The group leading the efforts in the state to host a second Winter Olympics has reached agreements with two-thirds of the potential competition venues, including the Utah Olympic Park, to host sporting events if a Games is awarded.
A high-ranking member of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games provided the information on Tuesday morning during a joint meeting of the Park City Council and the Summit County Council. Colin Hilton, who is a member of the governing board of the organization and is also the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation president and CEO, made brief comments about the agreements with the potential venues.
In an interview afterward, Hilton said the documents, known as venue-use agreements, were signed over an eight-month period, with the most recent one reached in December, and the discussions are continuing with other venues.
The concept map for an Olympics also includes Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort. Hilton said the talks with the owners of the two resorts have been ongoing. He said the committee has been sending redlined documents with final edits back and forth to Park City Mountain and Deer Valley. Hilton said there is hope the agreements with the two resorts will be finalized by March.
Hilton said the committee, Park City Mountain and Deer Valley are amicably finding middle ground between the needs of an Olympics and those of the operations of the individual resorts. The talks have involved the top staffers at the resorts, he said.
Venue-use agreements are critical to the overall planning. They essentially outline roles and responsibilities of the committee and the venues. They also address which sporting events could potentially be staged at the individual locations. The agreements have been under discussion for longer than a year and have included each of the venues that hosted competitions during the Winter Olympics in 2002.
Salt Lake City and the wider region are attempting to host a second Games in either 2030 or 2034. The Park City area is a key to the efforts, as was the case during the earlier Olympic era in the state. A timeline for the International Olympic Committee to select the hosts for those two events is unclear as the Switzerland-based organization considers the longterm future of the Games.
The comments by Hilton highlighted the discussion between the City Hall and County Courthouse leaders, who addressed a range of issues in addition to the Olympic efforts. The elected officials received a briefing about a series of listening sessions dedicated to the Olympics that were held in 2022. The City Council and County Council also touched on topics like ensuring a broad range of the community is involved in the Games-related talks as they continue and the need for discussions about what Park City and Summit County want to accomplish in hosting an Olympics.