BEAR HOLLOW -- With the announcement of some new names, new identities and new money, the one thing the Utah Winter Sports Park wasn't looking for was new snow -- but it fell anyway.
So, instead of turning dirt during official ground-breaking ceremonies Tuesday for the Joe Quinney Winter Sports Center, honored dignitaries stuck their shovels into indoor carpeting.As part of this reconfigured occasion, it was also announced that the park's post-Games governing arm, the Utah Athletic Foundation, was hooking onto the Olympic train and would hereafter be called the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation.
To christen the foundation's name change, Mitt Romney, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, handed over a $10,000 check, the first installment on the $250,000 SLOC agreed to pay the foundation.
For Randy Dryer, UOLF chairman, the name change and funding guarantee the future of the also newly named Utah Olympic Park, formerly the Utah Winter Sports Park.
"We've got a new identity closely tied to the Olympics and money to operate between now and the Games. There's life in this organization," Dryer said. "Now we will be able to do all the planning so that when the Games are over we can hit the ground running and not miss a beat when it comes to operating these wonderful facilities."
As had been previously reported in the Deseret News, several of Salt Lake's sports venues also have new "Olympic" names, officially approved by the U.S. Olympic Committee. The speed-skating oval at the Oquirrh Park Fitness Center in Kearns, for example, will now be the Utah Olympic Oval and the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium, which will host opening and closing ceremonies, will henceforth be known as the Rice-Eccles Olympic Stadium.
"Anytime you can hitch your wagon to the Olympic star, that's a positive," said Dryer. "The USOC jealously guards the name. It's so important internationally for us to be known as the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation and the Utah Olympic Park."
Also unveiled was a new logo for the Olympic venues and a limited-edition poster, showing Alf Engen in his signature jumping form, that will be sold to raise money for the new building.
The $10,000 check came as the result of an agreement reached between SLOC, the foundation and lawmakers during the 2000 Legislature. The organizing committee now has up to an extra year to come up with half of a $40 million endowment owed to the foundation in March 2002.
The endowment was part of a deal made by lawmakers years ago to sell the facilities to SLOC. Besides the $40 million, organizers also have to repay the $59 million in tax dollars spent to build the facilities.
In return for agreeing to wait for the $20 million, the foundation gets $200,000 in cash and $50,000 in goods and services from the organizing committee. SLOC is stretching the cash settlement over the next 20 months.
Between the monthly payments and $120,000 in revenue from outside sources, said Dryer, the foundation will be able to meet its obligations through the 2002 Winter Games.
The main purpose for the Tuesday gathering was breaking ground for the new $10 million Quinney Sports Center, which will also be home to the Alf Engen Ski Museum. The center is named for one of Utah's ski pioneers, who helped found Alta Ski Area, and will house the museum for one of the state's sports legends.
According to Alan Engen, son of the late ski champion Alf and the driving force behind the center, the actual structure is expected to be finished in November. It will then be turned over to SLOC as a media center for luge, skeleton, bobsled and ski jumping events during the Olympics.
When the Games are over, the center will be finished according to the original plans, which call for the museum, a restaurant, retail and storage space.
"I can honestly tell you this is a much larger undertaking than I had originally planned," said Engen. "In the beginning, we were going to have a small A-frame that would hold the museum. Now we will have a three-story building with 59,000 square feet.
"Originally, we had looked at raising $1 million. Thus far we've raised $7 million, which will complete the building. Over the next year we've got to concentrate on raising the remaining $3 million, which will be used to finish the interior and exhibits. The centerpiece of the building will, of course, be the museum."
The museum will not only honor Engen, a legendary skiing and ski-jump pioneer, but will also recognize the history of skiing in the Intermountain area, as well as the history of equipment, ski areas and the 2002 Olympics.