Winter Games in L.A.? We Could Warm to That Idea

When I started the Kings, I was told there were a quarter-million ex-Canadians in L.A. Now I know why they left Canada. They hate hockey.

--Jack Kent Cooke

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That’s a famous quote around here, pretty funny at the time Cooke said it, but we won’t be including it in our promotional material.

We won’t be mentioning the Mighty Ducks or Tony Tavares, either. We’re pretending that never happened. No, we’ll be talking up the 1993 Stanley Cup finals and how hockey totally transfixed this town (we won’t be mentioning Bruce McNall) and we’ll be going heavy on how Wayne Gretzky played here (we won’t be mentioning Marty McSorley) and how Michelle Kwan and Linda Fratianne and Tai Babilonia and Randy Gardner grew up here (we won’t be mentioning Wild Wing) and how Olympic freestyle skiing gold medalist Nikki Stone lives here (we won’t be mentioning the stoned freestyle skiers at Big Bear on Christmas break) and how the Zamboni was invented here (we won’t be mentioning the speed of traffic on the 405 on a rainy February day).

We’ve been thwarted in our attempt to bring the 2012 Summer Olympics to Los Angeles, because the U.S. Olympic Committee thought we were too arrogant, which was strange, because people living in Los Angeles will tell you they’re exceedingly humble and modest, and if the USOC truly believes Houston, Washington, New York and San Francisco are better potential Summer Olympic sites than L.A., they’re a lot dumber than we thought in the first place.

We’ve been thwarted, but not defeated, and that is why we’ve shelved the Summer Games for the time being and set our sights on another prize.

The Winter Olympics, of course.

We’re in training for them, right now, as we speak.

The U.S. Figure Skating Championships at Staples Center this week? They’re our Olympic trials.

The NHL All-Star game at Staples on Feb. 2? Our test run for North America versus the world a few Olympiads down the line.

“We’ve talked about it,” says Rich Perelman, who drew up the bid for the failed LA2012 campaign. “A couple of us got together over dinner and we actually thought about it, because we didn’t know when the next opportunity would be for the U.S. to have Summer Games. And as you can see, there’s already a strong prejudice against us for having Summer Games.

“So we thought about a Winter Games. And, you know, there’s no problem to hold all of the arena events. And we would go to Big Bear and Mammoth for the skiing events. The real sticking point was going to be where do we put the ski jumping and where do we put the bob and luge track? And we’d probably have to build that, which is what Utah did.

“But we actually toyed with it. As a matter a fact, I mentioned it to [LA2012 President] David Simon after we got eliminated. I said, ‘These clowns eliminated us, we ought to go for the Winter Games.”’

Why not? We already have our marketing slogan prepared: “You Think We’re Crazy? Hey, They Gave Atlanta The Summer Games, Didn’t They?”

Actually, we have another: “Where Would You Rather Spend Three Weeks In February--Salt Lake City Or Here?”

We have the ice rinks. In fact, we’re up to our axels in ice rinks. We have Staples and the Forum and their heritage of fine major-league hockey. We have the Pond and the Long Beach Arena and their heritage of fine minor-league hockey.

We have the mountains. Big Bear to the east, Mammoth to the north, the Matterhorn to the south.

Ski jumping could be held at the Coliseum, which sounds a little weird, but really would be nothing new.

“I’ve seen some old footage of it,” says Simon, who also serves as president of the Los Angeles Sports Council. “The Coliseum, at least once, hosted the Olympic trials for the U.S. team for ski jumping.... They set up a jump and they were actually jumping across the length of the field.”

Or, Perelman suggests, “maybe we could do a joint bid with Las Vegas. We could hold ski jumping there and they’d just jump right over the Strip.

“The ski jump federation two years ago actually asked me, ‘Where could we put a demonstration, a summer-type event?’ Clearly, you put it in Vegas. And you ski right into the Sphinx....

“It seems to me that having people ski-jumping over the desert in Las Vegas, that’s kind of the visual that you want. You know? You have the volcano blowing up and then the guy just kind of bisects it as he’s coming over it.”

