Calls to scale back 2002 Olympics

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Thursday November 29 12:22 PM ET

Call to Scale Back Olympics Costs

By ROBERT GEHRKE, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Salt Lake Olympic chief Mitt Romney says costs of the Olympic Games are growing out of control and the pageantry surrounding the games should be scaled back.

Romney, responding to a General Accounting Office report made public Thursday, said he plans to give International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge a series of recommendations to hold down costs.

The GAO, Congress' auditing agency, said the 2002 Winter Olympics are expected to cost $1.9 billion.

By comparison, the last Winter Olympics in the United States, held at Lake Placid, N.Y., cost just $363 million when adjusted for inflation, the GAO said.

Romney said Salt Lake's Paralympic Games, which are now held in conjunction with the Olympic Games, will have more competitors, spectators and events than the Lake Placid Olympics.

Some of the costs are unavoidable, Romney wrote. For example, he said better timing devices cost more, and the Salt Lake organizers will be spending $291 million on computer systems.

Romney said that since he took over as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee in 1999, he carved $200 million from the budget and worked to keep costs down.

``(We) sought to reverse the trend of having each Olympic Games be `bigger and better' than the one before,'' he said. ``Our goal, instead, is to refocus the games on the basics of sport. ... The surrounding elements of the games - the pageantry and many associated programs - we've sought to reduce and eliminate whenever possible.''

He said other costs could be eliminated ``if the games were structured differently, beginning with the bid process.''

The GAO report, requested by Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, found that taxpayers will pay for $342 million of the Salt Lake Olympic budget. That doesn't include $34.5 million in additional security costs budgeted since the Sept. 11 attacks.

The figure did not include $1.1 billion of federal funding for transportation projects, such as Interstate 15 reconstruction and building light rail in Salt Lake City, because federal officials said those projects would have been done eventually regardless of the Olympic Games.

Bennett, who secured much of the federal money for the Olympics, pointed out that federal spending for the 2002 Olympics made up just 18 percent of the games' overall budget.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2001

Answers

All this money for the glory of hosting the Olympics, and who the hell will remember or care in a few years. A mug's game, if you ask me.

-- Anonymous, November 29, 2001

Having been somewhat involved in the New Orleans World's Fair, I agree with you, Peter. NO actually hired the guy who had made a spectacularly bad job on something else, some winter games or something. I'm sure the Olympics has similar boondoggles.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

Utah isn't to fond of the idea of the Olympics and the cost that is being incurred either. Myself, I'm not going into SLC. if I don't have too. I can only see me going for one of my kids to go to the children's hospital there. We lived near Atlanta during the Olympics then and stayed away from the area at that time. I can watch it onmy boob tube!! lol

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001

Agreed. Worse, some bozos in Cinci want to get the summer games there for 2012 and ship the soccer matches and something else up to Columbus.

This is one event I plan on protesting, assuming that the recession doesn't put a damper on US game hosting in the first place. We don't need the expense or the increased traffic. I feel very sorry for SLC residents. It's a small city, anyway, and with the blocked-off streets and extra security, it'll be like Columbus during summer construction season: You can't get here from here!

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001


Romney ran unsuccessfully against Teddy Kennedy for Senate about 8 years ago. He struck me as a pretty decent guy. He has a business background, although I believe not entirely successful. I thought he was a good match for running the SLC Olympics, partly because he is a devout Mormon and would understand any local cultural issues better than most.

I have always found the opening ceremonies boring. Hope there is enough snow this year.

-- Anonymous, November 30, 2001



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