The 10-member panel, dubbed the Blue Ribbon Panel on Sports Commissions, is expected to hold its first meeting in June.

"Part of a world-class city like Washington are world-class sporting events that contribute to the vitality of our region and improve our quality of life," Mayor Williams said in a written statement announcing the panel’s appointment.

"Our goal is to design a road map for continued improvement in sports event attraction and facility management, including events at the D.C. Armory and RFK."

The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission is responsible for the management and operation of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, the D.C. Armory and their adjacent facilities. It also is responsible for sponsoring and promoting sports, entertainment and special events in the District.

The Blue Ribbon Panel appointed by the mayor includes a mix of government officials and business executives.

The D.C. government will be represented on the panel by At-Large Councilman Harold Brazil, who has been among the D.C. sports commission’s major supporters on the city council; Eric Price, deputy mayor for planning and economic development; and Neil Albert, director of the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation.

Albert also is a member of the D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission’s Board of Directors. The 11-member board is headed by Chairman John Richardson.

Also appointed to the Blue Ribbon Panel were Jair Lynch, a former Olympic athlete who now heads the Jair Lynch Companies, which hold a number of recreation-related contracts with the D.C. government; Dan Knise, who headed the Baltimore-Washington region’s failed effort to attract the 2012 Summer Olympics and now heads Dionis Insurance Holdings Inc.; and Susan O’Malley, president of Washington Sports and Entertainment, which operates MCI Center and owns the District’s professional basketball franchises.

Others appointed to the panel are John Hill, CEO of In2Books; Fernando Murias, managing partner of PriceWaterhouseCoopers; John Moag of Moag and Company; and John Saboor, executive director of Central Florida Sports Commission Inc.

The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission has faced several setbacks in recent months, including the cancellation of this spring’s D.C. Marathon and of a 10-year plan to host the Cadillac Grand Prix auto races on the grounds of RFK Stadium. The commission lost millions of dollars it had invested in those events and a planned annual "Fright House" Halloween event that flopped.

The commission’s president and executive director, Bobby Goldwater, also has come under fire for recently revealed expensive lunches and other extravagant spending at government expense. Goldwater has been a controversial figure since he took over the sports commission’s operations in November 2000 at an annual salary of $225,000, almost double the mayor’s pay.

Copyright 2003, The Common Denominator