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ST. LOUIS COULD BENEFIT IF CHICAGO GETS 2016 OLYMPICS
By Vahe Gregorian
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo rts/stories.nsf/olympics/story/B260AFEB168727BC862 5754B000D9FBE?OpenDocument
Jan 27 2009
MO
St. Louis may never be the principal host for the Olympics again. But
if Chicago secures the 2016 Summer Games, St. Louis has a chance
to enhance its Olympic legacy by hosting preliminary soccer games
and serving as a satellite host for pre-Games training for visiting
nations.
Seeking to stoke St. Louis' imagination and galvanize support for
the movement, Chicago 2016 chairman and CEO Pat Ryan met Monday with
Civic Progress, a get-together he also hoped could bolster the private
funding to help the Games' site selection, to be announced in October.
A winning Chicago effort also could have broader ripples for St. Louis,
just 300 miles from the action.
An Olympics held in Chicago, St. Louis Sports Commission president
Frank Viverito said, perhaps would make St. Louis a more likely
candidate for hosting various Olympic trials and a more compelling site
for barnstorming exhibitions by U.S. teams leading up to the Games.
"So it's absolutely clear that St. Louis would love to see Chicago
get the Games and also clear that we'd love to be able to move forward
to solidify any of these opportunities," he said.
St. Louis applied in September for a role as host for soccer, which
by preference of the international association has been spread around
host nations in several Olympics.
As of now, the site would be the Edward Jones Dome, the only local
facility that meets the International Olympic Committee minimum
seating capacity of 30,000. Busch Stadium may or may not be able to
be configured for soccer but is thought to be unavailable for weeks
during mid-summer.
An Olympic soccer game has yet to be played indoors, though some 1994
World Cup games were played at the Pontiac (Mich.) Silverdome and no
one has signaled to St. Louis that it couldn't be done.
Ryan was uncertain of how many other cities had applied for
preliminaries but said it was more than four.
Perhaps of greater potential impact in terms of tourism, visibility
and even engagement with the public is the prospect of other countries
sending teams here for final training so they can get acclimated to
the time zone and weather.
The region has several world-class facilities, including the Rec-Plex
in St. Peter's, the track at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and
assorted training centers at Lindenwood, St. Louis University, the
University of Missouri-St. Louis and Washington University.
"I can't think of a place visiting nations would rather be than on
the campus of the stadium and field house that actually hosted" the
1904 Olympics, said Viverito, noting that campus dormitories would
be available for housing.
Beside the appeal of facilities, Ryan and Viverito said, a chance
to bond with immigrants from various countries could be a factor in
national governing bodies decisions about where to go.
With its enormous Bosnian population, for instance, St. Louis may
have appeal for the Bosnian national team. On a smaller scale, the
Armenian community in Granite City could be a reason for the Armenian
national contingent -- 25 members in Beijing -- to stay locally.
"My guess is that each of those countries would have a specific
approach to it, that they're looking to be in a certain place,
looking to be here for a certain amount of time, (for) certain types
of facilities," Viverito said.
Though the event is more than seven years away, the sports commission
has been laying groundwork in case Chicago prevails. For example,
SIUE athletics director Brad Hewitt said in an e-mail Monday, the
school has submitted a "letter of interest to be a training site"
to the sports commission.
Of course, all of the possibilities hinge on Chicago being awarded
the Games over Madrid, Rio de Janiero and Tokyo.
"People say, 'What are the odds of you winning?'" Ryan said. "I say,
'At least 25 percent.'"
If Chicago wins, odds are St. Louis does, too.
By Vahe Gregorian
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/spo rts/stories.nsf/olympics/story/B260AFEB168727BC862 5754B000D9FBE?OpenDocument
Jan 27 2009
MO
St. Louis may never be the principal host for the Olympics again. But
if Chicago secures the 2016 Summer Games, St. Louis has a chance
to enhance its Olympic legacy by hosting preliminary soccer games
and serving as a satellite host for pre-Games training for visiting
nations.
Seeking to stoke St. Louis' imagination and galvanize support for
the movement, Chicago 2016 chairman and CEO Pat Ryan met Monday with
Civic Progress, a get-together he also hoped could bolster the private
funding to help the Games' site selection, to be announced in October.
A winning Chicago effort also could have broader ripples for St. Louis,
just 300 miles from the action.
An Olympics held in Chicago, St. Louis Sports Commission president
Frank Viverito said, perhaps would make St. Louis a more likely
candidate for hosting various Olympic trials and a more compelling site
for barnstorming exhibitions by U.S. teams leading up to the Games.
"So it's absolutely clear that St. Louis would love to see Chicago
get the Games and also clear that we'd love to be able to move forward
to solidify any of these opportunities," he said.
St. Louis applied in September for a role as host for soccer, which
by preference of the international association has been spread around
host nations in several Olympics.
As of now, the site would be the Edward Jones Dome, the only local
facility that meets the International Olympic Committee minimum
seating capacity of 30,000. Busch Stadium may or may not be able to
be configured for soccer but is thought to be unavailable for weeks
during mid-summer.
An Olympic soccer game has yet to be played indoors, though some 1994
World Cup games were played at the Pontiac (Mich.) Silverdome and no
one has signaled to St. Louis that it couldn't be done.
Ryan was uncertain of how many other cities had applied for
preliminaries but said it was more than four.
Perhaps of greater potential impact in terms of tourism, visibility
and even engagement with the public is the prospect of other countries
sending teams here for final training so they can get acclimated to
the time zone and weather.
The region has several world-class facilities, including the Rec-Plex
in St. Peter's, the track at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and
assorted training centers at Lindenwood, St. Louis University, the
University of Missouri-St. Louis and Washington University.
"I can't think of a place visiting nations would rather be than on
the campus of the stadium and field house that actually hosted" the
1904 Olympics, said Viverito, noting that campus dormitories would
be available for housing.
Beside the appeal of facilities, Ryan and Viverito said, a chance
to bond with immigrants from various countries could be a factor in
national governing bodies decisions about where to go.
With its enormous Bosnian population, for instance, St. Louis may
have appeal for the Bosnian national team. On a smaller scale, the
Armenian community in Granite City could be a reason for the Armenian
national contingent -- 25 members in Beijing -- to stay locally.
"My guess is that each of those countries would have a specific
approach to it, that they're looking to be in a certain place,
looking to be here for a certain amount of time, (for) certain types
of facilities," Viverito said.
Though the event is more than seven years away, the sports commission
has been laying groundwork in case Chicago prevails. For example,
SIUE athletics director Brad Hewitt said in an e-mail Monday, the
school has submitted a "letter of interest to be a training site"
to the sports commission.
Of course, all of the possibilities hinge on Chicago being awarded
the Games over Madrid, Rio de Janiero and Tokyo.
"People say, 'What are the odds of you winning?'" Ryan said. "I say,
'At least 25 percent.'"
If Chicago wins, odds are St. Louis does, too.