Brice Wallace
The vote on the 2034 Olympic Winter Games location is just days away, but the local committee pushing for the Games and a state commission are finding that their visions for the next decade are sympatico.
The Unified Economic Opportunity Commission, at an early July meeting, reviewed its preliminary hopes for Utah by the time its next Olympics could come and also heard from the president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games. Many of their points align.
Utah is expected to be selected July 24 by the International Olympic Committee as the 2034 Olympics host location.
“Assuming we win — we’re still humble and hopeful — but assuming we are elected to host the 2024 Games, we’ll have a 10-year runway,” Fraser Bullock, the committee’s president and CEO, said at the UEOC meeting. “And during that 10-year runway, we have the opportunity to use the platform of the Games to do good, and we have some ideas what that means.”
The committee’s preliminary vision calls for elevating Utah’s communities, sports, and the Games experience for both in-person and TV spectators; inspiring youth with the values of Paralympic and Olympic Games; accelerating Utah initiatives, including transportation improvements; and fostering unity.
“So, those are a high-level starting place, and we would like to take that starting place and work with you and our business leaders to come up with a more integrated plan for the next 10 years,” Bullock said.
In some ways, the challenges of hosting in 2034 are more pronounced than those of 2002, when Utah last hosted the Winter Games. Bullock said “it was incredibly successful the way all the pieces came together” in 2002, but the 2034 Games would have three active venues most days, plus 40 percent more events to stage. “We could stagger events a little bit back in ’02 — not true anymore,” he told the commission.
The commission’s main themes, articulated at its May meeting, include advancing infrastructure, with 2034 as a deadline for projects focused on transportation, transit, energy, water and state parks; lifting every Utahn, with better mental and physical health, bolstering unity and community and growing patriotism; and future-proofing the state’s economy, including creating a nationwide model for higher education, strengthening existing companies, and having a targeted and focused approach to new economic development.
The commission also wants the Games to be a showcase for what makes Utah “remarkable,” including displaying a commitment to families, including athletes’ families; showing Utah’s volunteerism, friendliness and commitment to community and country; and highlighting the state’s natural beauty and love of the outdoors.
Using all those concepts, the commission could have a draft plan ready by September.
“We could, post-election, use a period of time to get together with political leaders, business leaders and everything else, to say, ‘OK, what are the four or five things that we can really focus on that will make a difference for the state?’” Bullock told the commission. “If we try to do 20 things, it’s going to be scattered and not as effective. …”
Gov. Spencer Cox, who also serves as the commission’s co-chairman, said he wants cities and counties throughout the state to hold similar meetings about their visions for 2034.
“This is a statewide effort to prepare for the Olympics,” Cox said. “I know that we’re not holding an Olympic event in Fairview, for example, where I’m from, but that doesn’t mean that Fairview can’t use the Olympics coming in 10 years as kind of a marker of ‘what do we want every one of our cities to look like, what do we want our counties to look like, what are the projects that we can accelerate or the ideas that our citizens have, to make our communities a better place?’ How do we want to present the very best of us in 2034?
“I believe that, just like individuals, institutions need goals as well, and having this marker out there in 2034 is just good for all of us.”
Senate President Stuart Adams said many people wish the Olympics would return to Utah sooner than 2034 while others view that time period as an opportunity.
“These goals that have been articulated, I think, can be accomplished and that’s a real advantage, even though some of us would want it to come sooner,” Adams said. “To have it 10 years out is an advantage we need to take advantage of.”
Research released this month by the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah indicates that a 2034 Olympic Winter Games and Paralympic Games would result in an estimated $6.6 billion impact in economic output in the 2024-35 time period. It includes net new direct spending in Utah of $2.6 billion (in 2023 dollars), state gross domestic product of nearly $3.9 billion, employment of over 42,000 job-years, and personal income of $2.5 billion. The 2002 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, it said, resulted in approximately $7.5 billion in economic output, 45,700 job-years of employment, and $3.7 billion in personal income.
The commission plans to meet again Sept. 16, Oct. 23 and Nov. 14 to develop bills for consideration by legislative interim committees or funding suggestions for the governor’s budget.