CITY GOES ALL OUT TO LURE IN SPORTS VISITS LUGE RECRUITMENT IS NEXT LOCAL EVENT.

Byline: PATRICIA FARRELL AIDEM Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA -- The city's parks chief and a friend traveled to Santa Clarita one day in search of the perfect slope -- a road graded just right for kids to learn to luge.

That's right. The luge. The Olympic snow sport that has no place in this sun-baked burg.

Yet they found their spot -- Centre Pointe Parkway at Ferry Court. And in late August, kids from 11 to 14 can learn to luge under the tutelage of USA national luge team coaches and athletes as part of their recruitment tour.

``They're going to do a camp,'' said Rick Gould, director of Santa Clarita's parks department. ``They travel around the county looking for kids. If they find one with promise, they'll have an opportunity to train'' in Lake Placid, N.Y., or Park City, Utah.

Gould heads a city team seeking to bring sports tourism to Santa Clarita. And while the luge event isn't necessarily one that will draw spectators to fill up local hotels, it puts Santa Clarita on the map among the nation's athletic organizers, he said.

On Thursday, Santa Clarita announced it will be one of a dozen cities to play host in February to the 600-mile Amgen Tour of California bicycle race, which last year boasted more spectators than any other sporting event in state history.

``We embrace sports tourism,'' Gould said. ``We know the value economically, the name recognition and the branding of our community.''

Santa Clarita lobbied tour officials for the honor, vowing to truly host participants, organizers and spectators, Gould said. Already, rooms have been booked at the Hyatt Valencia for the cyclists. City officials expect local hotels will have no vacancies, with some 70,000 people expected in town for the race and related events.

``Our view is that we have a lot of roads that are attractive from a bicycling perspective, a lot of nice slopes,'' Gould said. ``We told them, `We'll do what you need us to do.'''

The city faces two hurdles -- it has little free land to build sports facilities such as the huge soccer and baseball complexes that other cities use to draw teams from across the nation. And there aren't enough hotels, city spokeswoman Gail Ortiz said.

``We have the highest occupancy rates in the L.A. area,'' Ortiz said. ``We need more rooms.''

Two major hotels are planned -- an Embassy Suites and a Marriott. But neither will be open in time for another of the city's big sporting events.

From Aug. 2-6, Santa Clarita will host the Southern California Swimming Junior Olympics at the city Aquatic Center. Seventy swim clubs representing about 1,000 competitors will participate.

``These are top competitors, the kids who'll have college scholarships and even go on to the Olympics,'' Gould said.

And Santa Clarita has hosted the PGA Senior Tour for several years. The event this past March at the Valencia Country Club brought some $9 million to the city and to local businesses, Gould said.

``Sports tourism is something we're tapping into,'' he said. ``We're finding that if we do one event well, our reputation spreads.''

pat.aidem(at)dailynews.com

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