LOUISVILLE, Ky. - When Fred Sommer visited Louisville looking for a venue for the Tri-America Triathlon Series, it was cloudy and gray, with the wind whipping whitecaps on the Ohio River.

Not exactly the idyllic setting Sommer was looking for as a host of one of the elite triathlon events in the country. But then Sommer saw the city skyline, the wide-open streets and the media attention his event would receive and he knew Louisville would be a perfect fit.Five years later, the Louisville stop has become Sommer's personal favorite.

The city better known for the Kentucky Derby has also become the host city for a number of other regional and national sports competitions. "The city has been awesome to work with," Sommer said. "They're just so accommodating. They have a 'Can do' attitude instead of putting up hurdles in front of you and that makes all the difference in the world." The triathlon series' annual visit to Louisville in July drew over 600 athletes, with hundreds of friends and family along for the ride.

"Our goal is to put heads in beds and fill up the hotels," Sommer said. Which is exactly what the Greater Louisville Sports Commission had in mind when it was created in 2000. While the Derby will always be Louisville's marquee event, the Sports Commission's goal is to prove there's still plenty of room on the playbill. It's working.

Over the last two years, the city has played host to everything from the Tri-America Series to the Dew Action Sports Tour to the U.S. Transplant Games to the BMX Nationals, generating more than $18 million in revenue the Louisville, according to the Louisville Visitors Bureau. Andy Jugan, who led the Sports Commission for six years before leaving to become the executive director of the U.S. Waterski Foundation in June, credited the Derby with helping get the Sports Commission off the ground. "I could guarantee you in the office on the Monday after the Derby that I'd have three or four phone messages wondering if Louisville would be a good spot for their event," Jugan said. "Some of the biggest hits we've had have been people who called us instead of the other way around."

The reasons, Jugan said, are obvious once the event's organizers come to town. From affordable hotel rooms to an easily navigable downtown to decent facilities, Jugan said Louisville has the right mix of big-city ideas with small-city sensibility. "There's nothing worse than being in a van with screaming kids getting lost in a big city," he said. "Here, even if you have multiple venues for an event, they're all 15 minutes apart."

Ellie Schlam, who coordinated the U.S. Transplant Games that were held in Louisville in July, said one of the reasons Louisville was chosen to host the biennial games was due to the intimacy of its downtown area. "So many of the venues were clustered together in the downtown area that were in walking distance of each other, it felt like an Olympic Athletes Village," Schlam said.

In a way, Jugan said Louisville can provide events with the best of both worlds. While signs heading into Louisville welcome you to the nation's 16th largest city, the Sports Commission stresses that while Louisville is big, it's not so big that it turns its back on smaller events.

For every Dew Action Sports Tour - which brought in corporate sponsorship and national television exposure - there are events like the National Orienteering Championship and the U.S. Trampoline Games. Sommer said the Tri-America Series would get lost in the crowd in larger metropolitan areas. In Louisville, there is plenty of TV and newspaper coverage for smaller events. "It's a middle-sized market where the media gets excited about it," Sommer said. "In bigger cities, unless it's a professional sport with a ball or a motor, you don't even get acknowledged."

Not to say the city doesn't aspire to take on bigger projects. The area was involved in Cincinnati's unsuccessful bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics, and a new downtown arena that could open by 2010 would simply add to the city's growing sports resume.

Jeff Schneider, the Greater Louisville Sports Commission's interim executive director, said the city is already working on plans to bid for the NCAA Women's basketball Final Four as well as first and second-round games in the NCAA men's basketball tournament. Jugan said Louisville's profile has been raised to such a point over the last six years that it now finds itself competing with larger cities like Nashville, Atlanta and Houston to play host to certain events. That's heady company for an area and a state that has no major professional sports franchises.

A pro sports franchise may one day be on the horizon, though Louisville finds itself in a tough position geographically. Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Nashville all have at least two major pro teams and all are within easy driving distance of Louisville, giving fans plenty of options.

Scott Ramsey, the director of the Nashville Sports Council, said luring pro teams is harder now than it was in the 1990s, when Nashville landed the NFL's Tennessee Titans and the expansion Nashville Predators of the NHL. "Now there's just a lot more competition," Ramsey said. Then again, simply to be mentioned in the conversation is a major step from the day Jugan started in March 2000. The days of the city just trying to get its name out there are over. "Our job is to take it to he next level," Schneider said. "When I go out there and I'm selling the city, people are listening."