L.A.’s the (Sports) Place, Argue Says : Sports Committee Is Set Up to Bring Major Events to City

The Super Bowl has come and gone, but it left behind an estimated $80 million in revenue.

With that in mind Tuesday, the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce introduced a Sports Committee, whose goal is to attract more top-dollar sporting events to the Los Angeles area.

“We’ve had our share (of big sports events),” committee Chairman John C. Argue said. “(But) in the past, these things just sort of happened.

“Other cities, they’re very organized. We’re not going to get (big sports events) just on account of our weather.”

The committee’s first move was to release a report estimating that sports had an economic impact of more than $1 billion in the Los Angeles area in 1985, a typical year since there was no Super Bowl or Olympics. In 1984, the Olympics generated an extra $1 billion.

The events targeted by the committee include the 1990 or 1991 U.S. Olympic Festival, the 1994 World Cup soccer tournament, the 1991 or 1992 Super Bowl, the 1991 World Championships in track and field, the 1993 NCAA Final Four basketball tournament, the 1988 Olympic trials for four sports, and the 2004 Olympics. A key selling point will be the success of 1984 Olympics, which Argue helped bring to Los Angeles.

“The chamber as such won’t be bidding,” Argue said. “We’ll be helpful to those that are.”