Sacramento State students may get first hand experience of the Olympic Games, if San Francisco is chosen to host the 2012 Olympics.

“BASOC, the Bay Area Sports Organizing Committee has submitted San Francisco into the formal bid,” said Brian Dulgar, director and water ski/jet ski supervisor at the CSUS Aquatic Center.

The California bid is centered in San Francisco, with venues as far north as the CSUS Aquatic Center and as far south as Moffett Field Naval Air being considered.

“San Francisco is one of the four cities in the U.S. under consideration, the others being New York, Houston and Washington, D.C. This November, the U.S. bid will be awarded to one of the cities,” Dulgar said.

Dulgar has been attending the preliminary meetings, held to discuss the costs and the types of changes that will need to be made at the various venues if the Olympics come to San Francisco.

In order to offset some of the costs, in March, Gov. Gray Davis signed legislation SB 1987, establishing a state trust fund for the 2012 Olympic Games. This fund will cover unforeseen costs should the event come to Northern California, and is capped at $250 million, according to a press release on the BASOC Web site.

Since San Francisco already has 78 percent of the venues needed to host the games, the city has an edge in the bid competition because the majority of the money allocated for the games will be used to make improvements.

“There would be many improvements made to the center, like a white water course similar to what was done in Sydney that will cost $3.5 million. That way, we can host that event along with the flat water rowing and kayaking,” Dulgar said.

Though Dulgar admits that hosting the Olympics would be good exposure for the center and the university, he does have concerns about the current construction at the Aquatic Center.

“The Center is finally undergoing major construction that we have put off for many years. I would like to focus all my attention to making sure this gets done right before we host the games. I?m very optimistic…and am just waiting to see whose bid is accepted,” he said.

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