How Salt Lake paid for the 2002 Olympics

Several ledgers, not one Olympic budget

Did Salt Lake’s 2002 Winter Games make money? The answer depends on whose books are being read. The organizing committee, known as SLOC, was a temporary body that sold tickets, sponsorships and broadcast rights and ended with a surplus. Governments separately paid for security, transportation and other services. A separate nonprofit foundation took over the sports venues afterward. Each kept its own accounts, and amounts moving between them can be a repayment, a sale payment or an endowment. Counting all of it as one “Olympic budget” hides who paid and what the money bought.

This article follows the money in that order: the early public funding, the sponsorship scare of 1999, the commercial revenue, the government costs outside SLOC’s accounts, how the surplus was reported, and what it paid for. Every dollar figure carries its date, and the year of the dollars where the source gave one. Some of the figures are estimates made before the Games, not final audited costs.

The first money arrived years before the crowds

Utah began setting aside tax revenue for Olympic preparations long before the Games. From January 1, 1990 through June 30, 1999, one sixty-fourth of one percent of the state sales tax, matched by an equal amount of local sales tax, was earmarked for an Olympics Special Revenue Fund used by the Utah Sports Authority. The State Tax Commission’s fiscal 1999 report records the arrangement in notes to its sales-tax tables. ^[2]

By 1994, legislators had also authorized a $99 million purchase price for the sale of the Winter Sports Park. Randy Dryer, then chair of the Utah Sports Authority, told a legislative committee in May 1999 that the park and speed-skating oval should end up with a private foundation, and that the policy statements were meant to eliminate state liability while leaving a recreation and athletic legacy. He said the Utah Athletic Foundation was funded by a $40 million legacy payment from SLOC. ^[3]

A sponsorship gap met a spending squeeze

In December 1998, the legislature’s Sports Advisory Committee heard that the governor had asked SLOC for a revenue contingency plan covering what would happen if revenues fell short or expenses rose. The safeguards described were limiting commitments before October 1, 1999 to 60 percent of the planned budget, keeping contingencies and operating reserves at $100 million or more by that October, and commissioning auditors for a semiannual review of budget management. These were promised controls, not proof that the expected income had been secured. ^[4]

The Salt Lake bid scandal then complicated fundraising. In March 1999, The Christian Science Monitor reported that “some $350 million of projected money from sponsors has not materialized,” as the committee tightened spending under Mitt Romney. The figure described projected money missing from the plan, not cash already spent or lost. ^[5]

The pressure reached venues as well. At the May 1999 meeting, Dryer said SLOC management had recommended a cut of about $84 million to its budget, including $5 million for operating the park and oval. Legislative counsel described an agreement to extend the closing of the park sale by up to 90 days. The minutes record a recommendation and an extension, not a final accounting of savings. ^[3]

Broadcasts, sponsors and spectators supplied the commercial money

Television rights, sponsorships, tickets and merchandise were the main sources of money for the Games. GAO’s September 2000 report added that these sources generally produced less than the cost of hosting, partly because revenue is divided among the organizing committee, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee. For television rights, SLOC was scheduled to receive 60 percent and the IOC 40 percent. The commercial value of the Games was therefore larger than the revenue available to the local organizer. ^[6]

By June 2002 the picture had reversed from the 1999 alarm. The Deseret News reported that SLOC had “signed 61 local sponsors for $876 million” alongside its partner the U.S. Olympic Committee, and sold 95 percent of available tickets. The article did not say how much of the $876 million was cash, or how much SLOC itself kept. ^[7]

The opening ceremony was held on February 8, 2002. The IOC’s marketing report counted 2,399 Olympic athletes from 77 countries and more than 1.5 million tickets sold. Those figures describe the Olympic Games only; the Paralympic Games followed, and GAO’s cost estimates covered both. ^[9][8]

Government costs sat outside the organizing accounts

GAO’s November 2001 report estimated the total direct cost of planning and staging the Salt Lake Olympic and Paralympic Games at about $1.9 billion, in constant 2001 dollars, using information current to July 31, 2001. By GAO’s definition, “direct” meant funding and support that would not have been provided were it not for the Games. SLOC planned to fund about $1.3 billion of that (70 percent). Utah state agencies planned about $150 million (8 percent), Salt Lake City about $75 million (4 percent), and the federal government about $342 million (18 percent). ^[8]

