PREVIEW / AMBITIOUS GAMES : Seattle Leaders Hope Athletic Event Will Vault Their City Into Limelight

Does this sound familiar?

A huge sporting event is coming to town, bringing the curious eyes of the world with it, not to mention the prospects of unbearable commuter gridlock. Years of planning and debate, and millions of dollars, go on the line for just a few summer days in which young men and women from around the globe converge--to jump, swim, lift, dive, row, pedal and otherwise sweat and strain for celebrated medals that will proclaim them champions.

BACKGROUND

Just as Los Angeles awaited the 1984 Olympics, Seattle, its breath held tight, now awaits Friday’s beginning of Ted Turner’s 1990 Goodwill Games, the most heavily promoted event in the Pacific Northwest since the 1962 World’s Fair of Space Needle fame.

The Goodwill Games are cable television magnate Turner’s efforts to encourage friendly international competition through athletics. The first games were held in Moscow four years ago under decidedly more chilly political conditions, after the U.S. Olympic boycott of 1980 and the U.S.S.R. boycott of the 1984 Olympics.

But, today, goodwill seems a name wholly in step with goodwill times.

Stores here fly the big red hammer-and-sickle alongside Old Glory. Soviet aircraft are landing at the local airport alongside locally made Boeing jetliners. Soviet tourists are treated as celebrities.

East-West cultural and artistic exchanges that accompany the games are touted as being without modern precedent. By one count, 35 separate arts events are tied to the games, as are conferences on everything from human rights to the environment.

Simply, Seattle is gaga over the Soviets.

Actually, the games are much more international than just a match of superpowers. Organizers say that 2,500 athletes from about 50 countries will compete in 21 sports during a 17-day contest. Unlike the Olympics, which feature rounds and rounds of eliminations, these games are described as “finals only.”

ANXIETY OVER OUTCOME

With the world knocking on its door, Seattle is a city on the spot this summer. Residents of Los Angeles would recognize the familiar civic hand-wringing over what image the games might fix in the eyes of a television audience that is supposed to reach 72 countries. Will the already crowded transportation system freeze up under the strain? Who pays for the extra services? What defines success? Who deserves blame for failure?

Unlike Los Angeles, however, Seattle is still a community in search of its self-image.

Some promoters figure the picturesque Northwest settings and red-carpet welcome will increase Seattle’s prestige.

Already, the Goodwill Arts Festival has critics swooning over Seattle as a paragon of culture. Business leaders believe they can gain a jump on the world in welcoming the eastern Soviet Union into the Pacific Rim.

“Very important trade and other implications,” the municipal convention bureau explains.

But the chest-pounding occurs at a time when the Puget Sound region of Washington is deep in debate over growth. Enough-is-too-much groups like the locally famous “Lesser Seattle” fear that blissful accounts of life and commerce in the verdant greens of the Northwest will stimulate the crowding that jeopardizes the very things that make Seattle so livable.

FUTURE OLYMPICS?

Competition begins Friday, although welcoming ceremonies will not occur until Saturday evening.

Seattle is likely to get all the credit--or blame--for the games, but neighboring Tacoma and other cities are hosts to select events.

Former President Ronald Reagan will be the ranking politician-guest, President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev having demurred. Seattle also made attempts to attract other celebrities, including offering Nelson Mandela a reported $100,000 honorarium.

Broadcaster and showman Turner is expected to be in the limelight himself during the games, along with his sometimes companion, actress Jane Fonda.

There has been substantial worry over the quality of the athletes competing. As late as Tuesday, organizers said they were not sure whether to expect the Soviet Union’s top athlete, pole-vaulter Sergey Bubka. Familiar American names who are on the lineup include sprinter and long-jumper Carl Lewis, who kept the city on edge before saying yes, along with swimmer Matt Biondi, who holds seven Olympic medals.

In the end, though, the games are just a start. When the up-and-down ticket sales are tallied, when the number of new world records is posted, when the merchants count their receipts, when the sporting world passes judgment on the Northwest, Seattle boosters hope the city will show itself ready for the real games--the first Olympics of the 21st Century.