SALT LAKE CITY — With dreams of once again hosting the Winter Olympics burning strong, members of a Utah House committee met with local leaders Thursday to receive an update on Salt Lake City's bid for the 2030 or 2034 games.
While Nostalgia surrounds the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee's hope is to make the games more than a memory with the future still moving full steam ahead.
"A reimagined game, a new game, a new generation of children that can experience the game," said Fraser Bullock, president and CEO of the committee. "Forty percent more events, really different games with the same purpose of really uniting our community and uniting the world."
Utah could learn if we've won a bid for the 2030 or 2034 Winter Games could as early as next year.
"The IOC has stated they're exploring the potential opportunity for a dual award of 2030 games and 2034 games in 2024," Bullock explained.
No final decisions by the International Olympic Committee have been made, but the topic is slated to be discussed in the fall.
Many Utahns wonder how the infrastructure needed to host the Olympics again could impact their wallets, but Bullock says it won't.
"No state or local taxpayer funding is required for us to host the games, in fact, the games generate an estimated 64 million in net state and local revenues," he said.
The group says they are working to finish the IOC requirements and are 90% complete with all the questions, 75% complete with annexes like maps and financial information, and 70-78% complete with sets of guarantees.
Now they're preparing for the fall when they will review their preferred host submission with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
"That submission will go to the future host commission which will then evaluate it and they may come and visit us," Bullock said. "Then they'll recommend their position to the executive board and then the executive board puts forth that recommendation to the overall session of the IOC."
