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SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Olympic Exploratory Committee held a meeting Thursday afternoon to discuss the recent visit to the Salt Lake area by the United States Olympic Committee.
“I will say the visit went extraordinarily well. Like it was A+++,” Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski said.
The USOC group visited venues across the Salt Lake and Park City to see how well the areas could host the Winter Olympic Games. Salt Lake is competing against Denver to be the USOC’s 2030 Winter Olympic host city candidate.
Organizers say the USOC could decide on a host city during a December 13 and 14 meeting.
Biskupski and exploratory committee co-chair Fraser Bullock said Salt Lake is in a unique position to host the Games within a conservative budget.
Organizers said many cities are not interested in hosting the Games because of the expenses involved. However, Salt Lake City and Park City still have infrastructure from the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in place. Bullock said organizers expect the Games would break even through Utah-based sponsorships and they do not plan to ask for taxpayer money toward the Games.
Bullock said he expected Salt Lake could be a model for other cities that would like to host.
Providing the Olympic Exploratory Committee & media a debrief of our recent #USOCtour. A successful day highlighting how well #SLC & Utah host the world through sport! #utolypic.twitter.com/RY6y9Dczh0
— Mayor J. Biskupski (@slcmayor) November 29, 2018
“If we do that and we show future host cities how to be more efficient and more effective, it can open the world up to many more cities that could host the Games,” Bullock said.
Biskupski said a poll by the committee showed 90% of people in the Salt Lake area support bringing the Games back. Organizers of the exploratory committee said the USOC would conduct their own poll to measure community support in the next week or two.
