“I believe we’ll host a future Game(s). It’s a question of when.” Fraser Bullock, who leads Salt Lake City’s bid to return the Winter Olympics to Utah, sounds very confident about success.
Fraser Bullock, who leads Salt Lake City’s bid to return the Winter Olympics to Utah, sounds very confident about success.
The IOC isn’t saying. An announcement is expected early next year, with media reports in Salt Lake suggesting a decision in May 2023. Under its revised but opaque bid process, the IOC appears to have four possible candidates. Three have held Winter Olympics before: Sapporo , Salt Lake , and Vancouver . There is also interest from Barcelona, which held the 1992 Summer Games and could propose a bid with regions in the Pyrenees.
Salt Lake puts the cost of the Games at $2.2 billion, and Sapporo has a similar figure — $2.4 billion to $2.6 billion. However, Olympic expenditures typically overrun estimates, and accurately predicting costs a decade from now is impossible. The Vancouver council last month declined to put a referendum on the ballot for an October municipal election. Vancouver’s proposal is being called the first “Indigenous-led” bid for an Olympics with First Nations people of Canada planning a feasibility study.
IOC President Thomas Bach, who leaves office in 2025, might also prefer to leave the awarding of 2034 to his successor.