| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| 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 |
|
| 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 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Should Games facilities keep 'O' word in name?
By Lisa Riley Roche
Deseret News staff writer
What's in name?
Well, if it includes the word, "Olympic," plenty of restrictions.
So the Utah Athletic Foundation, the organization that now owns two facilities from the 2002 Winter Games, has to decide whether to change their names to drop the "O" word — or hang onto the names and live within marketing rules set by the U.S. Olympic Committee.
The USOC controls the use of the word, "Olympic" in this country and zealously guards against its association with companies that have not paid as much as $50 million to become official sponsors.
"We don't want to see a ribbon cutting at Utah Olympic park with Britney Spears holding a bottle of Pepsi," said Mike Moran, USOC spokesman. Coca-Cola, of course, is the official sponsor of the Olympics.
Keeping the word "Olympic" in the names of the Utah Olympic Park near Park City and the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns would limit the sponsors and even vendors that could be signed by the foundation.
"It's a trade-off," Fraser Bullock, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's chief operating officer, said of the choice faced by the foundation. "Obviously the USOC has to protect its name and its sponsors."
Bullock said SLOC is not involved in the decision. The foundation was created by lawmakers to take over the state-built facilities — ski jumps and a bobsled, luge and skeleton track near Park City and a speedskating oval in Kearns — from organizers.
Members of the foundation have yet to discuss the issue, Vice Chairman Lane Beattie said.
"There are advantages on both sides," Beattie, who is also the state's Olympic officer, said. "To me, it's a business decision. It's not an emotional one. It's what is best financially for the long term."
Whatever the foundation decides to do, the facilities will always be referred to as "Olympic," Beattie said. "Whether the name is on it or not, it's going to be known as an Olympic facility. The only question is whether we fly the flag with the name."
He said there are some pluses to having, for example, members of the U.S. Olympic team train at "quote-unquote Olympic facility." But Beattie said the long-term benefits of the facilities to the state are more important to him than what they're called.
Still, he hopes there's a way the names can stay. "It's an honor to the Olympics. In all honesty, it should be an honor to the (International Olympic Committee) and the USOC," Beattie said, because of the success of the 2002 Games.
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com
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March 27, 2002
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