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SLOC seeks exemption from liquor laws

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Posted: Thursday May 20, 1999 11:09 AM

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Concerned about Mormon restrictions on alcohol, the International Olympic Committee has asked organizers to try to pull the cork and let the booze flow at the 2002 Winter Games.

The IOC's coordination commission asked the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to request "with great respect" that Utah authorities allow unfettered alcohol sales in the main press center, slated to take over the mammoth Salt Palace convention center downtown.

"As a Frenchman, I know that a Frenchman kept from his wine might get cranky," IOC spokesman Franklin Servan-Schreiber said Wednesday.

Shelley Thomas, SLOC's senior vice president for communications, said the committee would seek to win an exemption from liquor laws at the palace for the two weeks of the Games. Such exemptions can be granted for convention facilities.

There are no plans to request similar exemptions for other Olympic sites, SLOC spokesman Frank Zang said.

Utah officials have said repeatedly they would not relax the laws for the Olympics.

Mormon teaching forbids the use of alcohol. Beer is sold in grocery stores, but the law in Utah restricts other alcohol sales to state-run outlets, establishments serving food or "social clubs," where a customer must be sponsored by a club member before imbibing.

The IOC bans alcohol from its own sponsorship program, although national and local Olympic committees can sign with brewers and vintners. Otherwise, Olympic leaders accept alcohol's presence.

In their bids, Salt Lake organizers took pains to show how easy it was to buy a drink here. Tom Welch, the motivator behind the bid and now disgraced for his role in the bribery scandal, used to tell Olympic leaders, "If you can't get a drink in Salt Lake City, you can't be very thirsty."

Last year, the Mormon church spoke out against pleas from the tourism and hospitality industries to change the laws. Local anti-alcohol groups have protested Anheuser-Busch's sponsorship as a step toward "beer-soaked Winter Games in Salt Lake City."

 

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