The End of the Gorge Games

Hood River won't host the Gorge Games. Not this year. Not ever again.

Gorge Games founder Peggy Lalor announced in a press release Wednesday the adventure sports games' volatile run starting in 1996 had come to an abrupt end this year. “It has been an exciting time in the development of the recreation business in this region,” Lalor said in the release. “But the Games require significant corporate financial backing, which we have not been able to secure, thus deciding to retire the event and make room for new things.”

In Nov. 2004, Lalor had announced the expansion of the Gorge Games into the Live Large Tour, which, beginning in spring 2005, would have staged Gorge Games-like events in Portland, Seattle and Hood River.

In a March 10 phone conversation from Maui, Ha., Lalor said she decided to retire the Games and the Live Large Tour a couple weeks ago when she failed to solicit the support of a title sponsor. Lalor wouldn't say with what sponsor she was negotiating. “What I did last year is I ran it (the Gorge Games) at a deficit to keep it going,” Lalor said. We've run the event on budgets from $100,000 to $2.2 million. We've never run it on less than 15 to 20 sponsors. But what you really need is a head, a lead. That's why we always went after that title sponsor.”

Last year's primary sponsor was Mercer Ranch Carrots, which committed to a three-year sponsorship deal starting in 2004. In the meantime Mercer Ranch switched owners. But, Lalor says, Mercer Ranch was willing to honor its commitment.

For seven of the last nine years, local restaurants, hotels and outdoor sports stores have relied on the week and-a-half-long event to boost business. Taco Del Mar owner Tom Wood, for example, noted a 20 percent decrease from 2002 – a Gorge Games year and Taco Del Mar's first year of business on Oak Street – to 2003, a non-Gorge Games year. In the wake of the Games last year, Outside magazine named Hood River as one of its 20 Dream Towns and Sports Illustrated devoted a feature the the Columbia River Gorge and Gorge Games coverage.