
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 3, 1994                   TAG: 9407030102
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

ALLEN TAKES DELEGATION TO ST. LOUIS ON THE ROAD TO AN OLYMPIC HOST BID

Gov. George Allen led a delegation of business and government leaders on a trip to St. Louis Friday for the 1994 Olympic Festival, an event they hope to bring to Richmond in the late 1990s.

"It will bring national exposure to Richmond and indeed it will bring national exposure to Virginia. It enhances our economic opportunities. It certainly enhances tourism efforts as well," Allen said at an airport news conference before the 140-member delegation left.

Richmond is competing with Dallas, Phoenix, Seattle and Portland, Ore., for the chance to host the games in 1997, 1998 or 1999. The games will be held in two of those years, so two cities will be picked.

The U.S. Olympic Committee's board of directors is to decide later this summer which year will be cut, with 1998 the likely choice because the Winter Olympics and Goodwill Games are already scheduled for that year.

Written bids for the Olympic Festival, along with $25,000 from each city, must be submitted to the USOC by Aug. 1. The USOC will announce its choices in February.

Modeled on the Olympic Games, the festival features U.S. athletes competing in about 40 sports. The 10-day event has been held annually since 1978 except in years when the Summer Olympics takes place.

Richmond would need to build a $15 million swimming and diving center and a $3 million track before hosting the games. Local and possibly state money would finance the construction, said Bobby Ukrop, who is spearheading the Olympic bid as president of the Metropolitan Richmond Sports Backers.

He envisions the facilities as eventually becoming part of a $100 million sports complex in Richmond.

"We would be creating the East Coast's amateur sports capital," Ukrop said. The complex would have the only swimming and diving center between Annapolis, Md., and Chapel Hill, N.C., he said.

Ukrop said Dallas and Phoenix appear to be the toughest competitors. He said Richmond has an advantage because it is the only East Coast applicant.

The Sports Backers already have raised $1.8 million in private money to run the festival. A total of $11 million in cash and in-kind contributions and $3 million in ticket sales would be needed to finance the event.

The festival started in St. Louis Friday with the opening ceremony and tennis mixed doubles. The pace picks up Saturday, when 17 sports will be contested, including boxing, basketball, figure skating, swimming and diving.

The Virginia delegation planned to return late Saturday.

by CNB