Salt Lake City can host Olympics with preexisting venues, Bullock says

Utah Olympic Park from a distance in Park City. Photo: Park City Chamber/Bureau

SALT LAKE CITY — In a news conference on Tuesday, Fraser Bullock, president of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, said a second Winter Games in Salt Lake City wouldn’t require building new venues.

“Even though there are 40% new events, we can fit them into our existing infrastructure,” Bullock said. “Many of our venues, especially non-competition venues, have taken a leap forward.”

He referred specifically to the SLC Airport and the University of Utah. Improvements were recently made to the dorms at U of U, which served as the Athletes Village in 2002. Rice-Eccles Stadium was also recently expanded. The stadium was the site of the opening and closing ceremonies.

A small delegation from the SLC committee will be traveling to Europe alongside the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) in November where they will participate in two days of meetings involving the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

While Bullock would prefer Utah to host in 2030, he said it has to be a balanced act with Los Angeles hosting the Summer Games in 2028.

“We have to balance our passion for an earlier games to the reality of hosting back-to-back games,” Bullock said. “That has to be very, very carefully done.”

Bullock said decisions aren’t normally made until roughly seven years before the Games ~ which would put the decision for the 2030 Games around 2023.