.  They don't anymore.  And the competition has a head start on them now promotion-wise.  The Minocqua group got designation as a Birkie qualifier so the BSG aren't even the only Birkie qualifier on that weekend.

Personally, I loved BSG back in the day.  You could get in two quality races in a weekend.  Fine Birkie tune-up.  Liked coming up to Wausau with the family for the weekend.  And more power to them if they can get it back together.  I'd personally love to see it.

But right now, me and a lot of my skiing friends in the MKE area have already made tentative plans to head to Lakewood that weekend.  That's not being a 'glass half empty' kind of guy.  That's just the way it is.[/quote]

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