Salt Lake City Planning for Potential Dual Award

(ATR) Salt Lake City is positioning itself to capitalize on a possible IOC dual award for the 2030 Winter Olympics.

The Utah Olympic Exploratory Committee is hoping to enter the dialogue phase of the IOC’s 2026 bidding process in June, just in case there is a repeat of last year, when the IOC awarded Paris the 2024 Summer Games and Los Angeles the 2028 Summer Games at the same time.

While the IOC has not come out and explicitly said a dual award is possible, Darren Hughes, an advisor for the Utah Olympic Exploratory Committee, tells Around the Rings "what we’ve been told is the door hasn’t been closed" on such an outcome.

Hughes and fellow advisor Maureen Sweeney, who both worked for the Salt Lake 2002 organizing committee, spoke with ATR during a media briefing on the sidelines at the SportAccord Convention in Bangkok, Thailand.

Salt Lake City, Denver and Reno-Tahoe have expressed interest to the United States Olympic Committee to host the 2030 Winter Games. The USOC has ruled out a bid for 2026, citing the need for the LA 2028 Games to have no competition for marketing and commercial opportunities.

The domestic selection process by the USOC will be "happening in parallel" with the IOC dialogue phase, according to Hughes. He says that the plan is for the USOC to be in charge of working with the IOC to get the city into workshops and dialogue with the IOC by June.

The best-case scenario, according to Hughes, would have the USOC making a decision on a U.S. bid city by the October deadline for the IOC to choose the cities who would move on to the candidature phase of the bidding process.

"(If) the field starts narrowing and there’s a chance for us to get into this process, into some kind of dual award, then we’d be keen to be part of that. If we don’t go forward into a candidature because of no dual award then that’s okay," says Hughes.

A potential Salt Lake City bid appears to be a formidable one. A feasibility study has already been completed and Hughes says "we’ve received really good feedback about it from the IOC".

No new venues will need to be built. Hughes says that the University of Utah housing used as the Olympic Village in 2002 has since been expanded and would be able to accommodate the increased number of athletes competing in the Games by 2030.

"We only need close to $300 million in revenue because our budget is $1.35 billion to host the Games," Hughes says, adding "it’s even less than the 2002 budget" because the venues built for the 2002 Games are being used again. The budget does not include security costs, which Hughes says would be handled by the U.S. federal government.

There is also widespread support among both the state and local governments in Utah and the general public for the bid.

The state legislature voted unanimously for a resolution in support of the bid in February and the city council also is on board. A public opinion survey showed 89 percent in favor of a bid among those polled, according to Sweeney.

Should Salt Lake City fend off the domestic competition for 2030, there is still the matter of international rivals in a potential dual award.

Topping that list is Sapporo, which is believed by many to be the IOC’s backup plan for the 2026 bid should the European and North American options not pan out.

It’s no secret that a third straight Asian city hosting a Winter Games would not be the IOC’s first choice for 2026. Sapporo has acknowledged that and has said 2030 would be acceptable as well.

The city hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics and much more recently the 2017 Asian Winter Games. The bid has strong support among all stakeholders, makes use of legacy venues from 1972 and unlike some of the other projects does not need to worry about a referendum.

Written by Gerard Farek, with reporting from Mark Bisson.

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