Competition could be fierce

Most cities have chamber of commerce talking points that tout their best features.

Pikes Peak, 300 days of sunshine a year, a top-notch work force, lower housing prices, shorter commute times and the five-star Broadmoor hotel are among the pluses Colorado Springs business and civic leaders list when they’re on the economic development trail.

The U.S. Olympic Committee is also on the list. It’s a prestigious organization that any American mayor would welcome with open arms. Local civic boosters will tell you that the USOC’s choice of Colorado Springs for its headquarters means this city has something special.

But will quality of life be enough to keep the USOC’s headquarters here?

As USOC board members meet today in Houston as a part of their annual Olympic Assembly, the underlying question for the Springs might not be what the city offers, but whether it can compete if other communities wave wads of cash the USOC can’t ignore and the Springs can’t match.

City officials and civic leaders have worked behind the scenes for months to determine how to address the needs of the USOC, which for nearly 30 years has operated out of offices on Boulder Street in the center of Colorado Springs.

The city’s goal is to move the organization out of its aging offices and into new space downtown. That would create more space for training facilities and athlete housing at the USOC’s Olympic Training Center, which occupies the lion’s share of the Boulder Street complex.

Whether the USOC will leave Colorado Springs isn’t clear. The organization announced this month it was evaluating relocation proposals from other cities it has declined to name.

USOC officials have said they like the Springs and are reassessing their needs, as most businesses do. They say they have no timetable and don’t expect to make a decision at today’s USOC board meeting.

“We’re going to meet their needs,” Mayor Lionel Rivera said of the USOC.

Economic impact is a major reason the city wants to keep the USOC.

The USOC is the gold medal for any city that wins it — about 400 employees and nearly $316 million a year in spending by Olympic and Olympic-related sports groups and their employees, local economist Dave Bamberger said in a report he prepared for Springs officials.

And the USOC has value beyond economic impact, say business leaders and a Denver sports marketing expert.

Think of it as a national company — one of the few headquartered in the Springs and with a one-of-a-kind product that’s on display for international audiences. The USOC’s dealings with partners and sponsors — including McDonald’s, Coke, Home Depot and other Fortune 500 companies — also focus attention on its hometown.

“A sports organization brings with it a higher profile in terms of public image, especially one as prestigious as an Olympic-related entity,” said Don Hinchey, communications vice president for The Bonham Group, a Denver-based sports and entertainment marketing firm whose clients include Fortune 500 corporations and professional sports teams.

“People will recognize that when you say the USOC, you’re talking about the umbrella organization for our Olympic athletes,” Hinchey said. “That immediately connects with the public’s consciousness. Whereas, X-Y-Z company may be an economic generator, but could be virtually unknown.”

Business leaders know the USOC’s value; they use it as part of their marketing efforts when they recruit other employers, said Mike Kazmierski, president of the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp.

Also, there are 20 national governing bodies in the Springs — organizations that oversee amateur sports and some of which have located here to be near the USOC.

“Would they all leave?” Kazmierski said. “Probably not. But would some leave? Absolutely.”

The Springs’ inherent strengths probably will carry weight with the USOC, Hinchey said.

“It’s not Chicago and it doesn’t want to be Chicago,” said Hinchey. A Chicago business publication has reported that a top USOC representative already has toured office space there.

Local political clout won’t hurt either, Hinchey said. Former USOC President Bill Hybl, head of the Springs-based El Pomar Foundation and named several times by The Sporting News as one of the 100 most powerful people in sports, is said to be working behind the scenes in support of the Springs’ bid. Hybl has not returned calls.

“His influence can’t be underestimated,” Hinchey said. “That’s a very, very big asset in the Springs’ favor.”

But large amounts of cash have a way of turning heads when it comes to economic development, said Steve Ducoff, former president and CEO of the Colorado Springs Sports Corp., who now heads a group whose members include leaders of sports organizations.

“Money is just a killer in some of these issues,” he said.

Take the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Ducoff said. In 1997, the NCAA announced it would abandon its home of 45 years and move to Indianapolis from suburban Kansas City.

Kansas City civic leaders thought their proposal of about $30 million, according to news accounts a decade ago, along with the area’s ties to the NCAA would win the day. Instead, Indianapolis offered about $50 million.

“They threw big pots of money at them,” Ducoff said of Indianapolis.

Kazmierski plays the employer recruitment game regularly and knows when he has a chance to win and when he’ll no doubt lose.

When economic development officials get a prospective employer to visit, they can seal the deal; seven out of 10 times an employer agrees to move to town after visiting, Kazmierski said.

But not every employer comes to visit, and money matters. Kazmierski said the EDC recently talked with a manufacturer eyeing the Springs for a new operation. The company had

incentive packages from other cities totaling at least $20 million, he said.

“We don’t play in that incentives game,” Kazmierski said. “So we said ‘no thanks.’”

Documents examined by The Gazette this week show the city has asked four local developers whether they’re interested in designing and building 90,000 square feet of top-of-the-line office space downtown for the USOC and 200 additional housing units for athletes. Two developers say they submitted proposals.

Whether and how much the USOC would pay for the facilities isn’t known. The city told developers their costs could be offset, in part, by the city’s use of property and sales tax revenue and parking funds, along with partnerships with quasi-governmental downtown taxing districts.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0228 or rich.laden@gazette.com

AT A GLANCE

- Attracted by low rent, the U.S. Olympic Committee, which oversees the nation’s Olympic movement, moved its headquarters to Colorado Springs from New York City in 1978. The organization occupies about 35,000 square feet of offices on Boulder Street, west of Union Boulevard, in the center of town. The headquarters is part of a 34-acre site that includes an Olympic Training Center; the USOC established the high-altitude training facility on the site of the former Ent Air Force Base in 1977.

- The USOC employs 410 people, 330 of whom work in Colorado Springs. The figure includes workers at the USOC administrative offices and the Springs Olympic Training Center, as well as employees at training centers in Lake Placid, N.Y., and outside San Diego; a USOC International office in Irvine, Calif.; and satellite offices in Washington, D.C,. and Chicago, which is vying to host the 2016 Olympic games.

- In 2006, USOC spending totaled $149.2 million.

- The USOC’s 11-member board is composed of businesspeople and academics from around the country, some former Olympians. Its chairman is Peter Ueberroth, the former Major League Baseball commissioner who headed the organization that ran the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Ueberroth’s term runs through the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

GAZETTE RESEARCH; USOC