Many in Salt Lake are holding their breath in hopes the Winter Olympics will prove more golden than early prospects indicate.

Salt Lake City in many ways is enjoying and benefiting from the international spotlight that the Winter Olympics are providing. But behind the glitter and glamour, there are bothersome aspects that will not fade quickly, such as a major financial deficit triggered by the horrendous costs of being host to the event. What is happening will be a sobering influence for future areas seeking to play host for Olympic events.

In a recent Los Angeles Times article, Martin Lee noted: “It will cost nearly $2 billion to stage the Salt Lake City Olympics almost $800,000 per athlete with U.S. taxpayers picking up about one-quarter of the tab. The 18-day event will be the most expensive Winter Olympics ever.”

Even before the grand opening for the Salt Lake games rolled around last week, there was one scandalous incident after another regarding who paid what and to whom to influence approval of the Utah area for the Olympics. People were fired or reassigned because of various improprieties, and the picture was not a flattering one to the region and its people. Now, patronage of events seems to be falling far short of expectations. Tickets are going begging; food and lodging facilities that had depended on massive turnouts aren’t realizing the gains they had hoped.

Perhaps the first clear message that Olympic hosting is not as golden as the first-place medals handed out at the Games was delivered in 1976 at Montreal. The Canadian city spent untold dollars to build facilities and put on a good show. By the time it was all over, the community was left with something like a billion-dollar debt it still is trying to dissolve. And a number of the special facilities that were constructed did not measure up to expectations and have deteriorated in a costly way.

That message did not get through to some and the fact that Peter Uebberoth and his capable people were able to turn a profit for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles dissuaded conservative sources. The Uebberoth group made it look so easy others felt they could do just as well. At one point, the Denver area was considered a prime prospect as a Winter Games site. Promoters gave a frantic sales pitch, but others took note of the costs and also the prospects of environmental and ecological damage. A public vote said Coloradoans did not want to pursue such a “prize,” and Denver wisely dropped out.

The Salt Lake City experience for the 2002 Winter Games makes the Colorado decision look brilliant. The Utah region is increasingly concerned about long-run damage to the environment, cost overruns, scandalous payoffs and the continuing prospect of low turnouts for the events and sidelights. Originally, Salt Lake City set aside some $6 million to address environmental concerns. In February 1999, that sum was reduced to $1.5 million, one-tenth of one percent of the 2002 Olympic budget.

Some have suggested that if Montreal wound up with a billion-dollar shortfall from the 1976 Olympics, Salt Lake could be stuck with a bill at least twice that size. The “gold” mentioned so often in Olympic parlance is proving to be quite an elusive commodity for Salt Lake.