The Los Angeles Olympics of Anaheim: Orange County has a role in L.A.’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, though OC probably can expect to gain about as much exposure as Arte Moreno brings to Anaheim. The Insider counted only four OCers (former Olympians Janet Evans, Peter Vidmar, Ann Meyers Drysdale and Cathy Marino Bradford) on the 64-member Southern California Committee for the Olympic Games. And local public officials said they knew little about the L.A. effort. But OC is part of the plan: The popular basketball games would be staged at Honda Center and Anaheim Arena. The Bren Events Center at UCI would host badminton,”It’s an awesome event,” assures committee chairman Barry Sanders (an L.A. lawyer, not the former star NFL running back). And the Oaks Blenheim Facility in San Juan Capistrano would stage some of the equestrian competition. The Olympic hub would be the L.A. Coliseum, with other venues at USC, UCLA, Long Beach, Pasadena and elsewhere. Newport Beach’s Peter Ueberroth, the driving force behind L.A.’s acclaimed ’84 Olympics, isn’t part of the effort. He has a bigger role: He’s chairman of the U.S. Olympic Committee, which on April 14 is set to select either L.A. or Chicago as the nation’s entry in a two-year international competition for the games. Other bidders are expected to include Madrid, Rome, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro, Doha and Delhi. (Swimmer Evans and gymnast Vidmar are slated to be on “Inside OC” the week of Feb. 4) …
The Interview, continued: The Irvine Company boss Donald Bren is one Southern California billionaire who is not interested in buying the Los Angeles Times: “I would not like to be in the newspaper business, the publishing business, today …
Technology and information technology are advancing so rapidly, and I’m not sure where all of that’s going.” Bren is acquainted with the subject: He says he’s a news junkie who has cut back from reading “five or six newspapers” in order to catch more sleep. And TIC owned the Irvine World News and Tustin Weekly before selling them to the OC Register in 2000. “It was a very small part of our business and we made the decision, frankly, that it wasn’t our business” …
Bren said the biggest challenge to California’s continued economic growth is education,K through 12, “which needs to improve,” and university research, “which needs to continue.” Bren has been a big benefactor in both areas …
Tribute to John Crean, page 59 … Not sure if the bearer of this license plate is into soccer or the theater: SCR JNKE …
Doug Freeman (IFF Advisors, Irvine), Gordon Schaller (Greenberg Traurig, Costa Mesa) and Jeffrey Matsen (Bohm, Matsen, Kegel & Aguilera, Costa Mesa) are among Worth magazine’s Top 100 Attorneys. Earlier, Michael Johnston (Smith Barney, Irvine), Jeff Saccacio (Citigroup, Costa Mesa) and Craig Wells (Deutsche Bank, Costa Mesa) made Worth’s list of Top 100 Wealth Advisors.
