Utah completes milestone step for 2034 Winter Olympic Games
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — The 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Olympic Games are feeling all but official at this point as members from the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games submitted the next step to host the games.
In November 2023, Salt Lake City was selected as a “preferred partner” for the 2034 edition of the Winter Games. The selection moved Salt Lake into a “targeted dialogue” phase where committees will deep dive into the project and break down key areas such as venue costs, public opinion and environmental impacts.
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Today’s submission, which included responses to an International Olympic Committee questionnaire, was another milestone in the process of hosting the games. It highlighted the SLC-UT Committee for the Games’ vision, concept and plans for the games.
Details on Salt Lake City’s plan for the 2034 Olympics will be slowly released over the next few months as certain aspects become more formalized. However, Darren Hughes with the SLC-UT Committee told reporters on Thursday, Feb. 29, that there are only a few outstanding points to clean up and the bid is mostly set in place.
“There are a still few contracts we are working on,” said Hughes, noting that a joint marketing agreement with the USOPC for marketing rights is still in the works. “Then we’ve got a few odds and ends. We’ve signed all the hotel agreements we need, we’re done with all the venues; We are still tying up a few advertising spaces because that’s one of the other elements we want to have in place.”
SLC-UT Committee President and CEO Fraser Bullock said all the work done by the bid committee has put Salt Lake in the perfect place going forward.
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“We took it to the next level. We did it in such a way that we’ve done a lot of the work in certain areas that that organizing committee would otherwise have to do,” explained Bullock. “We kind of have a jump start with the organizing committee because of the work that has been done by the bid committee.”
As for what venues have been secured for the potential Salt Lake 2034 Games, Bullock said it should be pretty obvious though he expects the official list to be released in the coming weeks. Whether or not Ryan Smith’s vision for a new downtown arena was included in the bid file as one of those “obvious” choices, Bullock said that was just a coincidence.
“The coincidence is magical,” said Bullock. “We would love to have an arena and sports and entertainment district like that for downtown. Any new arena, whether it’s Major League Baseball or hockey or whatever, would be additive to the games and we would just look at ways we could take advantage of those for the Games. So, we’re just cheering them on and hope that they are successful.”
A Future Host Committee is expected to visit Utah in April as part of the next steps in the bid process. The FHC will use SLC-UT’s responses to the questionnaire to help guide its visit.
A host election for both the 2030 and the 2034 games is expected to be held in July. The IOC had previously chosen France as its preferred partner for the 2030 Winter Games. Bullock said it was clear the French committee was “really dialed in” and moving fast to be ready to host the games as well.
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