| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| 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 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Romney rocks in starring role
By Dennis Romboy
Deseret News staff writer
Mitt Romney worked a little Harry Potter magic the past 17 days.
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee president managed to throw an invisibility cloak over the organization he assembled to put on the 2002 Winter Games.
Any operational glitches or technical problems hardly amounted to a blip on the radar screen.
"Instead of being distracted by our mistakes, the world was able to focus on the athletes," Romney said Sunday in a news conference wrapping up the Salt Lake Olympics.
Romney himself, though, won't be able to keep a low profile after the Games as a political career beckons.
Except for monstrous crowds at Olympic Square and downtown in a city not known for late-night partying, he said, nothing caught organizers off guard.
The masses caused security and transportation problems. Riot police armed with rubber-pellet guns had to quell several hundred boisterous revelers Saturday night.
Romney's public-relations strategy of setting the bar low and then exceeding expectations seems to have worked. Even the revenue picture is looking a little rosier than anticipated.
SLOC always maintained it would do no better than break even. Romney said Sunday organizers "certainly will break even and perhaps break even plus."
Thanks to some pre-Games snowstorms and good weather throughout February, SLOC did not have to break into its contingency fund to haul in extra snow or plow snow from the roads.
Ticket sales generated a greater-than-expected $180 million, merchandise sold at "50 percent to 100 percent" over projections and concession stands did so well all 400,000 hot dogs ordered for the Games were gone in a week, he said.
"People were standing in line to give us their money," Romney said.
SLOC, he said, will have no trouble handing over $40 million to a legacy fund to operate the taxpayer-funded Olympic venues.
Romney disputed that the Salt Lake Games were the most costly Winter Games ever. "Actually, by our calculations. they're the least expensive Winter Games ever put on," he said.
The total $1.9 billion SLOC budget, including federally funded highway projects and security, is $1 billion less than what Nagano spent four years ago, he said, conceding generating complementary figures is difficult.
As for how Utahns came off during the Games, Romney said "just like we are. There was enough time for the caricatures and preconceptions to be overcome by reality."
How long Romney himself stays in Utah remains to be seen. He's contemplating another crack at politics. Romney, who lost a senatorial race in 1994, said he intends to start taking a look at the political landscape as early as today, though he will be with SLOC through the 2002 Paralympics next month. He called his longtime home state of Massachusetts the "most likely" place.
"I'm not afraid of getting back into politics," he said. And given the election cycle, he said, he might have to go to work quicker than he thought.
Apparently, it's time to shed the invisibility cloak.
E-MAIL: romboy@desnews.com
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February 25, 2002
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