Estimated read time: 5-6 minutes
- Utah's 2034 Winter Games organizing committee is in its formative stage.
- CEO Brad Wilson emphasizes the importance of securing early revenue through donations.
- The timeline includes phases for strategy, readiness, and legacy, ending December 2034.
SALT LAKE CITY — There's a timeline for organizers of Utah's 2034 Winter Games.
"We're definitely in the forming stage right now of the organization," Brad Wilson, the CEO of Utah's next Olympics, told members of the advisory steering committee at their second-ever meeting held Monday.
The eight people already on the organizing committee's payroll recognize the importance of what they're doing, Wilson said. The former Utah House speaker is heading up the day-to-day operations as an unpaid volunteer, at least for now.
"Every day this team gets up and we know that the things we do and the work we're engaged in carries the weight of the expectations of the state of Utah and the Olympic movement and really the world. So this is a very, very committed group to that effort," he said.
Since the organizing committee for 2034 was announced in February, Wilson said the focus has been "on the people side, the execution side and also we're starting to work on strategy, with a heavy dose of administrative work."
That includes setting up shop in new donated space in the City Centre office complex owned by the University of Utah at 175 E. 400 South in downtown Salt Lake City, just north of Washington Square.
Planning is also underway for attending the next Winter Games, in Milan-Cortina, Italy, in 2026, as observers and as hosts to Utahns there as spectators. One of the organizing committee's vice presidents, Catherine Raney Norman, participated in Monday's meeting from Milan.
Wilson said the timeline outlining the different phases for what's formally known as the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games represents "how we're thinking about the work leading up to 2034."
Between now and the end of the 2028 Summer Games in another U.S. city, Los Angeles, Utah's Games are in a "transition" phase, dealing with laying the foundation for the organizing committee as well as community engagement.
Topping the list of this year's priorities is "securing early revenue streams through contributions," Wilson said, adding "we're off to a very good start." On Monday, organizers made public that their goal for donations has nearly doubled, to $300 million.
The money is needed because Utah's Olympic organizers won't have access to the U.S. market to sell sponsorships until after the L.A. Games and so will be dependent on private donations for funding since state and local tax dollars aren't part of their $4 billion budget .
Other priorities this year include efforts to increase awareness of Utah's next Games, which were awarded nearly a decade in advance, by establishing a "visual identity" and a stronger social media presence.
In June, Wilson said he and other key members of the organizing committee will travel to the International Olympic Committee headquarters in Switzerland to begin putting together a "roadmap to the Games" as IOC President-elect Kirsty Coventry assumes office.
Although the timeline, which may yet be customized, shows 2028-2029 as the "strategy" phase of "high-level, long-term planning and stakeholder engagement," some of that will start sooner.
"There is a strategy element that we're going to start pulling forward" now rather than later, Wilson said, "primarily around impact and legacy, how can we create the right strategy around impact and legacy in the state."
The promised "listening tour" by organizers is set to kick off in Ogden on May 19. The initial meetings to hear from Utahns about what they want from hosting another Olympics will be limited to places that have venues but more around the state are expected eventually.
The effort will shift to "strategy more for the Games" after the Los Angeles Olympics, Wilson said, adding that's "when things will start to change very dramatically for us. That's when we can commercialize our Games."
The timeline shows 2030-2031 as the time for detailing plans for delivering the Games and January 2032 to October 2033 as the time for "readiness," a move to operations that includes building out the staff and testing facilities.
By November 2033, Utah's next Winter Games will kick off with the Olympic Torch Relay that brings a flame lit in ancient Olympia, Greece, to the Opening Ceremonies at the University of Utah's Rice-Eccles Stadium.
Once the 2034 Paralympics for athletes with disabilities ends in March 2034, the final phase of the organizing committee, "dissolution and legacy," begins. What's described as the "wind down and legacy realization" of the 2034 Games is expected to last through December 2034.
In addition to the timeline, Wilson said organizers have been spending time coming up with a "purpose statement" for hosting again. That statement, "Inspiring impact and unity," may evolve, but he said it's intended to prove "clarity of purpose" going forward.
It's "what is our 'why,' what is the difference-maker, so that we know as we prepare to host 4,000 athletes and 2.5 billion people watch these Games in '34 ... what is compelling us to get our work done," Wilson said.
He said the eyes of the world will be on Utah, as they were for the 2002 Winter Games.
"If you think about what the Games do, you think about the opportunity that we have as a team and as a state, we do have the ability to inspire the world in ways that it's never been inspired before, and change the world, and change our community," Wilson said.
Now, the world needs unity more than ever, he said, "and sport and the Games gives us that opportunity."
