Salt Lake City now stands alone as a candidate to host the 2034 Olympic Games.
Two days after the International Olympic Committee’s executive board proposed awarding both the 2030 and 2034 Winter Olympics at the same time, it was revealed Sunday that Salt Lake is the only site vying to host in 2034.
[Related: Utah Olympic venues coming into focus as organizers get creative]
Fraser Bullock, the president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, told The Salt Lake Tribune he had an inkling his group was the only one. Still, he was glad to hear the revelation from Karl Stoss, the chair of the IOC’s Future Host Commission.
“It was everything we could have hoped for,” Bullock said. “It’s a very positive development for Utah.”
Sweden, Switzerland and France are contending for the 2030 Games. As opposed to Salt Lake, which has been planning its bid for more than a decade, all three launched their bids earlier this year. They stepped forward after the IOC postponed advancing any country to the “targeted dialogue” stage — where contracts can be signed — for that edition when bids by both Vancouver, Canada, and Sapporo, Japan, hit stumbling blocks.
Vancouver pulled its bid for 2030 earlier this year. Sapporo shut down its bid for 2030 earlier this month but had been rumored to be interested in hosting in 2034. That is apparently not the case.
“We got also signals from other interested NOCs [National Olympic Committees],” Stoss said, “and they would like to stay in a dialogue with us and be committed to hosting a future edition beyond 2034.”
The timeline for the dual award has quickly become very tight.
The Future Host Commission will submit its choices for both editions of the Winter Games by early November. Those won’t necessarily be the final selections, however, as the commission can put forward more than one candidate for each Olympics, IOC President Thomas Bach said Friday in a press conference. Also next month, each of the four sites will make a virtual presentation to the IOC’s executive board. Bullock said Salt Lake City’s is scheduled for the week of Nov. 20.
By the end of March, the host must have its host city contract and all governmental guarantees in place. The Games are expected to be awarded in July, days prior to the start of Paris 2024. That could be pushed back, however, if the IOC enters into “targeted dialogue” with France for one of the editions. According to IOC bylaws, hosts of future Olympics cannot be named during meetings held inside their country.
Stoss singled out Salt Lake City in his presentation to the IOC membership in Mumbai, India, on Sunday as the only site to have its governmental assurances in place. It has them for both 2030 and 2034. Bullock said he believes that helped smooth the rails for the IOC to make a dual award next summer.
“I believe our strategy of being ahead of the bid process, by having all of the government guarantees in place offers the IOC a very relaxed, reliable, stable candidate in the face of an uncertain world,” Bullock said.
Salt Lake City and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee would prefer to host the Winter Games in 2034 to put more spacing between it and the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles and allow more breathing room for domestic sponsors. However, Utah’s organizing group has long said it will be “ready and willing” to host in 2030 if called upon. With the other three countries facing such a tight time frame for collecting all their assurances and contracts, the IOC could decide to go with Salt Lake City earlier rather than later.
Bullock said he does not believe that will happen.
“From my understanding, the other candidates are very, very passionate about their pursuit of 2030. They have been working diligently at this,” Bullock said. “So we are confident and hopeful that at least one of them will emerge as a strong candidate for 2030 because that allows us our perfect scenario being awarded 2034. So, we are cheering them on.”
The IOC has not said how much money it will contribute to the organization of the 2034 Games. Plus, Bullock said most current sponsorship and broadcast contracts don’t extend beyond 2032. Stoss noted that those are loose ends that still need to be tied up.
“On the challenges side,” Stoss said, “the IOC contribution to a 2034 Olympic host would need to be committed beyond current top sponsors and media rights deals.”
Yet awarding both the 2030 and 2034 Games next year has its benefits. The IOC has said it believes awarding the 2034 Games next year would give the Future Host Commission more time to evaluate a proposed Winter Games rotation system. It believes a rotation system could keep the Winter Olympics viable in the face of climate change. The results of two studies conducted for the IOC found that only 10 sites will have enough snow and enough established facilities to host the Winter Games beyond 2040. Most of those have either recently hosted an Olympics or, like Salt Lake, are pursuing one. Stoss said two countries in North America, eight in Europe and five in Asia met the criteria.
In addition, Bullock had expressed concern that local support for the Games could wane if it took a few more years to learn whether Salt Lake City would host. Now that shouldn’t be a problem.
“Our Games concept meets the IOC’s sustainability goals of staging climate-reliable Games in all existing, world-class venues,” Bullock said in a press release following Friday’s dual-award proposal. “We welcome today’s decision, which will aid us in carrying forward the strong public enthusiasm for the Games here in Utah.”
Gov. Spencer Cox, who serves on the local bid team, said in a Tweet on Friday that a dual award is “The news we’ve been waiting for.”
He added: “Salt Lake City’s chances of bringing the Winter Olympics back to the U.S. in 2034 received a boost today with the IOC’s exec board supporting a recommendation to grant a dual award of the 2030 and 2034 Games simultaneously.”
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