USOC Meetings : Salt Lake City Named U.S. Candidate to Bid for ’98 Winter Games

Heeding the real-estate axiom that the most important factor in selecting a home is location, location, location, the U.S. Olympic Committee chose Salt Lake City Sunday as its candidate for the 1998 Winter Games.

In voting by 86 executive board members, Salt Lake City won a second-ballot majority over Anchorage and Reno-Tahoe. Although the USOC did not release the vote count, sources said Anchorage was a close runner-up. Denver was eliminated on the first ballot.

Salt Lake City will present its bid for the 1998 Games to the International Olympic Committee in 1991 at Birmingham, England, where its principal competition is expected to be Nagano, Japan.

If unsuccessful, Salt Lake City automatically will represent the USOC in bidding for the 2002 Games as the result of a resolution adopted Saturday by the executive board.

Salt Lake City officials appeared before the IOC once before, losing a campaign 24 years ago for the 1972 Winter Games to Sapporo, Japan.

Because Anchorage was the USOC’s candidate in 1986 for the 1992 Games and 1988 for the 1994 Games, officials from its bid committee argued that they are more familiar with the 94 IOC members and their politics than officials from the other cities and would have a better chance to win in 1991.

As a result, they were bitterly disappointed. Since 1985, the Anchorage Olympic Committee (AOC) has spent about $6.5 million on its candidacy.

“I think the 1998 Games will be in Nagano, Japan,” said Rick Mystrom, the former AOC chairman who made its 40-minute bid presentation before the executive board Sunday. “Had we won, Anchorage would be the host for the 1998 Games.”

But the chairman of Salt Lake City’s bid committee, Tom Welch, did not concede the 1991 vote to Nagano, a first-time candidate with substantial private financial backing.

“The glory is over, and the work begins,” he said. “I think we will win approval of the IOC. This Olympic Committee made a change today because another city came along that was stronger and had a lot more to offer.”

But, in fact, many executive board members, athletes and officials of the various winter sports federations in particular, seemed to care less about whether a U.S. city stages the Games than whether one can provide world-class training facilities.

Referring to the recent report of an overview commission chaired by USOC Vice President George Steinbrenner, Welch, in his presentation, said that never again should it be said that winter sports in the United States are “facility starved.”

All four candidates attempted to fill that void. The USOC’s influential site inspection committee believed one city could do it better, endorsing Salt Lake City before the executive board. USOC President Robert Helmick said he believes the primary difference between the packages presented by Salt Lake City and Anchorage was “accessibility.”

Rick Nerland, secretary general for Anchorage’s bid, agreed that the city was defeated primarily by its geography.

But he also complained that the USOC site inspection committee was biased in favor of Salt Lake City because one of its members, Howard Peterson of the U.S. Ski Federation, lives in Utah. The site inspection committee initially recommended that only Salt Lake City and Denver be allowed to submit their bids to the executive board.

“I was selected to this position by the winter (sports),” Peterson said. “They know where I live. They know where my office is. They felt that with my background I could represent them well.”

Welch said Salt Lake City will have boblsed and luge runs and a speed-skating oval within 36 months. He said that he was not concerned about a referendum to be placed either on a state or municipal ballot tentatively scheduled for November regarding financing of the Games.

The latest poll in Salt Lake City indicated that 71% of its residents feel favorably toward holding the Games, although they were not questioned about whether they would agree to public financing.

“It’s absolutely critical that the people of Utah have a say in these things,” said Utah’s governor, Norman Bangerter.

One Utahan who had his say published a pamphlet critical of the bid entitled “Utah’s Olympic Circus.” Salt Lake City officials accused Anchorage officials of financing the pamphlet.

Anchorage officials denied that, but they whispered that Salt Lake City might not be acceptable on the international level because of something they called “the Mormon factor.” Welch said an IOC member would have no more difficulty finding a drink in Salt Lake City than in any other city.

But there was another inference drawn from Anchorage’s jab. Salt Lake City responded to that in the film shown during its presentation to the executive board, displaying prominent minorities who live in the city.

“We’ve had an ongoing and spirited competition with Anchorage,” Welch said after the vote. “But I think they are our friends.”

There was even a temporary cease-fire Friday night, when officials from all four cities gathered in one room to treat executive board members to a buffet dinner. There was diamondback rattlesnake and buffalo sausage from Denver, antelope and partridge from Reno-Tahoe, several varieties of salmon from Anchorage and fresh fruit and ice cream sundaes from Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City also provided a big-screen television for basketball fans who wanted to watch the National Basketball Assn. playoff game between the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls.

“I hate to admit this, but I can’t take my eyes off that game,” a Reno-Tahoe official said. “They’re scoring some points over there.”

He was not talking about the Pistons and the Bulls.