Olympic throngs expected in Salt Lake City

Each day during the 17-day run of the 2002 Olympics, 70,000 people are expected to crowd downtown or make the short trip to other venues at or near Park City, Provo and Ogden.

All together, 230,000 visitors are expected.

Natalie Gouchnour, an analyst in the governor's office of planning and budget, said each is expected to spend $293 daily, generating $117 million over the course of the Salt Lake Games.

Anyone without tickets might be out of luck. About 97 per cent of tickets available to Americans have been requested, but much of the demand is for events like figure skating or hockey. Less popular events remain open.

Venues and public sites will be staffed by 3,500 police officers from around Utah and the United States, as well as an extra 1,000 firefighters and emergency medical services workers.

"We want to be visible so everybody knows we're here," said Utah Olympic Safety Command spokesman Chris Kramer.

The federal government is sending 3,000 agents from the Secret Service, FBI, Customs and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Special units will be on hand, flying helicopters equipped with night-vision technology and trained to handle everything from bomb disposal to tactical operations such as hostage rescues.

Kramer said there even will be crews that "specialize in tracking down and neutralizing weapons of mass destruction." He emphasized the special units will stay in the background.

At the airport, visitors will be greeted by banners on the concourse while skywalks will feature Olympic-themed murals.

Traffic is expected to increase on peak arrival and departure days to about 7,500 passengers beyond a typical day, but airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said officials are confident they can handle the load.

"We are essentially not adding any new services," Gann said. "It might be chaos but we hope to make it controlled chaos."

One area of concern for automobile traffic is Parleys Canyon, where Interstate 80 winds to Park City. The six-lane freeway is one of the country's major east-west roads, linking northern California to the Midwest.

After using computer modeling to predict traffic flows, Olympic organizers plan to ask trucking industry officials to avoid eastbound lanes during peak hours between 5 a.m. and 9 a.m.

Some trucking lines might even avoid Utah during the Olympics. That's something the Utah Jazz can relate to, since they'll be away from the Delta Center from Feb. 2-28 when it becomes the Olympic figure skating venue.

"We haven't seen a schedule yet, but we'll probably go East and play a normal East Coast trip, five to seven games," said Jazz spokesman David Allred. "It's our understanding the league will try to keep us in the West the rest of the time."

Meanwhile, about 2,500 athletes and 1,000 coaches and other team officials will stay at the Olympic village on the Utah campus, in the scenic foothills of the snowcapped Wasatch Mountains.

Visitors can travel by bus, taxi or the city's light-rail system. Crews are extending a light-rail line from downtown to the university's Rice-Eccles Stadium, site of the Feb. 8 opening and Feb. 24 closing ceremonies.

The city's light-rail system already posts ads on train cars for Olympic sponsors.

Salt Lake Organizing Committee president Mitt Romney hopes to see city buildings decorated with giant posters of Olympic athletes or images. Negotiations are pending over the use of building space.

In Park City, Midway and Heber City, near the cross-country skiing venue at Soldier Hollow, lightposts already are adorned with Olympic flags. Romney said there won't be as many in Salt Lake City.

"We hope to do some things that really stand out, perhaps some large gateways in the centre of a road or two," he said. "Wrapping buildings and buses with giant images of athletes."

Without hesitation, Romney has no trouble identifying the one thing that is most likely to create the lasting impression for thousands of visitors of the 2002 Winter Olympics.

It's the weather, particularly a layer of smog that sometimes becomes trapped in the Salt Lake Valley, blanketing the city during winter months.

"Salt Lake City's view is influenced by what the weather gives us," Romney said. "If it's sunny and bright, it's spectacular. If it's foggy, which it can be, it's as bad as San Francisco. You'd hardly know the city was there."

By Tim Korte