July 11, 2003
The Post Olympic Tab
The folks up in Vancouver are celebrating now that they know they've been awarded the 2012 Winter Olympic Games. But what happens after the party's over?
Ask the folks in Salt Lake City, where the foundation that maintains Olympic venues say they will be running out of money in two to three years:
The Utah Athletic Foundation will be forced to spend an additional $2.5 million a year to maintain the venues for ski jumping, bobsled and luge, cross-country skiing and a speedskating oval, president and chief executive Mark Lewis told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Lewis said the venues require no special maintenance now, but wear and tear will require major financial outlays within three years. That's money the foundation doesn't have in its operating budget, he said.
Lewis laid out a few options for his board: The foundation could decide to start draining a $52 million endowment, which was supposed to remain untouched except for the interest earnings.
It could ignore the venues' maintenance needs, "but these facilities will eventually wear out," he said. Or the foundation could look for ways to cut operating expenses.
This reminds me a lot of what's happening in Atlanta, where the locals have discovered they don't have all that much use for a Velodrome, at least not until the Olympics comes back to town.
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08:46 AM