Thursday, April 21, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

2014 WINTER GAMES: Olympic bid brews in Reno

Lawmakers asked to provide $200,000 for feasibility study

CORRECTION -- O4/22/05 -- An article in Thursday's Review-Journal misidentified one of the international areas expected to bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The cities are Ostersund and Are in Sweden.

Las Vegas has received national attention lately for courting Major League Baseball and the NBA All-Star Game. But the eyes of the world soon might be on the Biggest Little City as Reno looks to mount a bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

In testimony Wednesday before the Senate Finance Committee, representatives of Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Inc. asked for $200,000 to proceed with a feasibility study for hosting the Games.

"The Olympic impact on tourism would be fantastic," said Bruce Bommarito, who is executive director of the Nevada Commission on Tourism and a member of the coalition.

The Reno-Tahoe area has mounted three bids to host the Winter Games: those eventually held in Albertville, France, in 1992; Nagano, Japan, in 1998; and Salt Lake City in 2002.

But many Northern Nevadans vividly remember the 1960 Games held in nearby Squaw Valley, Calif., which drew 240,000 people to the region.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, said his memories of the 1960 Winter Games were that Reno experienced a sizeable boost to its economy.

"I can imagine what this could do for the whole state today," Raggio said.

No decision was made on the funding request Wednesday, but the bill, if supported by Raggio, could be among the late-session funding decisions. Raggio asked many questions of proponents, particularly about the chances Reno has of being invited to bid.

Much of Reno's current four-year effort to land the Games hinges on what happens in New York City.

Bob Condron, spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee, said in an interview that if New York wins a bid to host the 2012 Summer Games, "then we would probably not choose to do a 2014 bid."

It would be hard enough for the USOC to concentrate on preparing for the New York City event, let alone another in two years, he said in an interview from Colorado Springs, Colo.

But Condron placed Reno-Tahoe's past bids for the Olympics in a positive light, calling them "very good presentations and a very good area." He also said that after a decision on New York's chances is made July 6, the committee would be in a better position to consider a 2014 bid.

One of Reno's best attributes, he said, is that it is a decent-sized city with an airport, hotel rooms and infrastructure in place to host international crowds.

The general plan would be for Reno to host the indoor events and opening and closing ceremonies, with the skiing events taking place on the California side of Lake Tahoe.

Drawbacks to Reno's bid include the selection of Vancouver to host the 2010 Games and the International Olympic Committee's penchant to "spread it around" the globe, Condron said. Even with that philosophy in place, Condron noted, Europe is hosting back-to-back Olympics with Athens in 2004 and Torino, Italy in 2006.

The Big Apple is the biggest current roadblock. But local proponents said that the upcoming decision on the New York bid should only delay Reno-Tahoe's application, while still keeping it in line for consideration in 2014.

Condron said there are currently no other U.S. cities preparing for a 2014 bid.

If the United States submits a bid for that year, it is probable that Reno-Tahoe will be chosen, said Harry York, chief executive officer of the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce.

"The way the Reno-Tahoe area sits, this is right at the top," York said.

Leland Hernandez, chairman of the Nevada Commission on Sports, said Reno's only domestic competition could come from 1980 host city Lake Placid, N.Y., or Denver. But, he said, Lake Placid is too small to host Olympics in the modern television age and Denver wouldn't be viewed favorably because it rejected a chance to host the 1976 Winter Games.

The IOC will not announce its winning bid for the 2014 Games until July 2007. International cities planning to bid for those Olympics include Ostersund & Are, Switzerland; Pyeong Chang, South Korea; Salzburg, Austria; and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Other cities that, like Reno, are hoping for the chance to bid include Annecy, France; Harbin, China; Jaca, Spain; and Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The IOC typically invites only a handful of cities to bid. This year, for example, New York is bidding against London, Madrid, Moscow and Paris for the 2012 Summer Games.

In addition to the $200,000 requested in Senate Bill 374, Gov. Kenny Guinn has earmarked in his budget $150,000 over the next two years for Winter Games feasibility studies through the Nevada Commission on Tourism.

Bommarito said money is needed to travel to Colorado Springs and other locations to meet U.S. Olympic Committee officials and "to do politicking."

"We won't bribe anybody," he deadpanned.

Reno-Tahoe officials, including Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, still are reeling from the region's last unsuccessful attempt to bid for the Olympics, when it came in second to the scandal-plagued Salt Lake City Games.

The price to host the Winter Games has been estimated at more than $1.5 billion, the bulk of which is paid for through television rights and sponsorships.

"We're not yet to the point where we can put a number on the economic impact from the Games," Bommarito said. "But it's in the billions. It would impact Las Vegas, and it would have residual effects the year before and for years after."

Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, agreed that the Games would be "very good for us" in Southern Nevada.

Coalition members testified that Salt Lake City has seen a $6 billion impact from hosting the 2002 Games.