Craig Lehto, the manager of Utah Olympic Park, calls it one of his favorite photographs from the 2002 Winter Games — a view from the top of the 120-meter ski jump that shows an amazing crowd of people packed into towering bleachers.
"Look at that," Lehto said, standing in front of the photograph on display in a room devoted to the Games in the park's brand-new museum, named for local ski-jumping legend Alf Engen. "Can you believe all those people were here?"
But now the days of attracting massive crowds are over for the park as well as for the other state-built Olympic facility, the speedskating oval in Kearns. With the Games finished, both are being transformed to bring in recreational users as well as athletes and spectators.
That means the bleachers in the photograph are gone, and, along with them, the possibility that the park will — at least in the foreseeable future — again host an Olympic-sized crowd of 20,000 ski-jumping fans.
Soon, several hundred trees will be planted where spectators sat stacked sky-high around the jump's landing run, although there will be still be room for some temporary seating to be set up at future competitions.
  Utah Olympic Oval, Utah Olympic Park Adobe Acrobat. | |
Near the jumps and the park's bobsled, luge and skeleton track, large lots that had been filled with trailers to house a small army of Salt Lake Organizing Committee officials and broadcasters during the Games are being repaved so visitors will have a place to park.
At the oval, the bleachers that surrounded the 400-meter track are gone, too. They'll be replaced by temporary stands that can be set up to seat some 1,400 spectators, compared with the 6,500 that filled the arena at Games time.
A $250,000 red-and-blue running track already has been installed around the track, ready for everyone from casual joggers to elite athletes, including the speedskaters expected to train at the facility.
Money for the improvements at both facilities is coming from SLOC, which was required to pay for post-Games restoration at all Olympic venues — everything from a fresh coat of paint at the oval to tearing up temporary parking lots on private property near the park.
The financial success of the $1.3 billion Games means SLOC could be generous in fulfilling its contracts, turning over $4.5 million in equipment and funding some $2 million in enhancements in addition to the $2.6 million set aside for restoration.
The biggest beneficiary of the surplus is the Utah Athletic Foundation, the private organization created by lawmakers to run the park and the oval after the Games. SLOC endowed the facilities with $40 million, then added another $30 million from a $56 million surplus.
But even with the additional money, foundation officials fear they'll eventually run short of what they need to keep the facilities going. That's because neither the park nor the oval is expected to operate in the black.
The first annual budget adopted by the foundation for the facilities has them running almost $4 million in the red, despite an anticipated $3 million in revenues from recreational and training programs, sponsors, rental fees and the sale of tickets and concessions.
Events, including international competitions, are planned for both facilities in the coming years, but none is ever likely to attract spectators willing to pay Olympic prices, which climbed close to $200 for a ticket to the ski-jumping finals.
More likely, revenue will come from recreational users and tourists willing to pay to see —and maybe use — an Olympic venue. At the park, tour buses already regularly zip visitors from the jumps to the bobsled, luge and skeleton track, with a stop at the museum.
Although the park has programs aimed at introducing novices to the ski jumps and the track, it's the oval, built next to the busy Oquirrh Park Fitness Center, that's probably more popular with recreational users.
Nick Thometz, the oval's manager, proudly points to a new brochure listing more than a dozen introduction programs to speedskating as well as figure skating, hockey and curling. Each costs $40 for seven lessons.
"What's most important is for people to come out and use this facility," he said. "It's a community building. It's no different than the swimming pool" operated nearby by the fitness center.
Thometz said not everyone realizes that yet. On a recent hot weekday afternoon, the pool area was packed with swimmers and sunbathers. Inside the cool covered oval, only a handful of beginning speedskaters were struggling on the ice.
There are plans for publicity, but it'll take some time to figure out the best way to promote both facilities. Both Thometz and Lehto are hoping to learn that and other lessons from the first year of post-Games operations.
Among what they need to learn is just how long the existing facilities can go on without a major capital investment. At some point, the jumps and tracks will need to be overhauled, or even replaced.
That's where the real concern about money comes in. While the foundation expects to earn enough from investing its eventual $70 million endowment to make up the operating deficit, it's unclear how much more cash will be needed over the years for capital improvements.
"It seems like a lot of money," Thometz said of the endowment. "But if you don't go into the principal" — something the foundation board has vowed never to do — "it's not like there is a lot of excess lying around."
Lehto, who, like Thometz, worked for SLOC in a similar capacity before being hired by the foundation this spring, said Olympic organizers were careful not to overbuild the facilities for the Games.
SLOC actually bought both the park and the oval in advance of the Games for a $59 million payment to the state and local governments that financed their construction. After the Games, the facilities were turned over to the foundation along with the endowment.
"One of our big priorities was after-use," Lehto said. That's why, for example, organizers relied on temporary stands and trailers rather than building permanent bleachers and office buildings.
It's an issue organizers of the next Olympics, the 2004 Summer Games in Athens, are facing. Venue plans deemed overly ambitious by the Greek government are being scaled back to save as much as $285 million.
"The government will not allow any projects which are just a luxury for the Games," government spokesman Dimitris Gerou told The Associated Press. "We don't want to leave any white elephants behind."
Both Lehto and Thometz are convinced that's not going to happen here. In fact, Lehto is already concerned there may not be enough parking available at the park to handle summertime visitors willing to pay a $7 entrance fee.
"I wouldn't be surprised," he said, "if we had some days in July where we hit capacity."
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com