| Salt Lake City |
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| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
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| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
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| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
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| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
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| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
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| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
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| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
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| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Oly exposure is a gold mine for 'black sheep' of Utah
By Jerry Spangler
Deseret News staff writer
PARK CITY — Hidden discreetly from the disapproving eye of the Wasatch Front, Park City has reveled in its rebellious image for 135 years.
It's a little bit bawdy with just a whiff of licentiousness, a rowdy contradiction to Utah's stuffy image of hard work and no play.
In Utah, but not really part of Utah.
"We are the black sheep of the Utah family, and that is an image we very much want to keep," said Myles Rademan, public affairs director for Park City. "But we are also part of the family, more than ever before."
Park City, perhaps more than any other Olympic venue city, is basking in an Olympic glow. That glow has focused the world's attention on Park City, its skiing and its lively party scene. Every day, news organizations from around the world are flashing images of tens of thousands of revelers on the city's historic Main Street.
"The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" gives nightly comedic updates from Park City. The "Today" show with Matt Lauer and Katie Couric broadcasts most mornings from The Canyons resort.
Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley Resort are Olympic venues that have been featured front and center throughout the Games.
"Not in our wildest dreams could we afford that kind of publicity," Rademan said. "We're talking hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars. It's inestimable."
For Park City and its three ski resorts, image is everything, and in the highly competitive ski tourism industry, image is something with which Park City has struggled.
Notwithstanding the positive images of the Sundance Film Festival, Park City officials have constantly battled negative Utah
stereotypes, ignorance and indifference in the tourism industry. Until the Olympics, most people knew very little about Park City, or Utah for that matter. "Terra incognita," Rademan said.
The success of any tourism marketing campaign involves name recognition, and Colorado, not Utah, has held that crown in terms of skiing. Colorado has four times the number of skier days, but with only twice the number of resorts.
And names like Aspen and Vail and Telluride have an image that Utah resorts cannot begin to approach no matter how hard they try. "In this business, tourism revolves around the bragging rights around the water cooler when you get home," Rademan said.
Utah hasn't had those until now.
"I think what people are seeing is Park City is a fun place to come," said Bonnie Crail, vice president of marketing for Park City Mountain Resort. "People like to party when they are on vacation, and it's been shown we do a pretty good job of that here."
Park City and Utah ski officials are confident that the images now being broadcast around the world — images that include people partying, drinking and otherwise defying stodgy Utah stereotypes — will be a catalyst for a renaissance in Utah's ski and tourism industry.
"We could not have asked for a better outcome," Crail said. "We are already seeing dividends."
In particular, the resort has experienced a "blossoming relationship" with the snowboarding community after proving to the world it could not only build a good halfpipe but that it could put on a world-class event.
"Snowboarding is a very important market to us, and the exposure has been better than we ever imagined," she said.
Colleen Reardon, marketing director for Deer Valley, says history has shown the Olympics could start paying dividends for the resort as early as this summer, but certainly by next winter. Park City, she said, is on the minds of anyone who watched the Olympics on television, and Deer Valley has received more exposure than it hoped, better reviews than it ever dreamed.
"Our long-term health is a whole lot better for it," she said.
Business at Utah's most famous high-end resort has been off considerably because of the Olympics, but "we went into this with our eyes wide open, even budgeting for it. We made an investment," Reardon said.
Park City and its sibling resorts plan to use the Olympics as a marketing tool for years, if not generations, to come. There will be physical reminders everywhere — Olympic logos embossed in the street, street signs with Olympic venue insignia and a large Olympic caldron — that the Games were held there.
"The Olympics will be central to our image from now on," Rademan said. "There's a certain international cachet that goes with being an Olympic venue city, and we are going to do the things internationally to remind people of that."
Park City will also be reminding people it is a party town, a place to let your hair down, celebrate and go a little bit crazier than you would at home.
"We are not trying to be something we are not," Rademan said. "We are proud to be part of Utah, but we are different than the rest of the state."
And, he said, "there's nothing better than the Olympics to show the world that."
Part of Utah, but different.
E-MAIL: spang@desnews.com
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February 22, 2002
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