Just weeks before Gay Games 2010 opens in Cologne, Germany, the next iteration of the quadrennial event in Cleveland appears to be on shaky ground.

Details are sketchy and representatives in Cleveland aren't talking, but the matter is being discussed.

“There is discussion about a shift in management, being dictated by the Federation of Gay Games,” Samantha Fryberger, communications director for Positively Cleveland, a group that markets Cleveland as a tourism destination, told gay weekly Gay People's Chronicle.

Fryberger added that the intention of the discussions is to keep the games in Cleveland.

Representatives from competing cities Boston and Washington D.C. alleged in a July 6 story published in gay bi-monthly Spirit that Cleveland Synergy Foundation, the group that bid and won the right to put on the games in Cleveland, had won the competition with an inferior bid and suggested that the selection was politically motivated.

They say Cleveland broke several rules, including adding more games than allowed and exceeding the distance between venues. For example, the rules allow a city to host no more than 28 sports, yet Cleveland proposed 40. And Cleveland's golfing venue is in Akron, about 45 miles south of the city, further than the allowed 15 miles.

The story also calls into question the motivations behind selecting Cleveland.

“What did surprise me was the notion that bringing the Gay Games to Northeast Ohio to highlight gay-rights issues seemed to play such a significant factor to many voters,” Brent Minor, a longtime supporter of the Gay Games and volunteer for the campaign to bring the games to Washington, said.

Ironically, lawmakers in Cleveland were busy attempting to boost their gay rights credentials in the months leading up the federation's final round of decision making. At the time, the city was considering a bill that outlaws discrimination against transgender people that won council's unanimous approval two months later. And lawmakers embraced a gay-inclusive domestic partnership registry that guarantees no rights whatsoever but faced steep opposition from a coalition of mostly Black ministers.

While Gay Games North American Representative Kevin Boyer wouldn't comment to On Top about the rumors, Federation of Gay Games Spokesperson Kelly Stevens has confirmed to the media that there are ongoing high-level discussions on the subject going on.