The state has signed a $99 million contract to sell Olympic facilities built with taxpayer dollars to the privately funded group bidding for the 2002 Winter Games.
Provisions to control commercial development at the Utah Winter Sports Park in Bear Hollow near Park City, proposed after the Deseret News disclosed that such development is permitted, were included in the contract signed Tuesday.The contract requires the bid committee to repay taxpayers' $59 million investment in the Olympics and to establish a $40 million private foundation to operate the facilities and to promote amateur sports.
The sale will take place only if Salt Lake City is awarded the 2002 Winter Games by the International Olympic Committee next year. If the city's second consecutive bid fails, the state will continue to own the facilities.
The facilities being sold include the state's interest in the speed-skating oval under construction in Kearns, the ice arena in Ogden, and the ski jumps and bobsled and luge run at the Sports Park.
Backers of the sale said the contract lives up to the promises made during the 1989 Olympic referendum to pay back the taxpayers' investment while encouraging winter sports development.
"I view this less as a sale or a purchase," said Frank Joklik, chairman of the bid committee. "I look at it as a passing of the facilities into safe hands, who will take care of them to benefit the youth of this state."
A spokesman for Utahns For Responsible Spending, a small group of businessmen who call themselves Olympic skeptics, said Gov. Mike Leavitt and other state officials got the best deal they could.
"It's an admirable attempt to close a barn door after most of the livestock has already fled," Stephen Pace said. "It's trying to make the best of previous bad decisions."
Questions were raised about whether the potential for commercial development increased the value of the Bear Hollow property when the Deseret News reported earlier this summer that hotels, office buildings and other commercial facilities could be built on the nearly 400-acre site.
Now the contract gives the state any revenue from the sale or lease of land at the Sports Park for commercial development. Also, the governor has to approve most projects.
The list of commercial uses requiring the governor's approval include hotels, restaurants, office buildings, snack bars, souvenir stands, museums and displays.
The governor does not have say over parking, staff or athlete housing, office space or cafeterias, or facilities built for use during the Olympics or other competitions.
Additionally, the contract states the development "must be substantially related to the conduct of winter sport training, competition and amateur athletics."
The sale was first proposed last year, following months of secret negotiations between the Utah Sports Authority and the Salt Lake Olympic Bid Committee.
Members of the Sports Authority, the state agency overseeing the $59 million taxpayers are spending on Olympic facilities, approved the deal only days after its existence was publicly confirmed.
The 1994 Legislature also endorsed the deal, but not before adding a list of requirements for the contract intended to allow public scrutiny of how the private foundation spends its $40 million.
The deal technically won't be finalized until Friday, when the Sports Authority meets to approve the contract, but the document signed by Sports Authority vice chairman Scott Nelson was on its way to the printers Tuesday.