THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 5, 1994 TAG: 9406050197
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: D7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY PAUL WHITE, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940605 LENGTH: VIRGINIA BEACH
That could serve as the current slogan of the Hampton Roads Sports Task Force, which is cautiously optimistic that if all goes well, the launching of the Virginia State Games this week could be a springboard to something much bigger.
{REST} According to Ira Agricola, senior vice president of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce which staffs the sports task force, Richmond will bid to host the U.S. Olympic Festival in either 1997, 1998 or 1999. How successful this area is in putting on the Virginia State Games could be a factor in how much of a player Hampton Roads becomes in the Richmond bid.
``Whenever a bid goes out on an event like this, the national governing bodies typically look at how you host other sporting events,'' Agricola said. ``This is an opportunity for us to show what we can do.''
The U.S. Olympic Sports Festival is a summer multisports competition held in non-summer Olympic years, involving athletes grouped by geographic regions.
Should Richmond win the right to host the event, Hampton Roads could be the site of several sports, including sailing, rowing, ice hockey and speedskating, Agricola said.
The network and cable television exposure that goes with the Olympic Festival would no doubt help thrust the Hampton Roads area onto the national sports map.
It might be another step in turning the nation's largest metropolitan area without a major-league sports franchise into a more viable, attractive. . . .
But first things first.
The Virginia State Games, an amateur sports festival patterned after the Olympics, gets under way Friday with opening ceremonies at 24th Street Park at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront. Sixteen days of competition featuring youth and adult athletes will follow.
Organizers are hoping that more than 5,000 athletes will participate in the games' 34 sports, which range from the standards (basketball, baseball, track and field, boxing) to the more obscure (darts, windsurfing, synchronized swimming, indoor climbing and polo).
The events are sanctioned by most governing amateur sports groups, including the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU).
This is the fifth year of the Games - Richmond was the event's previous host. Plans now are for for Hampton Roads and Richmond to rotate the annual event, with this area getting the games in even-numbered years.
The '94 games is being staged by Virginia Beach Events Unlimited, headed by Ken Berger.
Participants must be either a Virginia resident, a student enrolled in a Virginia university or college or active-duty military stationed in Virginia medal in the Games.
More than 20 venues throughout Hampton Roads will host events, including Norfolk State and Old Dominion universities, Langley Air Force Base, Little Creek Amphibious Base, and various high schools and recreation centers.
Naturally, spectators are encouraged to turn out for the various competitions. According to Arigola, however, no one connected with the Games is naive enough to expect sizable turnouts for the majority of these events.
``Certain sports don't lend themselves to that type of thing,'' Arigola said.
The Virginia State Games are more about the competition and the athletes themselves, he said. Therefore, success will be measured in terms of how the participants and officials of the various governing bodies view Hampton Roads' efforts in staging the Games, Arigola said.
So let the Virginia State Games begin. Meanwhile, dreams of even bigger games are already under way. by CNB