ALL-STAR GAME: SELLING AN IMAGE : Officials Go to Bat for Prestige, Not Cash, During All-Star Week

If there’s one thing that annoys Darrell Metzger, it’s having people mistake Orange County for a suburb of Los Angeles. Or worse, having to politely explain that, yes, there is more to Orange County than Disneyland.

As president of the Orange County Centennial Committee, Metzger’s job is to get that message out to the 15,000 visitors--including 700 members of the media--who have descended upon Anaheim for Tuesday’s 60th Major League Baseball All-Star game.

“Eventually,” Metzger said, “I’d like to say ‘Orange County’ and have it mean something to somebody.”

National Spotlight

In other cities that have hosted the All-Star game, local officials have tried to draw the national media spotlight to local economic opportunities.

In Houston, for instance, the 1986 All-Star game meant a chance to dispel some of the gloom-and-doom reputation that had tarnished its image after the oil slump of the early 1980s.

“It makes people think of Houston as a place to visit,” said Barbara Weiner, director of public affairs for the Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau. “It shows that things are going on all the time and that exciting things are happening.”

But in Anaheim, officials aren’t worried about attracting tourist dollars.

Last week, a convention of Job’s Daughters filled the hotel rooms where baseball fans are sleeping this week. And next week, they will be replaced by a national convention of evangelical Christians.

So when it comes to the All-Star game, local organizers are more concerned about making a good impression than making money.

“I think that’s the way it should be,” said Allan B. Hughes, executive director of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce. “I’d hate to turn it into an economic land-sale enterprise.”

In fact, the Chamber had not even prepared estimates of the game’s economic impact on the area until a few days before the event. Officials with the Anaheim Area Visitors and Convention Bureau were in the process of compiling such estimates, but as of this weekend the figures were not available.

According to Hughes, the All-Star game is expected to infuse more than $20 million into the local economy, mostly benefiting the hotel and restaurant industries. That estimate is disputed by Tom Seeberg, All-Star coordinator for the host California Angels, who predicts that the game will generate closer to $40 million.

Whatever amount the visitors spend, Metzger wants them to leave with good feelings about Orange County. To that end, the Centennial Committee was charged with coordinating an army of 500 volunteers, clad in crisp navy blue and white, who will greet people arriving at John Wayne, Los Angeles International and Ontario airports and staff hospitality booths at Anaheim hotels nearly around-the-clock.

About 4,000 VIPs invited by Major League Baseball will be shuttled to Anaheim hotels aboard buses and vans accompanied by volunteers who will deliver a scripted introduction to the All-Star game, Orange County, and the centennial. Approved topics for discussion include the history of Orange County, corporations that sponsor the All-Star game, and, surprisingly, Southern California’s chronic transportation problems.

For those unfortunate enough to be mired in traffic during the 50-mile drive from Los Angeles International to Anaheim, the Centennial Committee has thoughtfully provided copies of “100 Solutions to Traffic Problems in Orange County,” a booklet prepared as part of the centennial, Metzger said.

“Let’s turn (the traffic problems) around to a plus and tell them what we’re planning to do about it,” Metzger said.

Then there’s the list of “inappropriate” topics for discussion. Metzger declined to be specific about the topics beyond identifying one: which baseball players really deserved to make the All-Star roster.

“It’s common sense,” he said. “We just want to keep the conversation in a positive vein.”

Officials of the Angels and Major League Baseball say the celebration of Orange County’s centennial this year was an important factor in deciding to award the All-Star game to Anaheim.

The All-Star proposal submitted by the Angels in 1983 included proclamations from all the county’s cities welcoming the event as part of a year of centennial festivities.

“There was real commitment to putting on the best possible event in Orange County,” said David Dziedzic, director of special events for baseball.

The Angels were able to satisfy the concerns of baseball officials in two important areas: transportation and accommodations. A detailed plan for shuttling visitors from airports to hotels was included in the Angels proposal, as was the availability of 2,700 hotel rooms at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers and the nearby Marriott.

In places such as Houston and Cincinnati, which hosted All-Star games in 1986 and 1988, local chambers of commerce and visitors bureaus were extensively involved in the event. For example, the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce’s ties to game organizers allowed the group to obtain 500 advance copies of the All-Star program to mail to business clients around the country, said Ruger Ruhl, the chamber’s vice president for communications.

In Anaheim, the involvement of local business groups has been minimal.

“We’re probably a little more blase,” said Anaheim chamber director Hughes, “when we have millions who visit every year.”

The money All-Star visitors will spend this week is nothing “out of the ordinary,” said Elaine Cali, a spokeswoman for the Anaheim Area Visitors and Convention Bureau. She noted that 4.3 million people vacationed in Orange County last July, and 34.6 million people visited last year.

At the Anaheim Hilton, hotel representatives said they were pleased to be chosen as hosts for baseball players and officials who have booked 1,000 rooms. But the hotel is usually filled this time of year anyway, said Patrick Hynes, director of public relations.

Likewise, Anaheim financial officials are not expecting the All-Star game to create a blip on their revenue charts. Anaheim benefits from out-of-town guests through a transient occupancy tax, or bed tax, that gives the city a percentage of hotel room proceeds, said Bill Sell, the city’s treasury manager. He said the city had not planned on the game generating any extra revenue.

“It’s more the prestige that comes from having the All-Star game” that matters, Sell said.

In terms of public relations, the city of Anaheim has weighed in with a packet of press releases promoting stories on Anaheim Stadium’s playing field, scoreboard, traffic control plan and parking lot. The city also is touting Disneyland, a local literacy program and the renovation of an apartment project through an unusual teaming of public and private efforts.

Anaheim Mayor Fred Hunter sides with those who believe that in terms of revenue, the All-Star game is not that big a deal. What matters, Hunter said, is selling Anaheim and Orange County to the media and to influential people in the sports world so that more big events can be brought to the city.

“It is showing that we, the city of Anaheim, are doing a bang-up job on the All-Star game,” Hunter said, “and that we could be a very good host to the Super Bowl, which we’ve never had.”