Groups pitch tourism proposals to state panel

Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005 | 11:12 a.m.

Leaders of an effort to bring the Winter Olympic Games to Northern Nevada say the exercise of putting a proposal on paper would generate ideas that will help the state refine its tourism offerings.

"You build your legacy before you build your bid," said Jim Vanden Heuvel of the Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition, which made a presentation Tuesday to the Nevada Commission on Tourism at its quarterly meeting.

The commission invited several organizations to make presentations about their respective tourism enhancement efforts in anticipation of funding being available from the Fund for the Promotion of Tourism, established in legislation approved by lawmakers earlier this year.

Under the legislation, if there is a funding surplus from tax revenue, it is to be distributed to qualifying government tourism entities. Seven organizations -- two from Southern Nevada -- made presentations to the commission, with other presentations scheduled at future meetings.

Southern Nevada organizations applying for funding include the Atomic Testing Museum at the Desert Research Institute and the newly formed state park at the Elgin Schoolhouse near Panaca. Other presentations were made for the Western Folklife Center in Elko, the Lear Theater Coalition and the Fleishmann Planetarium in Reno and the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority on behalf of the Truckee River Recreational Master Plan.

The Reno Tahoe Winter Games Coalition also is seeking funding.

The committee, which has the experience of next-door neighbor Salt Lake City as a point of reference, hopes the state would play host to the Winter Games of 2014 or 2018. In order to win the bid, the committee must first convince the U.S. Olympic Committee that the Nevada bid is the best in the nation and if that occurs, the nomination would go to the International Olympic Committee.

Bids normally are awarded about seven years in advance of the event.

Vanden Heuvel said the Utah games generated $4.1 billion in revenue and 35,000 jobs in the seven years preceding the staging of the Games. When the 2002 games concluded, Utah was left with millions of dollars in infrastructure built to accommodate the crowds.

In other business, the commission was told that the "Nevada Passage television show highlighting attractions in rural Nevada has been a huge success with 95 stations nationwide, including ESPN, broadcasting the hour-long production.

Executive Director Bruce Bommarito said preparations already are under way for a new competition and production in 2006.