‘84 Summer Olympics Are Still Paying Off

Twenty years ago, the International Olympic Committee voted to award the 1984 Summer Olympics to Los Angeles. One month later, the city’s taxpayers held their own vote, making the IOC responsible for its IOUs.

Considering that Montreal had emerged from its Summer Games two years earlier with a $1-billion deficit, it was a prudent decision by L.A. voters.

Peter Ueberroth admitted later that even he voted against public financing for the Games.

Of course, he had no idea at the time he would subsequently accept the presidency of an organizing committee mandated to finance the Games privately.

Ueberroth and the LAOOC were so successful that, in retrospect, it should be clear to Angelenos that the Games would have been worth paying for.

The Games created a surplus of $232.5 million, of which $93 million went to Los Angeles’ Amateur Athletic Foundation. Drawing from the interest earned, the AAF since has donated more than $80 million to more than 900 programs for youth sports in Southern California.

One AAF pet project is the Learn and Play Olympic Sports Program, which over the last eight years has introduced more than 60,000 elementary school children to the Olympics, both in the classroom and on the playing field.

This year’s program, which started Monday at Compton Community College, involves about 8,000 children from 50 schools in the Los Angeles and Compton districts.

Last Friday night at a banquet at the Century Plaza Hotel, the Los Angeles Sports Council started the formal campaign to bring the Summer Games back to Southern California in 2012.

Nine other cities have bid to become the U.S. Olympic Committee’s official candidate. Several, New York and San Francisco in particular, present formidable competition.

Also, Toronto is considered a strong candidate for 2008, which, if successful, could eliminate another North American city from consideration until 2020 or beyond.

No matter what happens next, however, the 1984 Summer Olympics should be recognized as a gift that keeps on giving.

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What do Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard, Evander Holyfield, Roberto Duran, Thomas Hearns and Larry Holmes have in common, other than that they have boxed professionally? . . .

They have all been taken advantage of by Don King? . . .

Probably. But the answer here is that they all signed a boxing glove that will be auctioned during the Westcoast Sports Associates dinner Wednesday night at the L.A. Athletic Club. . . .

The Roy Firestone Award will be presented that night to John Wooden. . . .

Wooden, 87, also will be honored at the UCLA Center on Aging’s ICON awards dinner next Sunday night at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. . . .

So the Dodgers are bringing in a manicurist to see what she can do about Hideo Nomo’s pesky fake fingernail. . . .

I’d like to hear reaction from former players at the Pacific Coast League’s annual historical luncheon on May 30 at the Carson Civic Center. . . .

A manicurist was strictly for their wives and daughters, who, incidentally, will be honored during the luncheon in a tribute entitled “Women of the PCL.” . . .

Elizabeth Taylor was a bat girl for the Hollywood Stars. . . .

According to a highly placed source, the Galaxy has been scouting forward Jose Manuel Abundis of Toluca in Mexico. . . .

He was the player of the game as Toluca, needing to win by two goals for Mexico’s league championship, did just that Sunday in a victory over Necaxa. . . .

Are the Lakers better without Kobe Bryant? . . .

In this series against Seattle, they have been. . . .

But perhaps he’s learning by observing that going one-on-five isn’t the prescription for winning in the playoffs, even for a player with his talent. . . .

Michael Ovitz is aggressively courting the NFL for his proposed new stadium in Carson, having invited himself to a meeting today in New York for owners on the league’s powerful planning commission. . . .

It’s not clear how many will give him an audience. They are flattered by his interest, but some believe he’s moving too fast. . . .

No wonder Philip Anschutz and Ed Roski are rich and getting richer. . . .

The developers, who according to an L.A. Business Journal report already have generated more than $400 million in actual and estimated revenue from the Staples Center, don’t give anything away. . . .

Guests at the recent groundbreaking for the arena on the day after an El Nino storm were offered free shoeshines at Richard, the Shoe Doctor at the Pacific Dining Car. . . .

According to the coupon, the offer expired on April 30. . . .

1988.

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While wondering what Tom Lasorda and Vince Piazza were talking about while sitting together during Dodger games over the weekend, I was thinking: A lot of golfers would like to have the slump Tiger Woods had, Reggie Miller could teach Alonzo Mourning a lesson about retaliating, the Lakers could do everybody a favor by finishing off Seattle tonight so we don’t have to tape “Seinfeld” on Thursday.