Denver to Determine Olympic Future

(ATR) Denver voters weigh in on future Olympic funding 47 years after the Colorado capital became the only host city to give back the Games in peacetime.

Proposition 302 is alone on the ballot in the scheduled runoff election Tuesday. It was filed by Let Denver Vote, the successor to NOlympics, a group that opposed bidding for the 2030 Winter Games.

"Shall the voters of the City and County of Denver enact a measure prohibiting the use of public monies, resources or fiscal guarantees in connection with any future Olympic Games, without the City first obtaining voter approval at a regularly scheduled municipal election or special election should the City decide to use public monies, resources, or guarantees for this purpose?"

So, a vote of "yes" on the ordinance is not a definitive "no" to the Olympics, but it would lead to another vote if the city harbors further Olympic dreams.

In December, the U.S. Olympic Committee decided to partner with Salt Lake City for a potential 2030 bid. Denver was the only other finalist after Reno-Tahoe withdrew.

"This is a tremendous win for the people of Denver, and securing a place on the ballot empowers voters and ensures the well-being of the community," petition committee spokeswoman Christine O'Connor told news outlets. "We're thrilled to give Denver voters a voice in determining whether to spend taxpayer money to bid for or host a future Olympics in the Mile High City, and we can't thank our volunteers enough for their enthusiastic commitment to putting the decision in the hands of Denver voters."

Denver also expressed interest in the 2018 Winter Games, but the USOC was focusing on the Chicago 2016 summer bid at the time and did not want to dredge up bad memories from the 1970s.

The IOC awarded the 1976 Winter Games to Denver in May 1970, just 10 years after Squaw Valley hosted the Olympics. Sion, Switzerland, Tampere, Finland, and Vancouver were the other bidders.

However, there were both ecologic and economic concerns about the Denver plan, which had been touted as spending little money. The proposed downhill ski venue was on a side of Mt. Sniktau with little snow (an artist airbrushed snow on the bid plan), the biathlon course wound through the backyards of residents who would need to allow gaps in their fences and a bobsled course was so expensive there was talk of moving the event to Lake Placid.

In November 1972, Colorado voters had the ball in their court. They were asked to decide whether or not to authorize a $5 million bond issue – a relatively paltry sum -- to help finance the Games, which was supposed to be the only taxpayer outlay.

The bond issue failed by almost a 60-40 margin – 537,440 to 358,906 -- and a week later Denver stepped down as Olympic host city. With the IOC insisting that public money be available to stage the Games, Colorado voters had cut off that option. The Olympics went to Innsbruck, which could organize the Games on short notice due to its experience from 1964.

Dick Lamm, who led the Olympic opposition in 1972 as a member of the Colorado General Assembly and soon became a three-term governor of the state, is again urging voters to stand up to Olympic funding.

As he told Sports Illustrated early last year, "I expect that Colorado, under the right circumstances, could host an Olympics. I just don’t know why we would want to."

Written by Karen Rosen

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