Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, March 31, 1992 TAG: 9203310027
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The Governor's Commission on Fitness and Sports was to decide whether the Olympic-style sports festival would be held in Roanoke or Tidewater from 1993-95, but it is an advisory group that is scheduled to go out of business on April 11. King said that situation, combined with the National Congress of State Games having recognized VAS as Virginia's official State Games organization, puts VAS in charge of the Games.
The move has sent the Governor's Commission scrambling to the state capitol asking for extended life and authority; has angered Sports Virginia of Richmond, which runs an unofficial version of the State Games; and has confused the Hampton Roads Sports Promotion Task Force, the only group to bid on the Games other than Roanoke.
The Roanoke Valley has put on the first two Commonwealth Games, and the third edition is scheduled in June. Whether VAS' power play means Roanoke stands a better chance of keeping the sports festival is uncertain.
"I don't know what the board is going to do," King said.
Martha Mackey, who put together Roanoke's bid for the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors' Bureau, has an inkling.
"It probably would help us," Mackey said, noting that most Governor's Commission members are from Richmond.
Sports Virginia executive Dick Hollander said his group won't bid on the Games if VAS is making the decision. Hampton Roads chairman Frank Bowers said he wouldn't be thrilled with VAS in charge.
"It's a little disconcerting - a group we're competing with is [awarding] the Games," Bowers said. "Our position always has been we just want to know what the rules are and who we're going to deal with."
Bowers said he has heard some Tidewater-area athletes are "tired of going to Roanoke" and said the Games should be rotated. Some VAS board members polled said they think the Games should stay in Roanoke; others said the Games should move among sites, including Roanoke.
"In my opinion, the board members who represent this part of the state will vehemently claim this should be the place because of the track record," said former VAS board member Mac McCadden. "That's a majority of the board. They're going to outvote [the others]."
One board member from Richmond, Alfreeda Goff, favors Roanoke.
"I don't have any other venues to compare it to," she said. "[As far as] needs, Roanoke is probably best suited. It'd be nice to move the Games around, obviously. Right now, it probably needs to stay in Roanoke a little bit."
Board member Steve Danish disagrees.
"We need to understand what the long haul is - whether VAS is synonymous with the Games in Roanoke or with the Games in Virginia," Danish said. "I don't think they should be in Roanoke all that time.
"One of the most important things is to end up with a process where other parts of the commonwealth feel there is a State Games. . . . It's really important we go beyond helping Roanoke out and we are concerned about the athletes in the commonwealth. If [another locality] can't do it as well as Roanoke, then Roanoke is the place people are going to return to."
Although VAS' national sanction is up for its annual review in September, National Congress president Tom Osborne and membership chairman Ron Allen said they have no problem with VAS assuming responsibility for determining the sites for future State Games.
"They have the authority right now to plan this year's Games and to look beyond this year," Allen said.
Don Pate of Richmond is a former executive director of Sports Virginia who quit in a dispute over philosophy and now is a member of the Governor's Commission. He said the Games need an "outside force available for accountability purposes" - such as the Commission.
Hollander, Pate and other members of the Governor's Commission said word has reached them through Walter McFarland, a policy aide to Gov. Douglas Wilder, that the Commission will continue to exist in some form. If it exists and is given authority by the state government, the Commission could overrule VAS and make the final decision on the site from 1993-95.
"We haven't made a decision on that yet," McFarland said, adding that it will be early April before the issue is looked at. "If that impression has been given out, it was not intended."
King said he won't wait for Wilder's word. He said he will ask Commission vice-chairman Millie West to hand over the Roanoke and Tidewater bids and said VAS "probably" will re-open the bidding process with a new bid packet.
"It may not have even been fair," King said of the bid packet sent to interested localities last winter. "If it's not fair, we'll throw it out."
West, however, said she will not turn over the two completed bids to King before checking with Mackey and with the Tidewater group. Mackey said she would welcome the packets being turned over to VAS; Bowers isn't sure.
West said the Governor's Commission has put the bids on the back burner until it hears from Wilder.
"[We need to] find out whether we're going to exist, and if so, do we have any power," West said. "If we don't, we'll probably back off; if we do, we'll probably go forward. If we back off, we're likely to have State Games all over the place."
by CNB