Filling in details on Olympic task ahead

I don’t think I’m that unusual. I’m sure there are other adults who, on occasion, find themselves bogged down by routine — stuck in a cycle of uneventful events. Wake up, go to work, get home, run some errands, fall asleep, repeat.
Fortunately there is the city of Chula Vista to keep things interesting by breaking the monotony of business as usual.

On Tuesday the council approved the terms of a transfer agreement between the U.S. Olympic Committee and the city, handing over responsibility of the Olympic Training Center in the Chula Vista outback to the county’s second largest city.

In 2014 the USOC, having determined running the venue cost them too much, gave the city first crack at taking the reigns.

While the city is aware it knows absolutely nothing about training elite level athletes —Little League participants notwithstanding — it does realize it needs to generate revenue. Sensing a money-making opportunity, the city enlisted JMI Sports to develop a feasibility study and find ways of making a deal pencil out.

Anyone watching Tuesday’s council meeting hoping to learn details about the project would have been disappointed.
Rather than learning how the city could afford to pay an estimated $7 million annually to operate the training center, interested watchers were provided only glimpses and tidbits. In the movie and television biz I think that’s called previews and teasers.

What they did discover is that the Olympic Committee promises they will pay at least $3 million per year to cover operating costs, leaving the city to come up with the remaining $4 million.

Where will that money come from? According to city staff the good people of Point Loma Trust will be responsible for the remainder, as well as the center’s overall operation.

What is Point Loma Trust and what other similar projects have they administered? Answer A is they’re one of 11 operators who applied for the job (we didn’t learn who the other 10 were) and Answer B, for now, is unknown, although we do know the trust is affiliated with Point Loma Nazarene University.

How the trust will generate the $4 million per year was vaguely addressed with references to attracting college and high school athletes who will rent the facility and its dorms, and hosting athletic tournaments. Or, to quote the study’s preliminary conclusions: “Revenues can be enhanced by making the aggressive pursuit of new revenue a priority. Strategy of locking in users, including the USOC, to long-term commitments for facility utilization will stabilize the business.” What those new revenues may be — and how the city guarantees money from the general fund won’t be used to pay for the center — remains a mystery.

But that’s OK. Not knowing how this deal will turn out breaks up the monotony of business as usual. Right?