American cities lining up as potential hosts of future Olympics may be getting into the long and expensive race for the wrong reasons, the head of the Salt Lake Winter Games said Thursday.
With the U.S. Olympic Committee taking the first step on a possible bid for the 2008 Summer Games this weekend, Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Tom Welch said the handful of potential bidders should focus on where sports fit in their communities.Welch said they also should be prepared to lose.
"It's a process that is difficult, and I think that some don't understand what the Olympic movement is all about," Welch said. "Some of these cities may be getting into this for the wrong reasons."
Welch, addressing the annual Sports Summit marketing convention, did not identify any cities that might be on the wrong track or say specifically what might be misguided about their bids.
But when cities - particularly in the United States - consider an Olympic run, money usually is a big motivator. Of the last two Summer Games in this country, Los Angeles left a $235 million profit in 1984 and last summer's Centennial Games in Atlanta pumped an estimated $4 billion into the local economy, and both were run without government backing.
It's expensive, too. A bid can cost upward of $30 million just for the initial phase, and there's no guarantee a city that loses one time will win the next.
At least six cities - Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, Houston, New York and Seattle - have shown an interest in bidding for the 2008 Olympics. The USOC's executive committee on Saturday will discuss whether it's wise to go after a third Summer Games in 24 years, especially when the International Olympic Committee is committed to broadening Olympic hosts among Africa, Asia and Latin America.
The IOC will vote on the 2008 city in 2001, less than a year before the Salt Lake Winter Games begin. Welch said there would be no impact on his Games whether a U.S. city was in the running.
Nor did he think it would be presumptuous for the USOC to bid for another Games at this time, already an unprecedented concentration of Olympics for one country. However, he acknowledged that another U.S. bid might face added hurdles.
"Any city would have to articulate why the Games should come back to the United States so soon," Welch said. "They have to articulate something more than that they can put on great Games."
The danger lies in an improper focus, Welch said.
"It can't be smoke and mirrors," he said. "It can't be just glossy photographs. It has to be a connection of the Games to the very heart of the community."
Welch has been involved with Salt Lake's Olympic hopes since the mid-1980s. His city first had to overtake Anchorage, Alaska, the USOC's unsuccessful bidder for 1992 and 1994, and then in essence sit on its hands as the IOC picked Nagano, Japan, to hold the 1998 Winter Games less than a year after Atlanta was awarded the Summer Games for 1996.
That long-term approach, while frustrating, helped Salt Lake City establish an unparalleled collection of winter sports facilities and toughen its civic hide. Welch said that was something all future bidders need.
"Look at it not so much as when you are going to host the Games (but) as if you are going to host the Games," he said. "Then it becomes less important if its 2008 or 2012 or 2016. You build a support base and infrastructure."