Salt Lake City ready to take center stage

Steve Carp

Monday, Feb. 23, 1998 | 11:58 a.m.

SALT LAKE CITY -- It's their turn.

The flame has been extinguished in Nagano, Japan. The flag has been passed on. The athletes, officials and VIPs have headed home.

Four years from now, it starts all over again in Salt Lake City, when Utah's capital plays host to the world and welcomes the planet's best athletes for the XIX Winter Olympic Games.

That may seem like a long time. But from an Olympic perspective, it is a pretty short window between now and Feb. 8, 2002, when the Olympic flame is lit at Rice Stadium at the University of Utah.

Much already has been done. But much remains to be finished as the United States plays host to its fourth Winter Games and the first of the 21st Century.

"I'm mindful that we have four years of very hard work to achieve what they have achieved here in Nagano," said Frank Joklik, president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee (SLOC). "The days are dwindling."

Big plans

SLOC still has to come up with a ticket sales and distribution plan. It still has to handle housing for approximately 500,000 visitors who will attend the 2002 Games. It still has to finalize transportation plans to get the 12,000 journalists who will cover these Olympics to their destinations.

One thing in Salt Lake's favor is that most of the venues already are up and running. The alpine ski runs at Park City have been used for years. The Delta Center, home of the NBA's Utah Jazz, will host the figure skating and medal rounds of ice hockey. It's considered one of the best arenas in the country. The E Center in West Valley, home of the IHL's Utah Grizzlies and site of the preliminary hockey rounds, has received favorable reaction since its opening last October.

And the Utah Sports Park, home to the bobsled, luge, ski jumping and freestyle ski events, is fully operational.

But some venues still are under construction. The speed skating oval in Kearns still needs a roof placed over it. The cross-country and biathlon area in Soldier Hollow only recently was determined. The Olympic Village at the University of Utah next to Fort Douglas still is a couple of years away from being completed.

And it all has to be completed under budget. In the case of SLOC, that's approximately $950 million.

Making promises

When the SLOC was lobbying for support for these Olympics, it promised that taxpayers would not be stuck footing the bill. It also said the Games would not operate at a deficit.

Now that the clock is ticking, Utah residents are wondering if SLOC will keep its word.

"Nothing's changed," Joklik said. "It's still our job to put on an Olympics without going into the red."

So far, eight corporate sponsors have been lined up (the latest being Delta Airlines), to help foot the bill. NBC paid a record $575 million for the broadcast rights. Approximately 1.7 million tickets will be available for public sale.

But the public, at least here in Salt Lake, remains somewhat skeptical.

"By the time the Olympics are over, this town will go downhill and take a dive," said Woody Newcomer, a truck driver from Sandy, a Salt Lake suburb. "The end result is the residents will have to pick up the tab.

"In Atlanta (in 1996), the people there wound up getting stuck. It ain't going to turn a profit here. I can't see it."

Steve Warren, a student at West High School, said the Olympics already have had a negative impact on the community.

"Prices have gone up. Property taxes have gone up," he said. "Have you tried driving around town? You can't get anywhere."

Orange seems to be the dominant color in the Greater Salt Lake area. Every other block has some kind of construction going on. The two main freeways, I-15 (which runs north to Idaho and south to Las Vegas) and I-80 (which runs east to Denver and west to Reno), are going through major expansion.

There's also a light-rail project that is running from Ogden to Provo that city and Olympic officials are hailing as a major answer to the transportation question. That, too, is causing detours and delays on the roads.

"It's a nightmare," said Tracy Iverson of Salt Lake City of the current traffic congestion. "At least we'll have new roads. But we were going to get those anyway."

Utes movement

At the University of Utah, athletic director Chris Hill keeps his fingers crossed. The contractors who are rebuilding Rice Stadium at a cost of $52 million promise the new 46,500-seat stadium will be ready for the Utes' football home opener vs. Louisville Sept. 12.

Right now, Rice Stadium is one big mud hole. You wonder if it'll ever get done. But by the time the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Games commence, Rice Stadium will be broken in and ready to receive the world.

SLOC is paying the university $8 million to use the stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies in 2002. The school had to raise the rest of the $52 million.

"You can look at it as a positive thing as we needed to do this anyway," Hill said. "The stadium needed to be renovated. And they (SLOC) are giving some money for it. Or you can be pessimistic and say they should have footed more of the bill."

But the university faces other problems come 2002. With the Olympics in town, the school essentially will shut down for a month. But the athletic teams won't be able to take a sabbatical from the WAC. It still will be competing in men's and women's basketball, in gymnastics and swimming.

