Olympic Training Proposed at Navy Hospital Site

A Del Mar woman, working with Olympic gold medal winners Bob Seagren and Sugar Ray Leonard, is wooing support from city and corporate officials for a plan to turn the old Navy Hospital in Balboa Park into a major training center for Olympic athletes.

Carol Watkins, whose daughter is among the leading contenders for the U.S. figure skating team in the 1988 Olympics and is training in Wilmington, Del., because of the lack of first-rate local facilities, quietly unveiled her ambitious proposal for an athletic training center last week.

It met with mixed reviews from the 17-member, ad hoc city committee charged with recommending a use for the 39-acre Navy Hospital site. But the panel was interested enough to ask Watkins to prepare a more detailed economic report for analysis by the city staff.

Watkins, in charge of collecting Southern California donations to the U.S. Olympic figure skating team, has promoted numerous charity athletic events featuring celebrities such as 1976 Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner, songwriter Burt Bacharach and actress Victoria Principal of “Dallas” fame.

“I’ve worked with these celebrities in the past, and if the plans receive serious enough consideration, I could call on them to help with fund-raising,” Watkins said. “Bob Seagren and Sugar Ray Leonard, of course, are two of the top names in recent Olympic history, and their support will be invaluable.”

Watkins is attempting to convince local and national firms to put up the money for the venture and wants to establish the center with private donations. She believes that it could be a profit-making venture for corporate sponsors as well as the city, which would retain ownership of the Balboa Park land.

“It could be a top tourist attraction, and it would attract top-caliber athletic competitions the year-round,” Watkins said. “Balboa Park is a tourist center for this city, so I’m hoping this will be viewed as a use that is compatible with the other attractions in the park.”

Figure skating, ice hockey, track and field, cycling and boating have been mentioned as sports that could be brought to San Diego. Watkins would like to preserve the central Navy Hospital building and convert it to a dormitory for the athletes and offices for coaches and other administrators. “It’s a beautiful building; one that is well worth saving,” Watkins said. There also would be construction of training facilities on the hospital grounds.

The U.S. Olympic Committee currently sanctions three training centers. The largest is at USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colo. Smaller centers are in Lake Placid, N.Y., site of the 1980 Winter Olympics, and Marquette, Mich.

Dick Abel, director of public affairs for the USOC, said in a telephone interview from Colorado Springs on Wednesday that Olympic officials would consider a proposal from San Diego should one materialize.

“If the community would put together a proposal, we would make a determination as to whether we would locate a center there,” Abel said. “It’s a complicated proposition getting approval, and we are not in the market for any new centers now, to my knowledge. But Southern California does offer good opportunities, and it would not be impossible for San Diego to get a training center.”

Watkins said she would look at other locations in San Diego County if the Balboa Park land proved to be unavailable.

“During my daughter’s career, I have been exposed to the inadequacies of the various training centers throughout the country,” she said. “I feel San Diego is the ideal location for such a center. There is nothing on the West Coast, where a great many of the athletes live, and San Diego is the most logical place for them to work out.”

Seagren, who was the gold medalist in the pole vault at the 1968 Olympics and the silver medalist in the same event four years later, is now an actor, best known for his role as the homosexual football star on the long-running television comedy “Soap.” He said he planned to investigate the Balboa Park property this weekend and hoped to discuss the proposal with local officials.

“I’m very enthusiastic about this proposal, and I’m anxious to be actively involved,” Seagren said. “It’s been a dream of mine for more than 10 years to build an Olympic training center that has a profit structure. I don’t believe it’s necessary to have the USOC involved as a financial partner.”

Seagren said he has approached the Olympic committee in the last decade with proposals for establishing corporate-sponsored Olympic training centers in Florida and Mission Viejo but was turned down each time.

“This has been a labor of love for me,” he said, “but there have been a lot of frustrations. In the past, the USOC has not wanted to take a businesslike approach to building these centers--it did not want private industry involved if there was going to be a profit made.

“But I think the positive experience of the corporate involvement in the Los Angeles Olympics might have changed that point of view. I’m very confident that the corporate money would be obtainable--a facility like this would be a top tourist attraction in San Diego.”

Seagren predicted there would be widespread support from Olympic athletes for a San Diego training center. “I’ve talked to a lot of them, and 90% of the athletes I’ve come into contact with would much prefer training in Southern California to Colorado Springs,” Seagren said. “A great many athletes live in this area, and they don’t particularly like being isolated in Colorado Springs. And the media exposure here would be far greater.”

Leonard, who was unavailable for comment, won a boxing gold medal at the 1976 Olympics, and later became the professional world welterweight champion. He was one of the most popular and charismatic figures in the sport before he was forced into premature retirement by an eye injury. Leonard now works as a commentator for ABC Television.

The Balboa Park land owned by the Navy will be transferred to the city Jan. 1, 1988. A new, $98-million Navy hospital is under construction in Florida Canyon and is scheduled to be completed in December, 1986.

Watkins’ proposal is only one of more than 20 received by the city’s ad hoc committee. Other uses range from large-scale projects such as a central library or a performing arts center to destruction of the old hospital and returning the land to open space.

Together with the city staff, the ad hoc committee, which was appointed by the city Park and Recreation Board, is considering the proposals and will make a recommendation on the hospital land’s best use in late February or March. That recommendation will be weighed by the Park and Recreation Board and sent to the City Council, which has the final say.

“It’s going to be a long, drawn-out, decision-making process, with very heavy politics and controversy involved all the way through,” said architect Jim Kelley-Markham, a committee member.

Members of the ad hoc committee were far from ready to endorse Watkins’ proposal, but they said it was interesting enough to merit study.

“It certainly is an interesting proposal, and we want to take a serious look at the economic realities involved,” said Harold Sadler, vice chairman of the ad hoc panel. “There is truly some interest among some of the committee members. We have asked her (Watkins) for an in-depth study that we could have the city staff analyze.

“This is one of maybe 20 to 30 ideas that we ultimately will have to study, and it does seem like an unusual use for the area. We also are seeking a ruling from the city attorney as to whether this kind of a commercial venture constitutes a legal use in Balboa Park. If it didn’t, a city election would be required to approve the project, even if it were ultimately the choice of our committee and the City Council.”

Kelley-Markham said he was inclined to oppose the athletic center. “They are looking to build a large complex of structures at the site, and there is a strong feeling among some members of the committee that we need more open park land that would be unstructured, and not a commercial venture.