Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 19, 1992 TAG: 9202190070
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
STATE GAMES FUTURE UP IN AIR
The future of the Commonwealth Games of Virginia - where they are held, who will run them and how - remains uncertain after the Governor's Commission on Physical Fitness and Sports grappled unsuccessfully with the issue Tuesday.A 1 1/2-hour meeting in a downtown Richmond law office was expected to address whether Roanoke-based Virginia Amateur Sports would remain the Games' management group regardless of site.
Instead, the meeting was sidetracked by questions about whether the commission will be in business in two months. The commission's gubernatorial appointment expires April 12, and the members aren't sure whether any decisions they make will remain in effect past that date.
State law prevents another appointment for the commission under the same name and auspices, but commission chairman Aubrey Lindsey said Gov. Doug Wilder's office is looking into the body "continuing in another form."
Tuesday's meeting ended without the commission voting on a proposal by Richmond-based Sports Virginia to overturn an earlier decision that would have VAS oversee the Olympic-style sports festival no matter where it is held. In part because of that decision, Sports Virginia has not yet bid to play host to the Games from 1993-95.
Bids from Roanoke and Hampton Roads have been received, Lindsey said.
The Commission voted:
To have Lindsey, vice chairman Millie West, commission member Pete Stith, VAS chairman Ken King, Sports Virginia president Dick Hollander and a representative from the Hampton Roads bidding group meet as soon as possible to try to determine how the Games should be managed and by whom.
To suspend the process of reviewing bids for the 1993-95 Games until learning the results of the management meeting. Because of that, Sports Virginia won't be held to the Feb. 17 bid deadline.
The meeting shed little light on the possibility of Roanoke retaining the Games through 1995 or beyond.
Asked whether the VAS appointment as Games' management group was on or off, Commission member Don Pate said:
"It's still on the books, but on hold. Everything the Commission has done up till now is on hold."
Pate said he hopes the meeting on the management of the Games will produce a proposal for a single management team - either an existing group such as VAS or a combination of groups - to administer the Games regardless of site while allowing the committee from the host locality to run the Games.
Sports Virginia executive Sam Carmine didn't get the VAS decision overturned, but he said he was pleased the commission is looking into that issue and others.
"They're in a pickle," he said. "The commission has several things to address."
Eleven of the 22 commission members, including VAS president Jim Stutts, attended. Former VAS executive director Doug Fonder, a Commission member, did not attend.