There will be fewer tickets available for the 2002 Winter Games than planned, but organizers promised they'll still set aside 160,000 of the 1.6 million seats for Utahns.
But Utahns can forget about attending some of the premier events, such as the gold-medal round of men's ice hockey. Salt Lake Organizing Committee trustees were told Wednesday about 90 percent of those seats will be filled by sponsors, not spectators.And nearly half of the tickets available to the public are now going to be sold in "Olympic Experience" packages to several pre-selected events. The cost of the tickets will be the same as if they were purchased individually.
Organizers are also scaling back plans to sell tickets via an Internet auction so more will be available through the yet-to-be finalized package deals. A proposed package priced at $250, for example, would include tickets for four sporting events over three days.
SLOC President Mitt Romney said Thursday the changes to the program shouldn't worry Utahns who might not be able to afford such ticket packages for their families. Plenty of individual seats will still be for sale, although primarily at less-popular events.
"I'm absolutely dedicated to Utahns being able to have an Olympic experience. That's one of our highest priorities," Romney said. But organizers also have contractual obligations to make certain tickets available for sponsors to buy.
That means most Utahns will be watching the men's gold-medal hockey game on television rather than in the E Center in West Valley City, he said. The same goes for the women's gold-medal ice hockey game.
At other high-demand events in larger venues, like the opening and closing ceremonies at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium and women's figure skating finals at the Delta Center, he said sponsors could be in half the seats.
When organizers took another look recently at just how many tickets they'd be able to sell, they realized that between their obligations to sponsors and broadcasters who need camera space, the total number of seats already committed jumped from 800,000 to 900,000.
Combined with some other adjustments, such as reducing the number of tickets that will be sold at some outdoor venues, that reduced the number of tickets for sale to Utahns and other members of the public to 730,000.
SLOC has named Jet Set Sports in New Jersey as the official tour agency for the Games, a deal worth an estimated $20 million. The travel agency, which also worked with the now-tainted bid committee, will sell about 10 percent of the public tickets.
Also Wednesday, trustees approved a contract for an undisclosed amount with Earl Holding for exclusive use during the Games of his two downtown hotels, Little America and the nearly completed Little America Grand.
Holding, a former trustee who also has a separate multimillion dollar contract with SLOC for use of his Snowbasin Ski Area, drove a hard bargain. "I believe we have as good a deal as we're going to get," Romney said.
Not good enough for trustee Ken Bullock, who cast the sole vote against the deal. Bullock said Holding should have been willing to waive any fee for the use of his hotels because he's already making so much from the Games.
"When the budget is as tight as it is, particularly in cash, it could be a gesture back to the organizing committee," Bullock said. He noted SLOC helped Holding secure federal support for a controversial land exchange at Snowbasin and for a new road to the resort.
Romney said earlier in the meeting that if the land exchange does not go through there would be limited impact on the downhill ski races scheduled at Snowbasin but SLOC could end up spending $200,000 to build temporary facilities there.
Trustees were told that athletes will have to wait an additional three or four months to get on the ice at the Utah Olympic Oval because of last month's construction accident. The speed-skating oval is, however, still expected to host a championship as scheduled in March.
Experts hired by the organizing committee are still trying to determine what caused the collapse of a section of the suspension-bridge cable system that's holding up the nearly completed roof.
Grant Thomas, SLOC's senior vice president of venues, said the basic structure is sound. Only a handful of buildings around the world have the same type of roof, which is similar in design to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.
It is not yet clear whether the April 19 accident will end up costing SLOC money. Although both the organizing committee and the construction companies involved are insured, SLOC could end up paying for the independent analysis under way.
Romney announced to trustees Wednesday he will not replace Shelley Thomas, who resigned as senior vice president of public communications. Thomas is receiving no severance pay because her resignation was "entirely voluntary."
Her responsibilities in media relations, publications, image, youth and education programs, Olympic torch relay and the Cultural Olympiad have been reassigned to other SLOC employees.
You can reach Lisa Riley Roche by e-mail at lisa@desnews.com