| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
 |
| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
|
| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
|
|
|
|
SLOC puts surplus to use
It OKs creation of parks for caldron, Hoberman arch
By Lisa Riley Roche
Deseret News staff writer
The caldron lighted for the 2002 Winter Games will burn again at the University of Utah, this time just outside Rice-Eccles Stadium in a new park commemorating the state's Olympic experience.
And the Hoberman arch, the mechanical metal curtain used on the Medals Plaza stage, will be showcased at a second park that will take up an entire block somewhere in Salt Lake City.
Both projects were approved Wednesday by Salt Lake Organizing Committee trustees as part of a plan to spend the $56 million surplus from the Games' $1.3 billion budget.
They also voted to accept Mitt Romney's resignation as SLOC president and chief executive officer after three years on the job. Romney was replaced by Fraser Bullock, the organizing committee's chief operating officer.
Bullock has been running SLOC since Romney returned to his home near Boston last month to launch a campaign to become governor of Massachusetts. Romney was honored later Wednesday by the Salt Lake Chamber of Commerce as its "Giant in Our City."
At a dinner that attracted some 850 community leaders, Romney was praised by Gov. Mike Leavitt, Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson and others for his role in the success of the Games.
Romney took over SLOC at the height of the bribery scandal, a time when allegations that Salt Lake bidders tried to buy the votes of International Olympic Committee members threatened to leave the Games in the red.
But that didn't happen, in part because Romney and his team slashed the Games budget and recruited new sponsors. The Games also ran so smoothly that organizers had little need to tap into their $55 million contingency fund.
The state's ski jumps, bobsled track and speedskating oval received the largest chunk of the surplus — a total of $30 million, including the IOC's $4 million share. The U.S. Olympic Committee received $10 million, money that will go to train American athletes.
Those facilities will be turned over to the Utah Athletic Foundation, which was already getting a $40 million endowment from SLOC. Foundation chairman Randy Dryer, who is also a SLOC trustee, said Wednesday he'd "just won the lottery."
Dryer said the additional funding will "really secure the future of winter sports for generations to come." Foundation officials had feared the initial $40 million wouldn't be enough to keep the facilities up and running.
The Salt Lake mayor, who is also a Games trustee, was also grateful for a piece of the Olympic profits. Salt Lake City will be given a minimum of $4.5 million for its new park, plus up to another $1.5 million.
"We see this as a very generous gift," Anderson said. Several sites are being considered for the project, which the mayor promised would be the most visible legacy of the Games.
Romney said the 10-acre park will feature an amphitheater with the Hoberman arch as well as the smaller caldron that burned at the Medals Plaza and a 100-foot tower from downtown's Olympic Square.
He said the park would be completed by the summer of 2003. The park at the U. will be finished by October.
The caldron will be relocated to a parking lot south of the stadium, a water feature that includes a reflecting pond installed and grass planted with money already contributed by the Eccles Foundation.
Both the national and international Olympic committees have an interest in the parks, which will both bear the Olympic name. Romney said, for example, the caldron at the U. can be lighted only for Olympic occasions, such as the start of another Games.
The USOC, which is getting $10 million of the Games surplus, won't allow any commercial agreements at the city's park. "We love the idea," USOC President Sandy Baldwin said. "But you don't start selling Pepsi there."
Besides funding the state foundation and the two parks, trustees also agreed to come up with $375,000 toward purchasing a giant glass sculpture by Dale Chihuly that was displayed in the lobby of Abravanel Hall during the Games as part of the Cultural Olympiad.
And they approved the return of more than $10 million in unspent funds to the federal government.
Wednesday's meeting was probably the last for the trustees. Although organizers had planned to shrink the size of the board from 50-plus members to just a handful in case further meetings were needed, they decided that would be too difficult.
Trustees authorized the legal work needed to dissolve the organizing committee, possibly as soon as the end of the year. The name of the organizing committee was changed to just SLOC because organizers won't have the right to use the word "Olympic" much longer.
E-MAIL: lisa@desnews.com
|
|
April 25, 2002
|
