Spokane possible site for presidential debate

Spokane is in the running to be the site of a presidential debate.

Just where it fits in that competition won’t be known for months. But Washington State University filed an application to host a forum at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena and is one of 19 on a list of potential hosts released this week by the Commission on Presidential Debates.

That’s only the first step in the process, which typically results in two or three debates between the major parties’ presidential candidates and one vice presidential debate. Commission staff will be visiting the 19 proposed sites between now and June, and the sites will be selected this October.

“We would just be honored to have any of them,” said Mike Tate, WSU vice president for equity and diversity.

“We have never had a presidential debate in the Pacific Northwest,” Tate said.

To be considered, a site must have a facility large enough to handle the debate itself, which would be held sometime between mid-September and mid-October 2008. It also needs meeting rooms to accommodate presidential candidates and their staffs; commission staff; the Secret Service, which provides security; and a room where an estimated 3,000 journalists covering a debate would write their stories.

Harry Sladich of the Spokane Convention and Visitors Bureau said several groups have been working on the proposal for about six months, but that the effort was spearheaded by WSU.

While a presidential debate probably wouldn’t generate the number of out-of-town visitors as something like the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, it would draw in “tons of media,” he said.

Spokane has a good track record with some recent national events, such as the skating championships and the NCAA basketball tournament, said Tim Rhodes, a convention sales manager for the bureau who worked with WSU on the application.

“It doesn’t get much bigger than a presidential debate or a vice presidential debate,” Rhodes said. “I don’t think we’ll ever host a Super Bowl, so next to that, this is big.”

When it applied to host the debate, WSU had to include a $7,500 fee. That money did not come from public funds, Tate said, and neither would any of the costs associated with hosting the debate, such as meals and transportation for some visitors.

“We will need to have partners and corporate sponsors,” Tate said. “I think we’re going to ask for all the help we can get.”

The university already is getting help from the city of Spokane and the visitors bureau, he said.

Also on the commission’s list are a combined application from Clark College in Vancouver, Wash., and the Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission in Portland, and an application from Arizona State University in Tempe. Other sites are scattered throughout the East, Midwest and South, mostly at colleges and universities.