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Prairie State Games will return to Metro-East

By AP/KWMU

Belleville, Ill. – The Prairie State Games will return to the Metro-East this fall after a one-year hiatus.

Last year the amateur sports competition was held in Bensenville, a Chicago suburb. But an attorney for the village says is has ended its three-year contract to host the Prairie State Games because the organization didn't live up to the terms.

DuPage County and Bensenville beat out Springfield and Bloomington-Normal last year to host the games. The three-year contract ran through 2007.

Bensenville attorney Gerald Gorski says Prairie State Games officials were told the contract was invalid because they failed to meet its terms. But the games' director, Maureen Moore, contends it was Bensenville that proposed changing the contract terms after the fact.

The games are scheduled for June 23rd through the 25th at various sites in southwestern Illinois. The opening ceremonies will be held at GMC Stadium in Sauget on Friday, June 23 at 7:00 p.m. The games were in the Metro-East from 1995 through 2004. They got their start in 1983, when Gov. Jim Thompson first announced plans to hold a statewide amateur sports festival. In 1984 the inaugural Prairie State Games were held at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

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