For the past nine months, Miller Sports Properties COO JIM OLSON has served as interim President while the search for STEVE MILLER’s successor was on-going. But on Wednesday, STEVE STARKS was named President, allowing Olson to settle back into his role overseeing business operations for Miller’s eight business entities, including the Jazz and the Triple-A PCL Salt Lake Bees. Olson: “Our owners say, ‘You can say a lot of things about this place, but you can’t say it is ever boring.’ And they are 100% right.” Olson, who joined the Jazz in ’94, also serves on the Univ. of Utah Alumni BOD, the Downtown Alliance, Visit Salt Lake and the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors, and previously served as Chair for the Salt Lake Chamber’s Business to Business Expo.
BIG ROCK CANDY MOUNTAIN: I am going to be heading down to St. George -- the southern end of Utah -- where the weather is warmer. I have a son who is in high school and is playing baseball in a tournament down there. I will be there for the whole weekend watching him play. There will be a couple of games each day and that will take up most of the time. St. George is a small little town with great hiking and mountain biking, so we might go hiking out into the red rock cliffs and canyons of southern Utah. But for the most part, it will just be a weekend of baseball. Another reason I probably won’t be doing much is because I will be catching up on the NCAA Tournament games. On Sunday night, I will take a look at my schedule for the upcoming week and prep myself for any meetings or traveling arrangements.
I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM...: Salt Lake has seen a nice increase of good restaurants in town. We have the Blue Plate Diner here in Salt Lake City that is a must-do for breakfast. My favorite would have to be Sapa, which is a real good sushi restaurant that I’ve been going to a lot more lately. I also like a place called Cinegrill that has really good Italian food. Those two are probably the ones I like the best. My guilty weekend pleasure is that I’m a late-night ice cream guy. If I haven’t fallen asleep and I’m looking for something to snack on, I find my way to the ice cream. Salt Lake has clubs, bars and so forth, but I’m not much for the nightlife. I would rather go out to dinner in the evening and maybe grab a movie with my wife, SUZI. I love to get down to Newport Beach, California, and try the local restaurants there. Another highlight would be eating at any Italian joint up in the North End in Boston. However, if I could travel anywhere in the country to choose one restaurant, it would be Peter Luger Steakhouse in Brooklyn.
FLY GUY: My two main hobbies are weather dependent. I am either skiing on a weekend in the winter or I am fly fishing, and I pretty much go fly fishing all year round. If it’s good weather for skiing, I’ll do that; if not, I’ll go fishing. I just love to be up in the mountains and I still get my workouts in so I can eat my ice cream at night. I work out six days a week. I get up on Saturday and get a workout in on the bike for about 45 minutes or so, and then I take Sundays off to rest. After I get done working out, I usually go out and get some yard work done. I don’t want to spend all day out there, but I like to keep the yard up on a regular basis. With as crazy as our work schedule is, I try to enjoy my weekend and get away and have a little fun. If we have a Jazz game on the weekend, I try to take my wife out to dinner beforehand. I often end my night by trying to read. The problem with that is I end up falling asleep about ten pages in. Although I read regularly, it takes me a while to get through a book. I have really learned to enjoy reading history books. DAVID MCCULLOUGH is probably my favorite author, whether it be “1776” or “JOHN ADAMS” or “TRUMAN.” I usually read a history book or two and then I take a break to read something different, but I always find myself going back to history.
