Athletics Finances

When asked last week whether elite sports in the Soviet Union will survive the country's restructuring, known as perestroika , Alexander Kozlovsky, deputy chairman of the country's state-controlled sports committee, Goskomsport, responded with a story. He said he was touring Leningrad a few years ago, when a friend asked why the beautiful Summer Garden, built in 1720 by Peter the Great, was not destroyed during the Russian Revolution.

The Amateur Athletic Foundation's board approved more than $2.5 million to help fund youth sports programs throughout Southern California. In addition to the 38 direct grants, funding also was approved for AAF programs that provide basic instruction in diving, swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo to more than 6,000 children in the Los Angeles area.

For an organization that purports to help coaches and athletes in developing countries, the International Olympic Committee sometimes spends its money in unexpected ways. The IOC paid the United States $523,200 as a bonus for bringing a large contingent of athletes to the 1996 Atlanta Games. Peru, a relatively poor country, received only $20,000. The disparity occurred because of special payments that have nothing to do with need.

For an organization that purports to help coaches and athletes in developing countries, the International Olympic Committee sometimes spends its money in unexpected ways. The IOC paid the United States $523,200 as a bonus for bringing a large contingent of athletes to the 1996 Atlanta Games. Peru, a relatively poor country, received only $20,000. The disparity occurred because of special payments that have nothing to do with need.

The U.S. Figure Skating Assn.'s list of sponsors is so long and prominent, it looks like a roll call for the Fortune 500. But the U.S. Bobsled Federation will finish this fiscal year in the black by a mere $41. The U.S. Luge Assn. recently signed a sponsorship agreement that ensures its financial stability for the next six years and built a state-of-the-art indoor facility. But the U.S. Ski Assn.

The Amateur Athletic Foundation's board approved more than $2.5 million to help fund youth sports programs throughout Southern California. In addition to the 38 direct grants, funding also was approved for AAF programs that provide basic instruction in diving, swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo to more than 6,000 children in the Los Angeles area.

International sports federations renewed their demand for a greater share of Olympic revenues--including a cut of gate receipts. The Assn. of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) is meeting in Monte Carlo.

One legacy of the lengthy controversy involving USA Boxing's finances will be increased institutional control. What started as a routine audit on July 17 developed into a fiscal disaster as it was alleged that $3.18 million in U.S. Olympic Committee grants to USA Boxing had been misappropriated, according to records from 1989 to 1995.

Hard to believe, but we may end up remembering Al Davis fondly as the last of a vanishing breed of ornery, want-a-winner, individual football team owners. Davis, of course, decided last week to take Oakland's offer to move the Raiders from Los Angeles. For next season it looks like the vast Los Angeles-area market will be without a National Football League team, the Rams having departed to St. Louis.

The Inner-City Games has its first winner before the event begins--the games themselves. Nike presented Inner-City Games founder Danny Hernandez with a check for $100,000 on Wednesday to help support the sports festival created to give inner-city children an alternative to drugs and gangs.

The U.S. Figure Skating Assn.'s list of sponsors is so long and prominent, it looks like a roll call for the Fortune 500. But the U.S. Bobsled Federation will finish this fiscal year in the black by a mere $41. The U.S. Luge Assn. recently signed a sponsorship agreement that ensures its financial stability for the next six years and built a state-of-the-art indoor facility. But the U.S. Ski Assn.

The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation is broke and may have to declare bankruptcy if its fiscal situation isn't reversed within six weeks, Federation President James Morris said. The poor economic climate has affected corporate sponsorships. The organization is also hampered by an ongoing federal investigation into alleged mismanagement and sloppy bookkeeping, which resulted in $200,000-$400,000 going unaccounted for, Morris said.

A total of $484,585 in new grants to Southern California youth sports programs has been announced by the Amateur Athletic Foundation of Los Angeles, the organization charged with disseminating surplus funds from the 1984 Olympic Games. The latest quarterly grants include $81,511 to the California Handicapped Skiers Foundation, $71,100 for a "sports and the law" program sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation, $42,780 to the Riverside Aquatics Assn.

If you are following events on planet jock, you doubtless are aware that a new stadium is being built on the South Side of Chicago to shelter the White Sox. A dome is under construction in Atlanta. St. Louis has voted funds for a football stadium to serve as home for an NFL team the city aims to capture. And Cleveland has just come in with a vote to build a complex that would serve the baseball Indians outdoors and the basketball Cavaliers under a roof.

The U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton Federation is broke and may have to declare bankruptcy if its fiscal situation isn't reversed within six weeks, Federation President James Morris said. The poor economic climate has affected corporate sponsorships. The organization is also hampered by an ongoing federal investigation into alleged mismanagement and sloppy bookkeeping, which resulted in $200,000-$400,000 going unaccounted for, Morris said.

Eleven years ago, Bob Anderson had an inspiration. At first, it was only a reaction to the moment, but soon it blossomed into a grandiose scheme. Anderson, a silver-medal-winning freestyle wrestler in the 1979 Pan Am Games, was looking for a place where his son could hone his wrestling skills. Turned away by a full house at the San Clemente Boys Club, he decided to start his own team. Soon, he was envisioning a wrestling academy to rival anything in Eastern Europe.

With athletic and after-school sports programs from elementary schools through colleges imperiled by what the state Department of Finance is calling California's worst economic and fiscal situation since the late 1930s, Assemblyman Steve Clute (D-Riverside) believes the fans of the state's professional sports teams should provide a bailout. Clute is sponsoring AB 694, which would impose a 3% tax on professional sports tickets costing $5 or more to help fund existing school sports programs.