Columnist Dean Juipe: Reno-Tahoe has to copy SLC’s formula

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2002 | 9:24 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

Salt Lake City is within driving distance of Las Vegas, yet throughout the just-concluded Winter Olympics it may as well have been a million miles away.

There was no sense of proximity, no sense that the Games were right next door.

It wasn't anything like I'd initially imagined it would be. There was no spillover from Utah, no visible sign of worldly travelers and Olympic fans making a quick trip to Southern Nevada to sample our distinctly different wares.

It's as if we failed to reap a tangible dividend from the Games, despite their international appeal and being only a stone's throw away.

There was no parade of vehicles coming down the freeway and no Olympic-clad revelers bustling in the streets or taking root downtown.

From the perspective of the local casino industry, the Salt Lake City Olympics may as well have been held in Turin, Italy (which is where they really will be in 2006).

Perhaps in 2018 things will be different.

Representatives of the loosely formed Reno-Tahoe Organizing Committee indicated Monday that they would be conducting a feasibility study in the near future and that they were apt to bid on the 2018 Games.

It's hard to say what their chance of landing the Olympics is at this early date, yet Reno-Tahoe has the advantage of seeing what worked in Salt Lake City and what is apt to appeal to the International Olympic Committee.

While Turin will be rustic and very old-style European, Salt Lake City was modern and surprisingly efficient from all accounts. In the aftermath of the Games, virtually everything written or said that pertained to infrastructure, security and hospitality was of a complimentary nature.

Reno-Tahoe would be advised to follow a similar, albeit expensive, course. It will have to commit to some serious, pricey building when the bids come due in 13 months.

But it's not like it hasn't been down this route before, as Reno-Tahoe has had its hat in the Olympic ring for more than 20 years (and was a de facto host of sorts in 1960 when nearby Squaw Valley, Calif., held the Winter Games). Reno-Tahoe was a regular bidder for the Games in the 1980s before stepping aside after Salt Lake City secured the 2002 Olympics in 1995.

For Reno-Tahoe to acquire the 2018 Games, at least two obstacles must be overcome. The first is convincing the IOC that a return to the American West is viable and in its own best interests, and the second is matching the money that Utah committed to funding the Games.

Paid for in part by a special sales tax, Utah put up $279 million to add to its facilities and another $798 million to cover all other aspects of hosting the Games (with the federal government picking up a good deal of the tab for additional security that was deemed to be warranted after the events of Sept. 11).

Reno-Tahoe will have to be just as zealous and it can't cut corners in its bid. If it takes extravagance to land the Games, extravagance will have to replace frugality in the budget.

It may be worth it. Utah is feeling it came out ahead on the deal, and that might very well be true given the fact it kept its visitors within the state as something of a captive audience.