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Confidence Killy says Salt Lake could host 'best games ever'
Posted: Wednesday May 19, 1999 11:52 AM
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Jean-Claude Killy, the Olympic skiing champion now on the International Olympic Committee, says he is increasingly confident about Salt Lake's ability to stage "not the best possible games, but the best games ever." Killy is deputy chairman of the 18-member IOC Coordination Commission that is giving advice and surveying Salt Lake's plans for the 2002 Winter Games. The meetings began Monday and end Thursday. "It's the first time in my life that we are asked so many questions and listened to," Killy said Tuesday. "My level of confidence in the outcome has gone from very high to extremely high." Killy was a triple gold medalist at the 1968 Games in Grenoble and was president of the organizing committee for Albertville's Games in 1992. He also has served on the coordination commissions for Lillehammer in 1994 and Nagano in 1998. Killy said he's been impressed with Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Mitt Romney. "I found him a very smart individual and willing to learn from the past," Killy said. Romney, in turn, called Killy's presence "very powerful. He has been where I am now and he continues to give good advice." "He is saying, `Oh, in Albertville, we found we didn'tneed to do this, we didn't need to do that, we paid too much for some accommodations. You don't have to worry about that. You'll make more money on the coin program if you do this,'" Romney added. "Lots of ideas -- it's been refreshing." A top priority for the SLOC is slicing expenses from a budget threatened by lukewarm sponsor interest since even before the IOC bribery scandal. Romney has been saying for two months he has identified $84 million in frills to trim from the $1.45 billion budget. But on Tuesday he said the tally is now up to $98 million and growing. Killy declined to specify which cuts the IOC suggested, except for one: volunteers. Salt Lake may reconsider whether it needs all 18,000 volunteers now planned. The volunteers are not paid, but it costs an organizing committee $3,000 to $5,000 to feed, outfit, transport and train each volunteer. "That's the kind of thing we want to tell Salt Lake City now and not two years from now," Killy said. The IOC is willing to discuss changes in how it is treated by organizers, but Killy said that won't result in much savings. The IOC pays for its own rooms and transportation, for instance. "It's not in the millions of dollars," he said. Romney last week said he would ask the IOC to renegotiate its contract to cut SLOC's costs in the same way Sydney's costs for 2000 are being trimmed; to defer royalty payments on merchandise, sponsorships and tickets; and to let SLOC go after technology sponsors. But spokesman Shelley Thomas said Tuesday that Romney has only made general statements and will not discuss his requests in detail until an IOC meeting next month in Seoul, South Korea. Franklin Servan-Schreiber, the IOC communications director, said the committee should not expect muchin the way of money from the IOC. "We're not the sugar daddy who has all this money hidden under a tree in Lausanne," he said. But Servan-Schreiber acknowledged the IOC is reconsidering the technology sponsor categories because of dramatic changes in technology over the past two years. In the past, IOC has sold all technology sponsorships. The complexities of a changing technology field caused the SLOC to hire a German company to provide software that delivers the judge's scores to broadcasters, scoreboards and a database, said Dave Busser, managing director of information technologies for the SLOC. The committee ran out of time to line up a sponsor and had to get moving on the software, so it hired Wige Mic for on-venue result systems. The committee is still negotiating with potential sponsors that will either amplify on Wige Mic's work or pay for it. Busser declined to say how much Wige Mic will be paid. He dismissed the suggestion sponsors shied away because of the scandal. "None of them said no because of the scandal," Busser said. Meanwhile, the IOC's marketing director said despite the bribery case, public support for Olympic athletes remained high -- although it "clearly has been a black eye for the IOC's image." Marketing chief Michael Payne claimed worldwide surveys conducted for the IOC found that failure to adopt reforms in the wake of the scandal "would cause certain erosion" in other areas of the Olympic community. But the surveys of 10,000 people in 10 countries in February and March showed 76 percent had a positive attitude toward the games and 85 percent a positive attitude toward Olympic athletes.
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