U.S. Speedskating is relocating to Utah

BEAR HOLLOW, Summit County — The 2002 Winter Games are long over, but the state's premier Olympic facilities continue to be dependent on the U.S. Olympic Committee for funding.

There's likely to be some good news for the financially strapped facilities today, when Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. is expected to announce that U.S. Speedskating is relocating from just outside Cleveland to Utah.

The move by the sport's national governing body may well help boost the bottom line for the Utah Athletic Foundation that took over the ski jumps and bobsled run near Park City and the speed-skating oval in Kearns after the Games.

At least two speedskating officials will transfer to the new headquarters, and it's anticipated additional staff will be hired. The American speedskating team, however, will likely continue training at sites around the country as well as on the Kearns ice.

For the past four years, the foundation has counted on receiving $200,000 in support annually from the Colorado-based USOC to help chip away at the $5.5 million shortfall the facilities run each year.

Now, negotiations are under way to increase the amount of support to a minimum of $1 million over a four-year contract — plus additional help from both the USOC and the national governing bodies of various winter sports to cover other expenses.

The deal could also result in the pair of facilities being named official Olympic training sites by the USOC, a designation that would permit the foundation to use the Olympic name and five rings logo.

But even with the additional money — and the promotional benefits of being able to tap the Olympic brand — the foundation is expected to continue to run in the red, spending more to operate the facilities than it can earn.

Colin Hilton, who took over earlier this year as the foundation's president and CEO, said more than four years after the Olympics left behind an $80 million surplus for the facilities, they're nowhere close to breaking even.

"We're still not there yet," Hilton said. "So this new agreement with the USOC is quite critical." His goal is to reduce the red ink by about $1.5 million by the time the deal is finalized at the end of the year.

The USOC does not have a similar arrangement with the last American city to host an Olympics before the Salt Lake Games — Atlanta, where only limited reminders of the 1996 Summer Games remain.