Utah's ski chief to Newsmaker meet: 'We want Olympics back'

By Brice Wallace 

Salt Lake City is the U.S. hope to host the 2030 Olympic Winter Games, but that’s no surprise to Nathan Rafferty.

Speaking before the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) selected Salt Lake City for a possible 2030 bid, Rafferty, the president and CEO of Ski Utah, told a Salt Lake City crowd that Utah was ready.{mprestriction ids="1,3"}

“It’s a no-brainer. We’ve got this great spot and we’re ready to go,” he said at the December Newsmaker Breakfast at the Kem C. Gardner Institute.

“We are kind of targeting ’30, with ’26 as a “hey, we’re here if you want us,’” Rafferty added.

“Give us the Olympics next year,” he said earlier in the breakfast discussion. “I mean, you could make it happen. … There’s a lot of polishing that needs to happen, some deferred maintenance that, you know, you want to get it right, so it’s going to be nice to have a little bit of time. But we’re in a landscape where there are Olympic cities that are backing out almost on a weekly basis, it seems like. We’re the ones with our hand in the air … It’s a mandate, that the citizens of Utah are saying, ‘We want the Olympics back,’ and that’s pretty rare today.”

Salt Lake City was selected over Denver after Reno-Tahoe ended its process earlier this year. Salt Lake City will compete with other nation’s bids, with the choice for the Games being determined by the International Olympic Committee. The USOC said Salt Lake City will “represent the United States in a potential 2030 bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.” The Salt Lake City mayor’s office said the USOC has not indicated for which future Winter Games it would put forth a bid, though the next open bid will be for the 2030 Games.

Here is some of the reaction to Salt Lake City’s selection by the USOC:

• “We are truly humbled and honored to be the USOC’s choice to bid for a future Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski. “We take our role as a member of the Olympic family seriously and look forward to showing the international community how Salt Lake City is ready, willing and able to host a modern, sustainable and athlete-focused Games which further the spirit of sport and the Olympic and Paralympic movements.”

• “On behalf of the state of Utah and our citizens, we appreciate the United States Olympic Committee’s confidence in our ability to host a future Olympic Winter Games,” said Gov. Gary R. Herbert. “Utah continues to utilize our existing, world-class sports venues to host a significant number of major international sporting events, and I can’t think of a better place to host the Games.”

• “We are honored and excited to be selected by the United States Olympic Committee as their next candidate city for a future Olympic and Paralympic Winter bid,” said Jeff Robbins, president and CEO of the Utah Sports Commission. “We know our work begins today and we look forward to partnering with the USOC to bring an Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games back to Utah.”

• “The Salt Lake Chamber and Downtown Alliance, along with the business community across the state, are thrilled the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has chosen Salt Lake City to bid for a future Olympic Winter Games,” said Derek Miller, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber and Downtown Alliance and member of Utah’s Olympic Exploratory Committee.

“Utah is a globally minded state and an internationally engaged state, and nothing represents internationalism better than the Olympic Games. It’s undeniable that Utah is once again ready to host the world, and the Salt Lake Chamber and Utah’s business community is fully engaged in presenting the best case for why Salt Lake City is still the right place.”

• “We are thrilled about the possibility of hosting another Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games,” said Derek Parra, 2002 gold and silver medalist, sport director at the Utah Olympic Oval and athlete representative of the Salt Lake Olympic Exploratory Committee. “Our Olympic legacy venues are alive and vibrant with winter sport programming year-round and the spirit of the Olympics has never left our hearts. The 2002 Games had such a positive effect on our state, the nation and the world, and I hope that we can share another experience of inspiration, hope, peace and humanity with the next generation.”

At the Newsmaker Breakfast, Rafferty said Utah faces challenges in hosting the Games again. They include “serious traffic issues” traveling to Olympic venues. But that also represents opportunities to improve or speed up infrastructure improvements, as was the case with TRAX being put in place prior to the 2002 Games.

“The one thing I am fearful of, and I know is coming, is a serious look at our air problem,” he said. “And that will be the headline if we don’t fix that. And that’s a problem for everybody — for businesses in the state, for the governor and for tourism.”

Salt Lake City “got a pass” from the media during the 2002 Games in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the ensuing wave of patriotism, he said. That won’t happen again, he said, adding that “we’ve got to take care of some of those issues and No. 1 is the air.”

The 2002 Games resulted in “a pretty good climb” in skier-days at Utah ski areas a year or two later, he said, leading to today’s industry in the state having a $1.4 billion annual economic impact.

“If we are lucky enough to get the games in ’26 or ’30, it’s going to be very different benefits for Salt Lake City and those Games than it was for us in 2002. In 2002, we were still not quite up there with Colorado and California. We were lower on that supermarket shelf, right? We were the brand that was down by your knees,” he said.

“In 2002, we were just 17 days of a commercial for how awesome Utah and Salt Lake City is in our ski season. It put us up right there on that eyeball [level] forever and really showcased the state like never before.”

A report by the Salt Lake Olympic Exploratory Committee released earlier this year indicated that hosting another Games in Salt Lake City would cost about $1.4 billion, but it could be funded without taxpayer money. The report also showed that 89 percent of Utahns favored hosting a future Winter Games.{/mprestriction}