By Rich Kaipust
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Would a city that appreciates volleyball and has supported two NCAA final fours come out for a World Grand Prix event?
What would a city that annually hosts the College World Series think about another major event if USA Baseball wanted to visit?
Those are only hypothetical’s, but represent some of the future possibilities as the Omaha Sports Commission starts 2010 with a different approach of attracting sporting events from local to international levels.
Omaha Sports Commission President Harold Cliff calls it natural evolution for the nonprofit organization created in 2003 to attract and host amateur sporting events.
“We’ve changed the focus, I think, fairly significantly from previous OSC activity,” Cliff said.
Cliff said Omaha will continue its regular pursuit of NCAA events, but supplement it by working with other agencies. It also will aim to become more proactive in the community at the grass-roots level, which should be helped by its launch this week of a revamped and more interactive Web site at omahasports.org.
The front of its new brochure reads: “Making Omaha the Leading Amateur Sports Community in America.”
Cliff, hired to organize and run the 2008 U.S. Olympic Swim Trials, decided to stay in Omaha and become Dan Morrissey’s replacement with the Omaha Sports Commission later that fall. Throughout 2009, the strategy was to start building rapport with such organizations as USA Baseball, USA Hockey, USA Volleyball and others — similar to what has been established with USA Swimming.
The Omaha Sports Commission expects that to start paying dividends with future events, including one that is set to be announced next month.
Cliff said he wants Omaha to pursue events the commission wants rather than running the gantlet with cities chasing what’s available. As an example, Cliff said, Omaha is in a situation with USA Hockey where it wouldn’t have to go through a bid process if a mutual agreement on an event could be reached.
It also has spoken with USA Volleyball about a potential Grand Prix tournament down the road. The Grand Prix events match national teams and are played around the world.
“It all comes back to how the Trials were successful and came back here (for 2012),” Cliff said. “Other sports look up to USA Swimming because it was one of the leading sports. So if they decided to come back, then I guess the view is, ‘Well, maybe Omaha is capable of doing these things.’”
Being able to lasso the 2008 U.S. Trials — and then realize the major impact of the eight-day meet — also triggered the change in vision.
Harley Schrager, Omaha Sports Commission officer and former chairman, said the CWS will always be the “goose that laid the golden egg for Omaha” in terms of amateur sports. But Schrager said nothing gave Omaha the exposure that the Swim Trials did in 2008.
“Nothing,” he repeated.
The quest for NCAA events won’t stop, and Omaha is finalizing bids for about a dozen with deadlines in February. But Cliff said the pool of interested cities continues to grow and that NCAA events don’t necessarily guarantee financial success.
“So it really behooves you to go out and find other levels of competition to be part of the mix,” he said.
Schrager said Omaha also has to look at using all of its facilities, not just Qwest Center Omaha and the TD Ameritrade Park that is under construction. Cliff said the commission even plans to arrange a meeting with Omaha Royals officials about their stadium being built in Sarpy County.
The Omaha Sports Commission also completed a survey last summer of all facilities in the city, no matter the size. It hopes its Web site, which in the past attracted minimal traffic, will help with coordinating amateur sports in the city.
“We’re going to provide them the opportunity to hook up to our site, post their information, post their event,” Cliff said. “So if you’re Joe Citizen in Omaha and you want to learn about what’s going on in sport X, or what’s going on for Y date, you’ll be able to come to the Sports Commission Web site and find that information.”
Cliff said the OSC also plans to bring together groups with scheduled sport forums. Bigger events coming to Omaha could include clinics for the community, such as the Make a Splash program funded by USA Swimming.
Cliff said the Omaha Sports Commission had to get its feet wet first before advancing to this next stage.
“I think when you get a new executive director-president, (that) is a good time to look at the vision of where you’d like to take things,” he said. “So you present those views to the board and see what the reaction is. Fortunately, the board is very supportive and helpful in bringing these things about.”
