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SALT LAKE CITY -- One month from today, the winter-sports world will focus on Vancouver. It will be the first Olympic Games held in North America since Salt Lake City in 2002.
At the Olympic Museum at Rice Eccles Stadium, it's safe to say there isn't a crowd. Since the first of the year, fewer than two dozen people have signed the guest roster at the now automated museum that shares services with the University of Utah's event ticket office.
The roster includes signatures from out of state and foreign visitors. Ann Marie Johnson took a visiting friend from Boston to the museum on Monday.
"I'd volunteered during the Olympics," Johnson said. "And it made the city so magic." She thinks the fact that some people left the city to avoid the hassle of the games actually made it easier for others.
But she isn't surprised that the "glow" of Salt Lake City's games left so soon after the flame on the cauldron was extinguished. At one time, she was so full of Olympic spirit she considered volunteering for the games in Sydney, Torino and China. "But life got in the way," Johnson said.
Downtown, Salt Lake Chamber CEO Lane Beattie is convinced the economic glow from the games hasn't diminished.
"We have continued to benefit in a very big way," he said. Beattie was the state's Olympic officer during the games.
"All you have to do is look at the skiers who come into the state to ski, understanding that we don't have to educate their children. They come from all over the world here," Beattie said. If there's anything he feels Utah could have done better, it's that it should have "told its story" better, and more often.
James Wood of the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Utah said he hasn't conducted or seen any studies about the long term economic impact of the games.
But, he said looking at skier numbers, it's fair to say tourism has benefited. Woods said Utah's $1-billion ski industry is certainly important, but for other sectors of Utah's $90 billion economy, the impact may not be so strong. "For most of us, it was more [an event] of civic pride than anything," he said.
And if civic pride is worth more than money, some of Utah's former venues are still fulfilling their missions.
"We're typically losing $4 million a year," said Jennifer Clarke, spokeswoman for the Utah Winter Sports Park, the venue for ski jumping, bobsled and luge in 2002. It also manages the Olympic Oval in Kearns. In 2002, the Olympic committee left a $76 million fund to manage the venues. Clarke said that fund is at about $62 million. But the venues are both still actively used for training and for world cup events.
Beattie has no regrets. "No matter where you look, the Olympics ended up being so positive that places like Denver, Colorado are doing back-flips trying to get back in the hunt to be able to host an Olympic Games," he said.
In fact, Beattie thinks Salt Lake City is in one of the best positions to jump in, if for some reason another Olympics had to be moved.
E-mail: mgiauque@ksl.com
