Ventura OKs $60,000 in Seed Funds to Host National Powerboat Race : Sports: A similar amount must now be raised to match the council’s investment. Event would be held in September, 1996.

Capitalizing on Ventura’s seaside location, the City Council has agreed to provide $60,000 in seed money to host a national powerboat race next year.

The 1996 Ventura National Offshore Powerboat Race, set for Sept. 28 and 29, offers the lure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in hotel and sales tax revenue.

It also represents one of the first steps the council has taken to secure major sporting events to boost tourism.

“This is a wonderful opportunity to be selected as the site for the national powerboat race. We are a natural setting,” Councilwoman Rosa Lee Measures said before Monday’s meeting. “It puts us on the map as a tourist destination-type city.”

The American Powerboat Assn. selected Ventura as one of 11 sites nationwide for its 1996 race circuit, marking the first time a nationally sanctioned offshore powerboat race will be held on the West Coast in more than a decade.

Five cities in Florida have been selected as race sites as well as two cities in Texas and sites in Maryland, Nevada and New Hampshire.

“Our desire is to bring the big races from the East Coast out here,” said Gerald Nordskog, editor of Ventura-based Powerboat Magazine and chairman of the committee organizing the Ventura race.

Nordskog was one of 10 speakers who voiced support for the race at Monday night’s council meeting.

But to make sure council members were significantly wowed by the plan, event organizers showed a splashy music video featuring powerboats, described as “vicious high-powered monsters,” streaking across ocean waves.

“I think this is the kind of event Ventura needs,” said Gary Jacobs, a Ventura Port District commissioner. His comments were echoed by Port District Chairman Ernest Thorpe, who said the event will bring national recognition to the city.

Council members said they embraced the race, but stipulated that an additional $60,000 must be raised to match their investment. The council voted 4 to 0 to provide seed money for the event. Mayor Tom Buford abstained and council members Stephen Bennett and Gary Tuttle were absent.

The council also approved a recommendation to develop guidelines for recruiting and evaluating sporting events.

A city task force determined that Ventura has the facilities to host a variety of sporting events--including softball, surfing and volleyball tournaments--and should consider attracting such events to pack local hotels with weekend visitors.

Currently, the single largest and most economically successful sporting event in Ventura is the little-known Ironman Qualifier Triathlon held each August.

“That’s almost 1,000 rooms and no one even knows it came and went,” said Debbie Solomon, the city’s public affairs coordinator.

But the powerboat race is expected to pack local hotels with wealthy competitors and spectators, while promoting Ventura as a venue for big-name sporting events, much like Ojai’s PGA Seniors golf tournament and NCAA tennis tournament, city officials said.

Competitors in the boat race, for instance, are expected to occupy 1,750 hotel rooms during the two-day event. An additional 2,250 rooms are expected to be occupied by spectators, Solomon said.

“Circuit sporting events have very established patterns,” she said. “The hotel room nights are pretty predictable. . . . When a sports participant comes in for a night, each of those individuals will spend $100.”

With the average cost of a powerboat hovering around $300,000, hosting an offshore powerboat race has special benefits:

“They’re big spenders,” Solomon said.