LCS Hockey - Damn Mormons

Damn Mormons
by Tom Cooper, St. Louis Correspondent

It's as American as apple pie.

If somebody wants something bad enough, they will do everything in their power to get it...no matter the cost or embarrassment it may bring.

Salt Lake City, the capital of Utah and the haven for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, wanted the 2002 Winter Olympics to be held in their city.

As investigations have shown, they wanted those games so badly that they bribed International Olympic Committee officials during the committee's visits.

Now, a city settled on a foundation of peace and good will toward fellow man may lose its chance to show good will to the entire world. But the people of Salt Lake City and the United States will not be the only ones who will fell the consequences of this embarrassment.

It will inflict pain upon the National Hockey League as well.

The league shut down operations in 1998 to accommodate the Nagano Winter Games, marking the first time that professional hockey players played in the Olympics.

The effort to expose the league's finest talent to the globe did have a few gleeming rays of light shine from the Aqua Wing arena, but it was the failure of both the American and Canadian contingents to medal and the embarrassment caused by several members of the U.S. side trashing their hotel rooms that will be remembered forever.

The 2002 games on the North American continent were seen as a chance at redemption for a league struggling to spread into international markets and struggling to gain acceptance into mainstream American culture and athletic thought.

The games would perfectly fit into a primetime television slot, if NBC, the network with exclusive American network rights to the Olympics, chose to show hockey at that time. Fans would not have to stay up until 11 p.m. to watch Team USA play Team Canada all the way over in Japan. It was perfect. The National Hockey League's plans to bring the game to primetime America and spread them throughout the world were perfect.

Then the scandal broke.

Top officials on the Salt Lake 2002 organizing committee resigned. The mayor of Salt Lake City, who played a huge role in lobbying for the games to be held in her city, announced she would not seek another term as mayor fearing resentment over the scandal.

The IOC and the United States Justice Department both opened probes into the bribery allegations.

Suddenly, the NHL's dream of primetime international hockey was crumbling before its very eyes.

And it could do nothing to stop it.

On Monday came the latest blow when IOC senior member Marc Hodler said the 2002 Olympics could be moved to either Lillehammer, Norway, the site of the 1994 Games, or back to Nagano.

Or, in a worst case scenario, the Olympics would not be contested again until 2006.

The NHL can only sit back and watch. If Salt Lake loses it privilege, they may see their games move to early afternoon time slots if played in Norway, or at the same times late at night as last year if the games are moved back to Japan.

Those television times are vital to the National Hockey League if the league wants to grow and thrive into the coming century.

If you thought the lost expectations were a setback at Nagano, just imagine what the Salt Lake organizing committee's lust for the Olympics may inflict upon the NHL.

They just wanted the games too much.

Now, the NHL, who wanted so much to hold the American viewing audience captive with its brand of international hockey, may pay the price along with the city of Salt Lake.