State officials are trying to figure out a way for Olympic organizers to start a massive construction project at the Utah Winter Sports Park before they actually own it.
The $45 million project to ready the park for the 2002 Winter Games needs to begin next summer, according to the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's construction experts.But SLOC isn't so anxious to come up with the $1 million down payment required to take ownership of the park before April 1999, the date scheduled for the sale.
The deal approved by the Legislature set the price at $59 million, the amount that taxpayers spent to build the sports park and other Olympic facilities, plus another $40 million to run the facilities after 2002.
However, as soon as the down payment is made, the largely privately funded organizing committee will be responsible for meeting payroll and operating expenses.
And Olympic organizers say that money is already tight. It's going to cost them more than $1 billion to put on the 2002 Winter Games, money they're working to raise from corporate sponsors and other sources.
So the Utah Sports Authority asked the state Attorney General's Office for help. Nothing's final yet, but Olympic organizers probably don't need to worry.
"Can SLOC start building on state property before they actually take over? We haven't issued a formal opinion yet, but the answer is going to be yes," Jerold Jensen, chief of the public affairs division of the Attorney General's Office, said.
More than $1 million is already budgeted to cover the sports park's operating expenses through April 1999. And the state can oversee the construction project until organizers make the down payment.
What still has to be decided is who picks up the tab for the state oversight of the project. Jensen said the state will "probably send a bill to SLOC. But we haven't researched that yet."
Utah Sports Authority Chairman Randy Dryer told authority members at their meeting Thursday a decision should be made soon. He also raised another issue - what will happen to the sports authority.
Dryer proposed setting up a committee to come up with suggestions for the sports authority's future to pass along to Gov. Mike Leavitt and state lawmakers.