The local folks in Salt Lake City are taking a deep breath, many of them coming home after having abandoned the city until the Olympics were complete. The Games went well, but there is an “Olympics Syndrome” referred to by more than one Salt Lake business.

The Olympics also scare people away. For many local businesses and the ski industry, the Olympics were a financial disaster.

A director at one of the major ski resorts said, “It’s over, thank God.” A perfectly blue sky framed snow-covered peaks, but there was virtually no one on the slopes.

“We figured it would happen,” he said. “If you go back and check other Olympics, it always happens. Many local businesses suffer. Local skiers are scared off by the stories of the numbers of people who are supposed to be here. The people at the lodge who would normally be skiers are there with corporate sponsors.

“They didn’t come here to ski. They have corporate tickets to Olympic events. They have meals provided 24 hours a day, so they don’t eat out, either.” He sighed, looking at the empty mountain and said, “But I guess it was worth it.”

The Olympics are a corporate-driven event. Hotel rooms are booked by the thousands for those sponsors. Olympic tickets are handed out to the corporations to give to their guests and officers. Corporations wine and dine their clients, and each other, often in their own set-up lounges and restaurants. That can cost local businesses money.

The interest in the Games, as evidenced by the TV ratings, was high. Ice skating and skiing continue attracted the largest audiences. TV executives love the soap opera atmosphere of these events and the endless disputes, usually involving judges.

Hockey, which as a matter of disclosure I covered for NBC, reaped rewards from the Salt Lake Games. The NHL players played hard. The gold medal game between the U.S. and Canada made for high-interest drama.

The NHL agreed to have its players in the Games to attract a larger audience for its own season. Despite the solid TV ratings, Olympic hockey may have generated more issues than audience.

Everyone, from the players to the fans, loved the two-hour to 2:10 playing time. While the NHL likes to say the average game time is 2:30, national TV games are three hours long and they are supposed to showcase games for the league.

The number one culprit in increasing the time of games are the commercial timeouts. Breaks of 2 or 21/2 minutes are scheduled four times per period. Those tend to last even longer as replays or promotions are squeezed in before or after the commercials. Intermissions are longer for TV games.

Advertisers pay the bills. How can the league satisfy them and still move the games along to bring the excitement that we saw in Olympics? That is an immediate issue the NHL must address.

I leave the Games honored to have been part of them, but saddened at the continued miring of the Games in commercialism. Those unworthy continue to make money and political mileage off athletes who just want to compete and test their limits.

Unfortunately, the number of those athletes also declines, replaced by those who see the Games as nothing more than money to be made if they can grab the gold or at least become notorious during the three weeks of overblown images.

Then there was the cross-country skier so far behind the pack he was coming to the finish line as fans were leaving. People ran back to their seats and cheered relentlessly. There are still Olympic moments.

Sadly, we have lost longtime and much-loved Maine trainer Wes Jordan. He was the courageous warrior in his battle against pancreatic cancer. Our profound sympathies to his wonderful family. His memory will be kept alive with the Wes Jordan Training Complex at the University. Please consider a contribution to that fund through the University of Maine Foundation, P.O. Box 2220, Bangor, 04402.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and NBC sportscaster.