The 2034 Olympics’ hottest ticket won’t be in Salt Lake City — here’s where it’s going

Salt Lake City may be the epicenter of Utah’s 2034 Olympics, but it won’t be the site of the Winter Games’ most popular sport.

All figure skating events will be held at the Maverik Center in West Valley City the next time the Olympics come to Utah. That’s according to Colin Hilton, the president and CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, which oversees the venues used in the 2002 Games. He spoke to The Salt Lake Tribune on Saturday at the Utah Olympic Oval during the first ISU Long Track Speed Skating World Cup event of the season.

In addition to figure skating, the Maverik Center will host all short track speedskating events. That discipline is different from the long track speedskating, which is slated for the Oval again in 2034.

In 2002, both figure skating and short track speedskating were held at the Delta Center — which was temporarily renamed the Salt Lake Ice Center because Delta was not an Olympic sponsor at the time. (It has signed on to be a sponsor through 2034). Hilton said that, as then, the two disciplines are expected to rotate days on the ice.

Ice hockey will replace those two sports at the Delta Center. Over the summer, the arena — which is located between the City Creek and Gateway shopping centers downtown — underwent renovations to better accommodate the Utah Mammoth, the state’s new NHL team.

Preliminary hockey games will also be held at Peaks Arena in Provo, as they were in 2002.

The Maverik Center, then known as the E Center, and the Delta Center offered vastly different capacities during the 2002 Olympics. The Delta Center could accommodate 14,600 people and sold out every night, according to an International Olympic Committee report on the Games. The Maverik Center’s capacity for hockey games was 8,400.

Jae Youl Kim, the International Skating Union president and an IOC member, did not seem concerned Saturday about the skating events moving out of the capital city center. He said he is confident the 2034 venues will comply with the skating federation and IOC’s standards.

He said the ISU will “make sure that we have a great venue that will impress our incredible athletes and the fans around the world.”

The Maverik Center will be ripe for renovations next summer.

This is the last season the Utah Grizzlies minor-league hockey team, the venue’s primary tenant, will play at the Maverik Center. The team announced last summer that it is being sold and relocated to New Jersey. Once the team is gone, West Valley City and the venue’s operator plan to reconfigure the building. While its primary function will still be a concert venue, Hilton said the city is seeking changes that would make the arena a better host for figure skating and short track speedskating events at multiple levels, not just for the Olympics.

“We need to kind of wait a little bit to see what the renovation plans are. But the spirit is one of great collaboration amongst the parties here,” Hilton said, “and an interest to not just get the building ready for 2034 but for events ahead of time.”

In March, the Maverik Center is scheduled to host the United States Synchronized Skating Championship. Hilton said the discipline is being eyed for inclusion into future Winter Games programs.

Ice skating has always been one of the hottest tickets of the Winter Games. A marketing research firm, Ipsos, found that it is the most popular Winter Olympics sport among 28 nations. That includes the United States, where its 30% popularity was twice that of every other sport except ice hockey (19%) and snowboarding (17%).

NBC recorded its highest viewership night of the 2002 Games when 16-year-old Sarah Hughes skated from fourth place after the short program to win gold in the women’s singles. Michelle Kwan took bronze, behind Russian Irina Slutskaya.

The sport lingered in local and international headlines in 2002 after a high score from the French judge resulted in the controversial awarding of the pairs gold to the Russian duo. Days later, after finding the French judge guilty of misconduct, the IOC also bestowed the Canadian duo with gold medals.

Hockey has been eating into figure skating’s popularity of late, however. Notably, the most expensive ticket for a sports event at the upcoming Winter Games in Milan-Cortina is for the men’s hockey final. NBC Chicago reports that prices range from 450 to 1,400 euros, or about $500 to $1600.

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