DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709110465

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER 
DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   60 lines

NORFOLK TO HOST JR. OLYMPICS MEET THE JULY EVENT WILL BRING 3,000 ATHLETES AND 10,000 VISITORS TO DICK PRICE STADIUM.

City officials have called a 2 p.m. press conference today to announce they have attracted another high-profile amateur sports event - the 1998 USA Track and Field Junior Olympics Southeastern Regional.

Officials wouldn't comment Wednesday on the subject of the press conference, to be held at Norfolk State University's Dick Price Stadium, other than to issue a release saying they will announce ``a major sports event coming to Norfolk.'' Sources say that event is the track meet, which is expected to bring 3,000 athletes and 10,000 out-of-town visitors to Price Stadium July 8-12.

The meet, for athletes ages 8 through 18, will be televised in part by Home Team Sports. City and NSU officials today will tout the event as the most prestigious track meet to come to Hampton Roads in modern times, and the first of many more to be held at NSU's new stadium.

Officials are trying to woo other track meets to the $15 million, 28,886-seat Price Stadium, which opened last month. Though it serves as the football home for Norfolk State, it was initially designed as a track facility. Its 8-lane polyurethane track has a fast surface and the stadium seating is set far back away from the track, allowing ample space for field events and for runners loosening up for their races.

The meet is one of four regional meets that serve as qualifiers for the USA Track and Field National Junior Olympics in Seattle, an event the city hopes to land in future years.

The Indianapolis-based USA Track and Field, the sanctioning body for the U.S. Olympic team and all college track, is the largest governing body for American track with 100,000 members and 2,500 member clubs.

While the meet is not as prominent as some other events recently announced by the city, it marks another victory in Mayor Paul D. Fraim's campaign to make Hampton Roads a mecca for amateur sports events. It's also another success for Billy Mann, a sales representative for the Norfolk Visitors and Convention Bureau and a former Old Dominion basketball star who has helped recruit a series of sports events to Norfolk, including the track meet.

The McDonald's All-American game, the nation's most prestigious high school basketball all-star game, will be played at Scope in March. It will be televised nationally by CBS and some pre-game events will be televised by ESPN.

The Group AAA state high school football and basketball championship games will be played in Norfolk the next two seasons. The basketball games will be played at Scope; the football games at Price Stadium.

The Virginia Is For Lovers Cup Hyrdroplane Race was held this summer in Willoughby Bay. The race drew an estimated 26,000 spectators and was televised on a delayed basis by ESPN. It will return yearly, officials say.

An NBA exhibition game between Golden State and Philadelphia Oct. 18 at Scope that the city is helping to promote. The game matches Norfolk native Joe Smith vs. Hampton native Allen Iverson.

Most of these events were recruited after the region's bid for a National Hockey League expansion franchise was turned down in February. Fraim has said the region must become a magnet for amateur sports and professional exhibitions before it can again seriously bid for a major sports team. Fraim did not return phone calls Wednesday.

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