Sports: Using Olympic Profits to Fund Programs

Actor Hunt Block is to be commended for his efforts to “Save School Sports” (“A Plea to Give Schools a Sporting Chance,” Feb. 12). A substantial increase in funding is sorely needed all over Southern California and little appreciation is given to the fact that sports provide the incentives for our most marginal and disadvantaged children to stay in school.

But when Block speaks to turning to Nike and Mayor (Richard) Riordan for help, he overlooks one of those hidden treasures that some politically focused readers may recall that candidate Ross Perot was always discussing. Perot often pointed out that funds were readily available for lots of projects but were not used because their current use was to embellish someone else’s nest.

The case of Southern California sports is a classic example. The 1984 Olympics produced a sizable profit. According to the 1984 L.A. Olympic Organizing Committee, the excess funds were to be used to promote youth sports programs throughout Southern California and were to be fully expended for those purposes by the year 2000. That is, both the $90 million placed in the fund (yes, folks, that’s right--$90 million, and it has grown to over $100 million) and the income generated from the funds.

Well, not long after the Amateur Athletic Foundation was established, its leadership--the Downtown business mavens, attorneys and some of the Hollywood crowd--changed the foundation’s charter to provide that the “principal” funds could be retained “in perpetuity” and only the income need be spent (of which the foundation spends much on promoting itself).

With a plum of $100 million to be parceled out to “investment bankers” and the like, the foundation’s management and directors can buy lots of business and political favors. Twice, I’ve attempted to get Mayor Riordan to use his influence to pressure the foundation to change its behavior, only to meet silence--in one instance one of his Republican campaign advisers in 1993 promised that “the matter will receive our attention.”

As long as the older generation is more interested in their political and financial clout than tomorrow’s adults, Rome will burn while Nero fiddles.

KIP DELLINGER

Santa Monica