Scheduling games in town could be a logistical nightmare, to say nothing of finding hotel accommodations for visiting teams and a place for the Utah athletes to live, because the dorms will be serving as the Olympic Village.

"It's going to force us to be very creative with our scheduling," Hill said. "We're going to need some help from the WAC."

But Hill believes despite the inconveniences, the Olympics are a good thing for the school and the city.

"I look at it as an experience and a chance to get some visibility," he said. "I'm optimistic we can get through it with positive results. Salt Lake is a quasi-big city and it's a lot more cosmopolitan than people think."

It ain't that quaint

Some residents think it has gotten too big. Come 2002, many residents intend to temporarily flee Salt Lake and return after the Games conclude Feb. 24.

"I'm going up to Washington," said Salt Lake resident Ryan Dignan. "There's too much traffic and too many people here now. I can't imagine how bad it's going to be four years from now."

Jen Grubbs said she's taking things a step further.

"I'm going to Germany," she said. "I hate the Olympics. I don't want to be anywhere near this place when the Olympics are here."

But not everyone is leaving. Kristie Wayne thinks it'll be exciting to meet people from all over the world and she thinks it's a chance for Salt Lake to show off.

"It's kinda exciting the Olympics are coming here," she said. "Of all the places, the best people in the world are going to come here to ski and race.

"I'd like to see some of the events. If I could get a ticket to see the figure skating, I'd definitely be there."

Ray Gaumond, who works at Salt Lake Community College, has caught the Olympic spirit. He collects Olympic pins. By the time the 2002 Games begin, he should be well-stocked to compete in one of the great Olympic events -- pin trading.

Gaumond, a member of the Mormon Church, believes the Olympics will be a great opportunity for the church to get its message across without sending missionaries all over the world.

"The world will be coming to our front door," he said of the church, which is based at Temple Square in the center of town.

Las Vegas jackpot

The LDS Church won't be the only group looking to spread the word. Las Vegas will find itself a beneficiary of these Olympics as well.

A mere hour's plane ride from Salt Lake City, Las Vegas undoubtedly will reap the residual benefits of the Olympics by being a destination resort stop, especially with the European and Asian visitors who attend the Olympics.

"Las Vegas is a slam dunk," said Rick Davis, president of the Salt Lake Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"You need strong destination locations to go with the Olympics and I've already talked to travel wholesalers in Europe that are looking to book trips to Las Vegas before, during and after the Olympics for their clients."

Davis has had discussions with Manny Cortez, president of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and Rossi Ralenkotter, the LVCVA's vice president of marketing, about how Las Vegas can be a partner in the Olympics.

"We're working in concert with Manny and his people and they'll do tremendous leisure marketing here and world-wide," Davis said. "The big money will be sponsors who bring their top customers to the Games. For them, Las Vegas is a very strong attraction."

The LVCVA is a couple of years away from beginning its Olympic marketing campaign. But the plans are being formulated now and it could be worth tens of millions of dollars in business for Las Vegas in 2002.

The bottom line

Sunday night at the Delta Center, thousands turned out to watch the closing ceremonies from Nagano. They saw the Olympic flag accepted by Salt Lake Mayor Deedee Corradini, which officially started the city's Olympic clock.

Enthusiasm was running high. Salt Lake residents know the world's eyes will be on their city for the next four years.

Remember, Salt Lake has been in the Olympic business for four decades, going back to 1966. It initally tried to land the '72 Games, which went to Sapporo, Japan. But now that it has the Olympics, the city intends to put its best foot forward.

Corradini has said that when the Olympics are over in 2002, the city's legacy will be that its residents will enjoy a higher quality of life. Many say, fine. But at what cost?

There are concerns about the environment. About uncontrolled growth. About social issues such as the homeless. Those answers won't come until after the Games have concluded.

But this city will have an improved infrastructure. It will have more opportunities to attract new businesses and tourists. If things go well, it could boost the economy for years to come.

That's why SLOC and city officials are going to great pains to make sure these Olympics don't remind anyone of the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games.

Atlanta wound up with an Olympic-sized black eye after its transportation system broke down, its crass commercialism turned off everyone, and of course, the bombing in the Centennial Olympic Park which cast a pall over the events.

To SLOC, "Atlanta" is a six-letter dirty word. It will be up to Joklik and his people to make sure "Salt Lake" doesn't become a pair of four-letter dirty words four years from now.

In the Olympics, there are no do-overs. Salt Lake gets one shot to do it right. Time will tell if it met the challenge.

For the SLOC, the clock already is ticking.

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