Salt Lake City is an outlier among American Cities in that most residents want to host another Olympic Games. Polling shows that 82% of Utah residents were in favor of hosting future games. Meanwhile, those other potential host cities demonstrate disdain via actual demonstrations as citizens rise up in opposition over climate change impact and exorbitant costs. (In 1976, Colorado voters outright rejected Denver’s invitation to host.)
Perhaps other cities raise legitimate concerns about the myriad challenges facing host cities, but Utah has not lost our sense of pride after hosting the successful 2002 Winter Games. (A pride that can only be expressed by having our young, unpaid athletes dominate other countries in televised feats of physical prowess.)
Where other cities ask, “Who will pay for the Olympics? Where will the Olympians live during the games? How will we prepare the infrastructure? How will we address climate issues so we will still have snow in 2034? What about air quality? What about transportation? And, oh yeah, the homeless population?”
Utah exclaims, “Bring it on! Here we come, 2034!” We have nine years to put our shoulders to the wheel.
While the honor of hosting the Olympics in Utah twice is truly priceless, we are also prepared to put our money where our mouth is. The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games released a budget proposal that, in true Utah boot-strap fashion, plans to raise the entire operating budget from commercial and private sources, with no use of state or local taxpayer dollars.
Aside from the golden glow of the spotlight, analysis from the University of Utah estimates an infusion of $6.6 billion into Utah’s economy from the 2034 games. Subtract the estimated cost of $4.1 billion, that leaves us with a cool $2.3 billion!
Compare that to the $8 billion Paris spent to have athletes swim in the Seine. It’s the first Games since Sydney to keep costs under $10 billion, and they still went over budget, like most host cities. Five of the past six Olympics had cost overruns of more than 100% (adjusted for inflation). We’ve planned for $210 million in expense contingency. That should cover it, right?
After all, the Olympic flame burns brighter in Utah. We still have the cauldron to prove it (the University of Utah lights it on game days). We have maintained our Olympic facilities since 2002, where other cities have not. In 2002, the Olympics in Utah brought us public transportation expansion, including 100 miles of new track for light rail, and then-state-of-the-art road traffic improvements. And everyone agrees we will get something like that again, probably, maybe, eventually. While we don’t exactly have answers to all the questions, yet, we do know the 2034 Olympics will be bigger and better. Especially bigger.
The 2002 Games were the largest in history. (We also say the best in history.) Organizers expect the 2034 Winter Olympics in Utah to be 40% bigger. According to our math, that means they’ll also be 40% greater, and we’ve got nine whole years to figure out exactly how.
We got this, right?
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