A Vote for the 1976 Winter Games
However inadequate has been the performance of the Denver Olympic Organizing Committee (DOOC) in fulfilling that city’s (and Colorado’s) promise to conduct a successful 1976 Winter Olympics, it is our conviction that Colorado voters on November 7th should, and must, approve the use of state funds to finance the Games. That approval is even more necessary now that the Senate has attached a provision that the spending of federal monies on the Olympics is contingent on approval by the State referendum. A vote against the Games will reflect poorly not only on the State of Colorado, but also on the entire winter resort industry in the U.S. The reasons are several.
Many of the arguments mustered by anti-Olympic forces in Colorado have been ecological in nature: that an enterprise the size of the 1976 Winter Games would have an unfavorable environmental impact on Colorado. But much of that criticism has since been rendered invalid by the International Olympic Committee’s approval of three widely separated sites for the Games.
The fact of the matter is that the next-to-No. 1 industry in Colorado is tourism. Whether they know it or not, all voters in Colorado benefit economically by winter visitors, not only from all over the U.S., but now from other parts of the world. Europe’s ski resorts seriously regard the Rocky Mountains as a strong competitor for skier dollars . . . and marks, francs and yen. For Colorado now to vote against a two-year-old promise to conduct the Games would, quite frankly, be a black eye for our ski resort industry.
A recent American visitor to the Alps found that the European winter resort industry was almost chortling over the prospect of Colorado’s, and America’s, inability to conduct an enterprise the size of the Winter Olympics. “What’s the matter with your winter resort industry,” asked one observer, “when a little country like Austria may have to take over your responsibilities for the Olympics?” In short, if we don’t carry through on our Olympics commitment, the ski resort industry in the U.S. is going to be classed as “bush league” by the European resorts. From this, ski tourists will take their cue.
There are times when the actions of a few, however misdirected, must be supported. The commitment made for Denver to the IOC by a few now calls for support at the ballot box. And it will have to be voted on with the knowledge that the Games are going to cost a lot more than any of the estimates given so far. The fact that new leadership and wiser long-range concepts are needed at DOOC headquarters should not be the reason for an anti-Olympics vote. The ski resort industry of Colorado—indeed of the entire U.S.—should urge the state’s voters to vote ‘no’ on the referendum.
