Utahns won't have to pay to visit the state's Olympic sports park unless the ski jumpers who train there are putting on a show. But there are going to be new charges for recreational athletes.
Approved last week by the executive committee of the Utah Sports Authority, a fee schedule for the Utah Winter Sports Park near Park City eliminates winter entrance fees on days when no events are scheduled.Summer visitors will get in free when there's no jumping, but they will have to pay reduced entrance fees when ski jumpers are training on plastic slopes and either landing on a special surface or flipping into a pool.
An agreement is still being negotiated with U.S. Skiing to begin collecting annual fees for the U.S. Ski Team members who train virtually year-round at the sports park.
Mike Jacki, the chief executive officer of U.S. Skiing, estimated the yearly cost to the organization will be about $10,000, including $5,000 for the use in summer of the freestyle landing pool.
The Park City-based organization pays the cost of training U.S. Ski Team members. Jacki said he understands the need for the charges, even though the team had been using the sports park for free.
"I think it's absolutely unrealistic to think when the state is spending the amount of money they are to think that anybody can use these facilities for free. They're not free," Jacki said.
Utah taxpayers are spending about $30 million for the sports park, which will have a bobsled run and luge run in addition to the existing ski jumps and day lodge.
Not everyone has been willing to pay just to see the sports park, which will be the site of Olympic ski jumping, bobsled and luge competitions if Salt Lake City is selected to host the 2002 Winter Games.
"We created more bad will charging last season" when there were only recreational users at the sports park, ski jump manager John Bower told the executive committee Thursday.
The change in entrance fees comes after a disappointing budget year, when revenue at the sports park from entrance fees and other charges fell short of projections.
Visitors have paid up to $5 each to enter the sports park, which sits at the end of a 1.9-mile road that winds from U-224 through exclusive housing lots to the Bear Hollow site.
On days when some of the world's top ski jumpers were whipping off the highest slopes, Bower said, visitors got their money's worth. Not so when the only jumpers were first-time amateurs heading down the 18-meter beginner's jump.
Bower said the nation's other ski jumping park, in Lake Placid, New York, does make visitors pay a $5 fee year-round, no matter what's going on there.
At that former Winter Games site, however, visitors can ride the ski lift as well as an elevator that takes them up a tower to the top of the highest jump. There are only 13 chairs on the lift at the Utah sports park, and no elevators.
The summer fees when world-class ski jumpers are training on the specially equipped summer jumps are $3 for anyone 13 years or older and $1 for seniors citizens. Children 12 and under are admitted free.
For special summer events, including those at the summer freestyle landing pool, the fees go up to $5 for visitors 13 years or older, $3 for senior citizens, and $1 for children 12 and under.
The winter fees during jumping events are $5, $3 for senior citizens, and $1 for children 12 and under. Under the new fee schedule, no event means no entrance fee will be charged in the winter.
And for anyone who wants to try the 18-meter hill, the recreational ski-jumping program will continue this winter, at $20 for a single session for an adult, $12 for jumpers 12-17 years old, and $8 for those 11 and younger.
There are special rates for jumpers who want to go off the 18-meter hill 10 times - $150 for adults, $100 for jumpers 12-17 years old, and $65 for those 11 and under.
Groups that want a private ski jumping show can pay $400 for a half-hour freestyle skiing demonstration or $300 for nordic jumping. Each of three ski jumpers earn $100, and the sports park gets the rest.
Bower told the executive committee that late last month a local business rented the sports park day lodge for a company dinner and paid $400 for the freestyle skiing demonstration. There also are several similar bookings this summer.