On those rounded estimates, public bodies accounted for about 30 percent of the direct cost, roughly $570 million in 2001 dollars. That is our addition of GAO’s three public figures, not a number GAO reported. The shares are rounded, and the estimate predates the Games. GAO said it relied on agencies’ own determinations of what was Olympic-related and did not independently verify the data. ^[8]

The federal $342 million included about $185 million for safety and security and about $106 million for transportation. Congress had specifically designated about $208 million of it for Olympic-related purposes, and agencies approved the other $134 million through normal funding channels. GAO excluded added security needs after the September 11, 2001 attacks, and its footnote shows requests were still being reviewed. The $342 million is therefore neither the final federal contribution nor the final security bill. ^[8]

A second, broader count appeared in GAO’s September 2000 report, in constant 1999 dollars. As of April 2000 it put federal funding and support for Salt Lake at almost $1.3 billion: about $254 million for planning and staging, and about $1 billion for preparing the region, mostly highway and transit projects that Utah and Salt Lake City officials wanted finished for the Games. Federal officials told GAO most of the infrastructure money would have gone to such projects regardless of the Games, because many were planned long before Salt Lake was chosen. They also said the Games affected which projects were prioritized or accelerated, and GAO noted some officials could not always document which projects would not have been funded without them. ^[6]

The 2001 report refers back to this, giving about $1.1 billion in additional indirect federal support and repeating that the projects were prioritized or accelerated. This boundary is where reasonable readers disagree: charging a whole highway project to the Games can overstate the Games’ added cost if it would have been built anyway, while treating its acceleration as free can understate the public commitment. These are different dollar years and definitions, so they should not simply be added to the $1.9 billion. ^[8][6]

The surplus changed as contracts closed

On April 25, 2002, SLOC’s Fraser Bullock told the Olympic Coordination Committee there was a surplus of $56 million, of which $6 million would go to the Olympic Legacy Plaza, $30 million to the Utah Athletic Foundation and $10 million to the U.S. Olympic Committee. State Olympic Officer Lane Beattie said the state had been repaid $59 million, divided between state and local governments, that $40 million in legacy funds was already in an account, and that many contracts had not yet been closed out. These are distinct amounts at different stages. ^[1]

In September 2002 the Deseret News reported a further $16 million surplus, partly because a $6 million contingency fund set aside after the Games was not needed, with other savings and favorable settlements. SLOC said it ended with “more than $100 million in profits,” a figure that, per the article, included the value of furniture, food, equipment and other contributions to charities and venues, plus sponsor-supplied goods to be turned over to the U.S. Olympic Committee. It was not all unrestricted cash. ^[10]

The 2018 exploratory committee report gives a later, fuller tally attributed to the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation. In 2002 dollars, the Games produced a surplus of $163.4 million: $59.0 million repaid to the state under agreements made in the 1990s, $76.0 million for an endowment to maintain and operate the facilities, $11.2 million for charity, $10.2 million for Olympic legacy plazas and $7.0 million in U.S. Olympic Committee credits. The report did not reconcile that total with the 2002 news figures, so it is best read as a retrospective definition, not a correction. ^[11]

This is why two accounts from the same year can differ without contradicting each other. One may count money expected after settlement; another may add assets, donations or the repayment of public advances. The date and the definition belong beside the number.

What the legacy money financed

The endowment addressed a lasting obligation. In April 2002, Dryer told legislators the venues “will never be self sufficient,” and said the foundation board would adopt a formal investment policy and seek a professional money manager. The hope that the venues would not need taxpayer support was an expectation expressed then, not a guarantee. ^[1]

The 2018 report offers a look at how that has gone, in the committee’s own words. It said the Foundation subsidizes three venues (the Utah Olympic Oval, Utah Olympic Park and Soldier Hollow), that its legacy fund is now $60 million rather than the original $76 million (2018 values), and that it had spent $147.6 million on venue operations, maintenance and programs since 2002, with annual operating and maintenance spending of about $17 million. It also reported $64.5 million in net investment earnings and $25.8 million for capital improvements. The report is a promotional bid document, not an audit, and it describes the fund as minimizing, not eliminating, use of taxpayer resources. ^[11]

Salt Lake’s organizers finished with a surplus and left money to operate the venues. Governments had also paid for transport, security and other services beyond SLOC’s books. The record supports both statements. A surplus on the organizer’s books is not a calculation showing that every public cost of hosting was recovered, and no source here provides a final audited total of public spending.