Uh oh oval: Media line up to trash oval

It is a very nice looking oval. City of Richmond
ARTIST'S CONCEPTION

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The man in charge of running Salt Lake City’s struggling Olympic speed skating oval has a warning for the people behind Richmond’s own multi-million dollar facility: Be careful.

John Bennion, president and CEO of the Utah Athletic Foundation, says he’s not optimistic his oval can pull a profit – ever.

“I guess there’s a wish,” Bennion said in a recent interview. “But I can’t say there’s a realistic plan, because there just isn’t.”

The facility was built for Salt Lake City’s 2002 Winter Olympics. Four years later, it’s not even close to being self-sufficient.

Operating costs for the oval are more than double its revenue. Add on capital replacement costs, and the oval is losing $2 million a year, according to Bennion.

“Essentially it’s high operating costs and low utilization,” Bennion said. “The energy costs alone are close to $750,000 (US yearly).”

The oval now survives with the help of a $75-million endowment fund.

Locally, Richmond’s planned speed skating oval has seen its share of controversy. Its financial viability leans heavily on a similar endowment fund to “underwrite potential gaps between general facility costs and revenues,” according to a recent cost update. A detailed business plan has not been publicly released.

VANOC is footing a capped $60 million for the bill; the City of Richmond is responsible for the rest of the projected $178 million facility.

But Bennion does see a difference in circumstance between the two Olympic cities. Utah's oval is actually located 45 minutes outside Salt Lake City's downtown in a neighbourhood that lacks 'infrastrucutre'.

"It's really just got a very unfortunate location," said Bennion, who guessed the Utah oval might have had a shot at breaking even if it was located "downtown next to a convention centre, or at a university."

This weekend, reports in the Vancouver Sun revealed uneven soil on the construction site could potentially pose problems for the facility’s future. Officials in Richmond maintain it's a controllable risk.

Tags: vancouver, 2010, olympics, oval, richmond, speed skating