Apologies to Nancy Sinatra, but one of these days you, too, could have boots walking all over you.
On Thursday, the Salt Lake Organizing Committee unveiled a fund-raising campaign that will allow everyone and anyone to become a permanent part of Olympic history. Just pony up $50 for a sandstone brick with your name engraved on it, and SLOC will make sure it becomes a paving stone in the yet-to-be-built Olympic Legacy Plaza at the Gateway complex.
Once set in stone, so to speak, millions of plaza visitors in the generations to come can walk, skip, shuffle, run and drop their gum all over your name.
"It's a chance to inscribe your name in the Plaza, contribute to the Olympic Winter Games and leave a personal legacy at a permanent city landmark," said SLOC President Mitt Romney.
Mind you, these aren't just any bricks. They are remnants of an old city road, probably about a century old, that was discovered during Boyer Company's excavations in the Gateway area near Union Pacific Depot. The brick roads were common in Salt Lake City until they were covered over with longer-lasting concrete and asphalt roads.
Boyer Company saved the historic bricks, and now thousands upon thousands are available for the legacy program. No one's sure how many bricks were saved, but SLOC officials are confident there are more than enough.
The "buy a brick" program is not unique to the 2002 Winter Games. Atlanta sold about 200,000 bricks at $35 each. "We don't think we are going to sell that many," Romney told the SLOC board of trustees recently.
But they do expect to sell far more than the 5,000 bricks sold by the organizers of the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney, he said.
SLOC marketing officials are optimistic the brick program will generate much-needed cash for the Games, as well as contribute to a sense of Utah history.
At $50 each, it will take 20,000 bricks to raise a million dollars for the Games. If SLOC could match Atlanta's brick sales, that could mean gross revenues of up to $10 million.
SLOC says the brick program will be a key element of the Olympic Legacy Plaza, which is expected to be a major gathering place during the Games. There will be fountains shooting 60 feet into the air, all set to music, and there will be mosaics of brick designs and monuments to athletes, volunteers, contributors and others who made the Games happen.
None of the proceeds from the sale of bricks will go to toward the cost of building the plaza. Rather, the Boyer Company is covering the cost of the plaza as part of the overall Gateway project, Romney said.
"We believe the Gateway's shops, restaurants and galleries will create an exciting social and commercial hub for Salt Lake City," said Boyer president Kem Gardner. "These century-old sandstone bricks will add to the atmosphere by forming a picturesque pathway around the plaza and serve as a permanent tribute to the Games and its participants."
Home Depot, McDonalds and Delta Airlines, all official Games sponsors, will assist SLOC in the marketing of the bricks nationally through advertising campaigns and by stocking their stores with order forms. Order forms will also be available at U.S. Olympic Spirit Stores and mobile merchandise trailers.
Orders can also be placed via SLOC's Internet site at www.saltlake2002.com.The bricks must be purchased by July 2001 due to construction deadlines for the plaza. "We urge people to act quickly on this unique opportunity," Romney said.
The bricks will carry an inscription of up to two lines with a maximum of 17 characters per line. They can list the names of individuals, families, events, companies or special dates.
E-mail: spang@desnews.com