Olympics Relived: Council Seeks Mini-Games for L.A.

Hoping to light a fire under any leftover spirit still flickering from the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, the Los Angeles City Council Friday voted to submit a bid to host the 1990 or 1991 U.S. Olympic Sports Festival, the mini-games held in off-Olympic years to boost the nation’s athletic programs.

The festival, sanctioned by the U.S. Olympic Committee, draws together 3,000 American athletes and 1,000 coaches and officials in a 10-day gathering patterned after the Olympic Games. Nearly three dozen events, ranging from archery to yachting, are included.

Last year’s festival, held in Houston, drew 350,000 spectators.

Councilman John Ferraro, who helped lead the local effort to bring the Olympics to Los Angeles, also spurred the council to bid for the sports festival.

Seeks Formal Bid Proposal

“After the success of our 1984 Olympics, I’m sure that this would generate a lot of interest in the people . . . who attended or took part in the Olympics of 1984,” he said.

The council, on a 10-0 vote, ordered City Administrative Officer Keith A. Comrie to prepare a bid and asked Mayor Tom Bradley to submit the bid to the U.S. Olympic Committee. A Bradley spokesman said the mayor heartily endorses the proposal.

According to initial estimates, the festival, to be held in July, would cost $10 million and would be financed by television revenues, ticket sales, corporate sponsorships and licensees. Events would be held at former Olympic venues, including the Coliseum, the Los Angeles Sports Arena, the Rose Bowl and other sites. Athletes and officials would be housed at USC and UCLA, which also opened their doors to the 1984 Olympic athletes.

Technically, the festival would not be run by the city. Instead, it would be handled by a nonprofit group, like the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee that ran the 1984 Games. The City Council is making the bid because the organizing committee has yet to be formed.

1989 Deadline Past

Cities commonly bid to host the festival in any of the three years following an Olympics--in this case, the years 1989, 1990 and 1991. But the Aug. 31 deadline for bids for the 1989 festival passed without an entry from Los Angeles, leaving 1990 and 1991 as years the city could seek to be a host.

Sheila Walker, director of Olympic Festival competition at USOC headquarters in Colorado Springs, said a site for the 1990 festival will be chosen next April and the 1991 location next October.

Washington, D.C., and Detroit have already applied for consideration in 1990 and 1991, and bids are expected from Philadelphia, Columbus, Ohio, Portland, Ore., and Miami, Walker said. San Antonio has bid for the 1991 festival.

Walker said a USOC team will visit each city to review competition sites, civic interest and possible corporate support.

“It’s kind of obvious the track record for Los Angeles is superb,” she said, but she cautioned that the city is by no means a shoo-in. “Some may say, ‘Who knows how strong the Olympic fever still is in Los Angeles?’ ”