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Utahns are in Beijing making sure our state isn't forgotten among Olympic officials and representatives of other sports groups.
The Utah Sports Commission is still riding the wave of the 2002 Winter Games. With the success of our Olympics, those Utah representatives say it would be a waste not to continue to bring sporting events to the state.
Jeff Robbins is the President of the Utah Sports Commission. We sat down with him at the USA House, where a lot of business and networking goes on when it comes to international sporting events; that's why Robbins spends a lot of time here. He says, "We invested so much in hosting the games in 2002, and they were terrific, and to not continue to leverage that Olympics hosting would be a mistake, so that is what we are doing."
In the past few days he's met with United States Olympic Committee board members and the presidents of USA Cycling, Volleyball and Archery, all to try and get them to bring major sporting events to Utah. Robbins says, "It's about a $7 billion industry in the state of Utah."
Mike Dowse of Amer Sports in Ogden says, "I think the biggest thing that sports can provide for Utah is economic development." Dowse is in Beijing to help Robbins bring events to Utah. He says, "When you start talking about hotel rooms, visitors, meals, [and] airline tickets, it has a significant economic impact for the state."
The two are building and maintaining relations with the Unites States Olympic Committees and other Olympic Organizing Committees around the world. Dowse says, "Just through that network, we are able to keep Utah on the radar and front and center."
And since Utah already has world-class facilities from the Winter Olympics, it only makes sense to bring more sporting events here. Robbins says he's also really pushing for Chicago to win the 2016 Olympic bid; it would help Utah if another Winter Games were held in the country.
