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SLOC managers considering Internet auction for 2002 Winter Games
It's all part of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee's latest effort to increase revenue, cut frills and balance a budget for the scandal-plagued Utah games.
Fraser Bullock, chief operating officer, gave a finance committee a glimpse Tuesday of budget cuts, revenue "enhancements" and contingencies he plans to propose to the full 54-member board of trustees on July 8.
"We looked at the golf carts and cut those back," said Bullock, without divulging numbers. The carts were meant for Olympic officials and to move supplies inside venues. Bullock also plans to cut back on snowmobiles, two-way radios and glossy color publications.
"We're going black and white," SLOC president Mitt Romney said. "We're doing things on the Xerox machine."
Bullock, the organization's head bean-counter, said he was 80 percent through a line-by-line review of the Salt Lake games' original $1.45 billion budget, including the Paralympics.
Bullock said he was separating essentials from what would be just "nice" for the games, reducing the budget to a new "base" level, then layering three tiers of possible restorations in the event the SLOC can fill a $300 million gap in sponsor revenues. Salt Lake officials are struggling to raise money in the wake of a gifts-for-votes bidding scandal that surfaced last fall.
In a set of "permanent" reductions, Bullock said he cut $10 million from games-time SLOC staff, now frozen at 237 employees; saved "big money" by cutting back on two-way radios, and plans to drop a special ceremony for International Olympic Committee members.
Bullock also cut "bells and whistles" for the SLOC's Web site, including "real-time" contest results. But Bullock said that improvement could pay for itself and more if the SLOC draws advertisers to the Web site -- a source of sponsorship revenue not already claimed by the U.S. or international Olympic committees.
And board members suggested the SLOC hold an Internet auction to hype sales of Olympic tickets, possibly raising more than the face value of the tickets if it doesn't run afoul of other states' scalping laws.
Utah does not regulate scalping, said Tracey L. Tabet, a spokeswoman for the Utah attorney general's office, but she said other states "may choose to go after SLOC."
Anticipating trouble, some board members suggested offering ticket bidders something of additional value, such as the chance to hobnob with Olympic dignitaries.
By the end of Tuesday's discussion, meanwhile, golf carts were back on the table. Romney said Salt Lake City might donate the use of its 400 golf carts for the games -- an offer he quickly announced after huddling with Roger Black, the SLOC stand-in for Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corridini.