Bobsled and luge? Perelman suspects Las Vegas or Anaheim could handle that.

“Maybe we would put the bobsled on an elevated strip over Las Vegas Boulevard,” he says. “And the losers then just keep going to Los Angeles. Either that, or you could put it at Disneyland. They’re building all that new stuff. I mean, make it an attraction, right?

“There’s every opportunity to put together something like this, and to have a fabulous Winter Games. I mean, this thing is about entertainment. You want entertainment, I think you could have a combination of the glory of the Winter Games combined with the gore of the French Revolution.”

We’re brainstorming here. Throwing ideas against the wall, running them up the flagpole.

“One thing we can’t offer is that snowy setting for the opening ceremony,” Simon says. “On the other hand, we can offer the best golf accommodations in the history of the Winter Olympics. For those days off.”

Let’s timetable it then. Turin, Italy, has already booked 2006. Vancouver is going hard after 2010. The International Olympic Committee probably figures to go away from North America in 2014.

After that?

“We’re forming the 3012 bid committee,” Simon quips. “The next Ice Age.”

Perelman is more the optimist.

“Seriously, at some point, this is probably going to happen,” he says. “It’s probably going to be at least 20, 30 years. But at some point, on a more serious level, the IOC--and there are people who recognize it now--will recognize that the Winter Games, given the current schedule that they have and the paucity of events that they’ve got, they simply cannot afford the kind of [television] rights fees that they’re asking for in the kind of environment they’ve had.

“They are going to cities now, not to villages. The view is widely espoused that Lillehammer is the last village to host the Games. You’re going to a mid-major city in the United States in Salt Lake City. You’re going to a first-class Italian city in Turin. I don’t know where they’re going to go in 2010, but if they go to Whistler Mountain, you’re talking essentially about going to Vancouver, another major city in North America.

“When you go into these cities, which have all the infrastructure of stadiums and arenas and so on, it seems to me that sports that really get the short shrift in the Summer Games--like fencing, wrestling, weightlifting, team handball--would be tailor-made to be brought into the Winter Games. They would be the stars--after figure skating, of course--they would be the absolute stars.”

Current IOC guidelines require all Winter Olympic sports to be conducted either on snow or ice, but a few years back, IOC executive Marc Hodler began lobbying for the inclusion of his favorite pastime, bridge, in the Winter Games. Chess and ballroom dancing are also banging on the Olympic door, and if the Summer Games want no part of them, the Winter Games, nudged along by networks clamoring for more to televise than biathlon and short-track speedskating, could become their ultimate refuge.

“When you say ‘Los Angeles and the Winter Games’ right now, it’s a ha-ha,” Perelman says. “But I think when the Winter Games [accept] this concept that they should [include] sports that are practiced in the winter--basketball would be another example--and not sports that are simply on snow and ice, I think there is a real opportunity to say, ‘You know, we really ought to be considering what sports ought to be moved from the Summer Games into the Winter Games....

“I think that is the future of the Winter Games. And when that happens, I think Los Angeles would look at it more seriously.”

Basketball, L.A. can handle. Fencing, wrestling, weightlifting and team handball as well. Even bridge.

But what about one of those fringe sports already on the Winter Olympic menu?

What about, say, curling?

“It would be a good place for curling,” Perelman insists, tongue back in cheek. “There’s all kinds of hair salons here.”

TV COVERAGE

* Wednesday--Men’s short program (tape-delayed one day), ESPN2, 8:30-9:30 p.m.

* Thursday--Men’s free skate (delayed); women’s free skate preview, Ch. 7, 8-11 p.m.

* Friday--Original dance (delayed one day), ESPN2, 4-5 p.m.; pairs and women’s short programs (delayed one day), 6-8 p.m., ESPN

* Saturday--Pairs and women’s free skates (delayed), ABC Family Channel, 8-11 p.m.

* Sunday--Pairs and women’s free skates (repeat from Saturday), Ch. 7, 2-5 p.m.

* Sunday, Jan. 20--Free dance (tape-delayed eight days), Ch. 7, 3-4 p.m.