With just days to go before they debut in Nassau County, New York City and Staten Island, expectations for a Goodwill Games-inspired boom here have been significantly diminished due to miscues between the major entities involved in bringing them off and the growing realization that the number of spectators at the events will be significantly less than what was once hoped for.

"Things are never as rosy as the politicians make them out to be," said Nassau County Comptroller Fred Parola during the most recent edition of his Parola Update television program.

Over the course of the games, a field of 1,500 athletes from more than 60 nations -- many of them the very biggest names in their respective sports, including Michelle Kwan, Jackie Joyner-Kersee and Dan O'Brien -- will compete for $5 million in prize money and world record performance incentives.

With that level of competition, one would expect the Goodwill Games to be a sports fan's dream, but as Crain's New York Business reported on June 15, the event -- which has never turned a profit for its corporate sponsors -- seems in peril of completely running out of steam this year.

According to that report, written by Chris Isidore, the 1998 Goodwill Games, which will be presented, in large part here in Nassau, comes with "a $200 million price tag, modest viewership expectations, and ticket sale goals that will fill only half the available space."

"It could very well be the last gasp for the games," said Jay Gladden, assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts' sports managment program, in an interview with Isidore.

To be sure, in a year when The New York Yankees are dominating the American League with the best record in baseball, sports such as water polo, synchronized swimming, and cycling aren't exactly making fans beat a desperate path to the box office for tickets.

Though the Goodwill Games, begun formally in 1986, have never made money -- it is estimated that they lose between $25 million and $50 million every time they are held-- public officials in Nassau had high hopes for their impact on the region when they first started vying to be a host community for the games in the early 1990s.

"The Goodwill Games were secured through a bid submitted by New York City and the Long Island Sports Commission in late 1991," said John Keirnan, then co-chairman of the sports commission and now commissioner of Nassau's Department of Recreation and Parks.

Other competitors for the right to host the games included St. Louis, Dallas, and Miami. It was announced that the New York metropolitan area was the winner on Oct. 17, 1992.

Over the course of the intervening six years, the public relations drum beat grew louder as the county prepared to host the bulk of the events, including figure skating, gymnastics, rhythmic gymnastics, soccer, athletics, and, most significantly, a host of water-related events -- among them diving, swimming, synchronized swimming and water polo.

These last events will be held in the county's brand new, $30-million Aquatics Center located in Eisenhower Park in East Meadow.

The center was paid for with both county and state funds.

During the past year, however, a series of minor controversies proved to be blemishes to the upcoming games, chief among them, an apparent lack of early interest among the event's corporate sponsors to promote Nassau County in their advertising, or, for that matter, on their official web site.

"Their initial response to us was, 'Too bad,'" said one county legislator of the frustration in dealing with the Goodwill Games' representatives.

After weeks of local lawmakers complaining about the lack of promotion of Nassau -- television spots showed athletes performing before a series of readily recognizable New York City landmarks -- one television spot was finally re-cut to show the Nassau County Aquatics Center.

Still, it wasn't until the final month, when the push came to attract more local residents to the games, that brochures and other handouts began to feature Nassau County more prominently.

"Locally, I think Nassau should get tremendous credit," said John Keirnan. "But I think at the same time, people have to recognize that when you are talking to someone in Boise, Idaho, the things they are going to recognize are in New York City.

"So that's why, I think, promoting the Goodwill Games early on couldn't be thought of as a way to promote individual areas. It's hard to promote the county until we actually get the people here."

Thus far, Crain's New York Business reported, overall ticket sales for the Games have been almost non-existent. As of the June 15 publication of its report, courtside tickets were still available for the final basketball games, which will be held on July 24 at Madison Square Garden.

To date, no event is close to selling out, though organizers have said that they expect a late surge in ticket sales before the games.

Whether that late surge occurs, would seem in large part to depend on the support of local media, but thus far, the Games' track record with local media outlets has been as spotty as their dealings with public officials.

A deal with Cablevision was only finally hashed out three weeks ago, and sources have told this newspaper that event organizers have resisted having News 12 Long Island do extended coverage of the games, thereby protecting Cable "Superstation" TBS, HBO Sports, and CBS Sports' expensive monopoly on presenting the coverage.

Still, Keirnan said there are already many positives that have stemmed from the Goodwill Games soon-to-be presence here.

"The fact is, we've almost sold out our hotels here," he said. "We seriously need another hotel. The Marriott is sold out. The Garden City Hotel is sold out.

"We actually have teams and production people that have to stay in Suffolk because of the shortage of rooms here," he added.

According to Crain's New York Business, the Long Island Marriott in Uniondale, one of the headquarters of the games, expects to present organizers of the events with a $1.3 million bill for 400 rooms and for feeding 1,500 participants daily.

Frank D'Andrea, director of group sales at the hotel, told Crain's that he's happy to have the extra $200,000 in profits for food and beverage.

At the same time, however, he conceded that with normal occupancy rates, renting rooms at non-discounted prices would have brought in almost as much money as providing lodging for the games.

The business weekly quotes him as saying, "We would have been slightly more aggressive in our rate if we had known then what we know now."

The effort to promote the county -- lawmakers have long said that hosting this event will lead to other events and other corporate sponsorship opportunities benefiting Nassau -- will now consist largely of promotional "goody bags" handed out in hotel lobbies.

To be sure, there have already been some fruits stemming from the Goodwill Games. The county legislature, for instance, recently voted to allocate $125,000 to purchase new buses to transport spectators to the games.

Given the meager ticket sales, one might be tempted to call this a waste of money. The rub is, the purchase of the buses is 90 percent federally funded, and Long Island Bus will get to keep the vehicles purchased.

Such rewards may not be enough to keep some people from getting a little testy over questions inspired by the Games.

When a reporter broached a question about the Aquatic Center by describing it as being "built for the games," Commissioner Keirnan barked back angrily.

"Are you trying to [explitive deleted] Long Island?" he asked.

"The Goodwill Games' pool is not a one-time thing. We've already hosted a number of events there, and in addition to athletic competitions, it will also be a recreational facility for use by our county residents.

"So Nassau got a $30 million project, and we only had to put up $5 million of our own money. And, in addition to that, we'll have it for the next 40 years or more."

Among the events Nassau is now vying for are a synchronized swimming championship and the year 2000 Olympic trials.

"We didn't build this facility on the grounds that the Goodwill Games would pay for it. We've always intended to go after future events which we believe will show this to have been a very good move for Nassau, economically speaking."

Again trying to sound an optimistic note about this year's Goodwill Games, Keirnan estimated that over a 15-day period the games will generate $85,000 in sales tax revenue for the county.

"Plus," he said, "we are controlling the concessions"

Keirnan also said that this year's Goodwill Games will prove to be a hands-on dry run for next year's Empire State Games, which will be held in many of the same facilities and are expected to draw close to 7,000 athletes.

"These events will generate tremendous economic activity in the county," Keirnan said.