Twin Cities Suddenly Becoming ‘In’ Cities : Olympic Festival: With U.S. Open and Final Four secured, officials will stop at nothing, not even the Olympics.

The state of Minnesota has put its best foot forward. The question is, will the sports world be willing to dance?

It is a $70-million gamble.

That’s how much has been spent during the past three years on the construction and renovation of athletic facilities around the state.

The U.S. Olympic Festival, which began Friday and runs through July 15, is the first of several potentially lucrative events that have been attracted to the Twin Cities area.

The U.S. Figure Skating Championships, the International Special Olympics and the U.S. Open Golf Tournament will be held here in 1991.

Then, in 1992, the Super Bowl and the NCAA Final Four come in, events that could push the state well past the $200-million mark in sports-related revenue over a three-year period.

In a national poll of 72 sports officials from various athletic agencies last year, Minneapolis was rated the country’s third “hottest” city--behind Indianapolis and Los Angeles--in terms of attracting major sporting events. And that was before the Super Bowl announcement.

After the NFL made the Twin Cities its ’92 Super Bowl site, Minnesota Gov. Rudy Perpich took the assessment a few steps further. He proclaimed the state “the premier sports center in the world.”

Others are more cautious.

Jack Kelly, executive director of the Olympic Festival, says the art of attracting athletic events to one’s region is only a preliminary step.

“The real proof comes when the actual events are done and they’re run pretty well,” he said.

Still, Kelly expressed confidence that the Twin Cities will receive high marks for its productions, thereby guaranteeing return business.

“Two years ago if you said, ‘Who’s hot in sports?’ you would have said Indianapolis,” Kelly said. “But now, when you look at the events coming up here in the next few years, you would have to say the Twin Cities.”

Indianapolis is a shining example of a city that has benefited from its own large investment in sports.

In the past decade, the city built the Hoosier Dome, stole the NFL’s Colts from Baltimore, played host to the 1982 Olympic Festival, the 1987 Pan American Games and more than 200 other national and international athletic events.

During the same span, almost 7,500 businesses have started, creating about 60,000 jobs.

The versatility of facilities in and around the Twin Cities would seem to offer an advantage over many areas as cities nationwide bid for dozens of collegiate, national and international championships looking for a prosperous home.

Minnesota’s foray into the sports event business began in 1987 when its Amateur Sports Commission was formed and the state legislature appropriated an initial $29.4 million for amateur facilities.

Half of the money went toward the construction of The National Sports Center at Blaine, which has a 12,000-seat main stadium for soccer and track, an additional 2,000-seat indoor facility for soccer or wrestling, and a cycling facility that is modeled after the one that will be used at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

In and around the Twin Cities, there are four 15,000-seat indoor arenas that can be used for either basketball or hockey--the Sports Center in Bloomington, the St. Paul Civic Center, Williams Arena at the University of Minnesota, and the new downtown home of the NBA’s Timberwolves.

And then there is the 62,000-seat Metrodome, a multiple-purpose stadium that is home for baseball’s Twins and the NFL’s Vikings.

Minnesota’s corporate community also seems established enough to carry a fair share of the financial load that goes with playing host to a major event.

More than $8 million in cash and gifts such as copiers and computers were donated for this year’s festival, more than twice the amount raised in Houston four years ago.

Still, the Twin Cities will have to consistently put on a good show if it is ever to attract the Olympics--the big one that got away.

The Twin Cities finished second to Atlanta in the battle to win the endorsement of the U.S. Olympic Committee as the official bid city for the 1996 Summer Olympics.

Paul Erickson, executive director of Minnesota’s sports commission, says the Twin Cities will be ready and waiting to try for the year 2000 if Atlanta’s bid should fail.

A similar initial effort to attract an Olympic Festival failed in 1985. Two years later, sponsorship of the 1990 event was secured. And that, Erickson says, started thoughts of more grandiose productions.

“The great thing about the Olympic Festival bid was that it caused the state to work in partnership with the major cities,” Erickson said. “We all had to work together in order to draw the festival here and we haven’t stopped working since.”