Rare winning feeling in Philly - at U.S. Open

A championship will be won in Philadelphia next weekend.

OK, so the U.S. Open title technically will be won in Ardmore, and there won't be any parade down Broad Street for the winner. Within hours of raising the silver trophy at Merion, the U.S. Open champion will be on a plane bound for his next paying gig.

It wasn't so long ago that Philadelphia was in danger of being spoiled. The Phillies played 24 postseason games at Citizens Bank Park, including a World Series clincher that took two nights. The Eagles played for three NFC titles here, celebrating a trip to the Super Bowl at Lincoln Financial Field. The Flyers were in the Stanley Cup Finals just three Junes ago. That ended a decade that began with the 76ers' going to the NBA's championship round.

Now? Well, Jeffrey Lurie's unlikely dream of bringing the Super Bowl to Philadelphia seems closer than another Eagles appearance in the NFL's main event. The Phillies season took another turn toward irrelevance Sunday with a third consecutive loss in Milwaukee.

The NBA and NHL finals are happening somewhere about a million miles from the Sixers and Flyers. The Wells Fargo Center is crypt-quiet as far as its primary tenants are concerned.

So, yes, bring on Tiger and Rory and Phil. Let's get some superstar athletes in here to distract us from the moribund local franchises for a few days. It won't be as satisfying as watching Brad Lidge throw strike three past Eric Hinske, or discussing the Eagles' chances of upsetting the Patriots in Jacksonville, but it will have to do.

The Open will mean more to the city in a public-image sense than in sports-fan gratification. Merion is unique and distinctly Philadelphia in its eccentricities and charms. It is going to look great on television, which is how most people will experience the tournament.

Maybe ESPN's cameras can find something other than the tired images of sizzling cheesesteaks for its scene-setting shots. It's a beautiful, diverse city. Big sports events are one of the few ways to show it off to a national audience.

That's one reason it is worth pursuing these major events. The Phillies have been too passive about getting the Major League All-Star Game back in town. It was at Veterans Stadium in 1996, and it's true there are 26 metropolitan areas to choose from (counting the San Francisco Bay Area as one entry).

But a new ballpark, especially one as terrific as the Bank, should have moved the Phillies up the list. The game was held at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh in 1994, then went back to PNC Park just 12 years later. There's no reason the Phillies couldn't have managed that.

Next month, the All-Star Game will be at Citi Field, its second time in New York in five years.

There was a rumble a couple of months back about Philadelphia's attempting to host a Summer Olympics. That's a long shot, but it is absolutely worth trying to accomplish. Why? For the same reason the Olympics themselves are worth holding - because it's always worth trying to do something transcendent. London, host of last summer's Games, did an amazing job of integrating the venues and events into the city - yet you could be in Soho and not even notice anything was going on across town.

The Olympics place a city in the world's spotlight for almost an entire month. The Super Bowl shines that light for a week. Lurie's chances of success will rise or fall with the success of next year's game in the Meadowlands. If it's a weather disaster, Philadelphia will never have a chance. If it goes well, the city should get squarely behind Lurie's efforts.

Attracting the Open to Merion was at least as challenging. This is like the Super Bowl's being held at Lambeau Field in Green Bay (which actually would be a great idea).

It is going to be fantastic, watching Tiger Woods line up a putt while the bells at St. George's Episcopal Church ring, or Rory McIlroy strolling up the 18th fairway as a train rolls by on the Norristown High-Speed Line behind him.

There is going to be great golf played in a great place. What could be better?

Other than another World Series, that is.