Money is the main topic of meetings that started Monday in Salt Lake City between members of the International Olympic Committee and organizers of the 2002 Winter Games.
That's money as in budget, though, not bribes.The scandal that resulted from the revelation that Salt Lake City tried to buy the votes of members of the IOC with more than $1 million in cash, gifts and other inducements has threatened funding for the Games.
The IOC Coordination Commission that's in town this week wants to hear how the new bosses at SLOC plan to close a $300 million gap in the $1.45 billion budget for the Games.
The new leaders of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee plan to propose an answer to at least some of their fiscal woes -- financial concessions from the IOC.
SLOC President Mitt Romney wants the IOC to let the organizing committee delay royalty payments owed on earnings from, for example, the sale of licensed merchandise.
Romney also wants the IOC to let organizers sell sponsorships in the lucrative information technology area. He's said two unnamed companies are ready to pay as much as $25 million each for sponsorships.
Nothing's expected to be settled during the coordination commission meeting, although action could be taken as soon as next month when the IOC meets in Seoul, South Korea.
Finances are being discussed Monday, the first of four days of closed-door meetings. Jean-Claude Killy, an IOC member from France, met privately Monday morning with three financial experts who are reviewing SLOC's books.
The experts were the IOC's Thierry Sprunger; Bjorn Brenna, head of finances for the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway; and Pat Glisson, who did the same for the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta.
Tuesday, commission members will break into working groups to talk about information technology, marketing, media operations and other issues. Tickets are on the agenda for Wednesday.
The commission members will also have the opportunity to tour nearly all of the Olympic venues on Wednesday and Thursday, including the athlete housing under construction at the University of Utah.
This is the first visit to Salt Lake City by the IOC since the scandal broke late last year, largely because of accusations made by Marc Hodler, a senior IOC member from Switzerland and head of the coordination commission.
Hodler was the first insider to publicly use the term "bribes" to describe what Salt Lake bidders had done. He also provided unsubstantiated details of how IOC votes are bought and sold.
Hodler is here, and so is a public relations team from the IOC and its media consultant, Hill & Knowlton. And the coordination commission now has a deputy chairman, Killy.
Killy, a gold-medal skier who headed the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France, has been rumored as a possible replacement for IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch.
Eighteen of the 20 members of the coordination commission are expected. The members include officials from several key winter sports as well as IOC members and staff.
Although the two members of the IOC from the United States, Anita DeFrantz and Jim Easton, don't serve on the commission, they will be in Salt Lake City for the meetings. Leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee are also expected.