Anchorage Voters Back City’s Bid for ’94 Winter Olympics

ANCHORAGE — Anchorage voters gave local Olympics boosters a 2-1 mandate to compete with European cities for the 1994 Winter Games, saying “yes” to staging privately funded $279-million Games but agreeing to have the city liable for any debt.

Final vote totals this morning showed that Olympics “yes” votes outnumbered “no” votes 34,480 (66%) to 17,760 (33.9%).

A last-minute pro-Olympics blitz that saturated Anchorage with ads, signs, media and grass-roots campaigning appeared to pay off with a surge of support for the city’s Olympics bid in Tuesday’s election.

Failure to get a majority would have doomed the bid by Anchorage, the only American city in the running for the 1994 Winter Games.