Utahns are starting to talk seriously about the chances of hosting another Olympics — but other American cities are also already gearing up to bid for a future Winter Games.
It's really way too soon for any U.S. city, including Salt Lake City, to formally declare its candidacy. Less than a month ago, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2010 Winter Games to Vancouver, Canada.
That decision — and a growing list of European and Asian candidates for 2014 — makes it unlikely that the Winter Games will return to North America until at least 2018, or more realistically, 2022. So there's still plenty of time to figure out whether to jump in the race.
The Utah Sports Commission is putting together a futures group that will study whether Salt Lake City should bid again. The group should have an answer as soon as six months from now.
Jeff Robbins, the president of the Sports Commission, however, has all but made up his mind. For Robbins, the question to ask about a future Winter Games bid for Salt Lake City isn't if but when.
"Having the kind of success that we had financially and with the organization of the Games, and the community and the volunteers, it just seems to make sense to say not are we going to bid again, but when," Robbins said.
Whether there's current public support for the Games is unknown. But, flush with the euphoria of the 2002 Winter Games, Utahns in February of 2002 overwhelmingly supported hosting the Games again. A Dan Jones & Associates poll of 400 Utahns, conducted for the Deseret News and KSL-TV, showed 79 percent would definitely or probably favor hosting some future Olympic Winter Games.
Robbins said Salt Lake City could end up bidding for the 2018, 2022 or even the 2026 Winter Games if there's enough support from Utahns. Of course, it's ultimately up to the U.S. Olympic Committee to choose the American candidate for a Games.
And that's where the competition comes in.
"Salt Lake is an absolute natural to bid again," acknowledges the head of the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition, Jim Vanden Heuvel. "They would be very strong . . . , (but) not strong enough to scare us off, no."
The coalition, which has the backing of ski resorts on both the Nevada and California sides of Lake Tahoe, including 1960 Winter Games host Squaw Valley, was formed two years ago and has been quietly readying a bid ever since.
Other would-be bid cities aren't quite so far along. The Metro Denver Sports Commission is still just studying the feasibility of going after the Winter Games, executive director Jon Schmieder said, labeling recent reports of a 2018 bid premature.
"Reno has spent money. We have not spent a penny on this whatsoever," Schmieder said. Denver, he said, needs to be cautious because of its track record with the Olympics. It's the only city that's ever given back an Olympics, the 1976 Winter Games.
Plus there's the possibility a Denver bid could be challenged by Salt Lake City.
"That's obviously a factor," Schmieder said. "You've got the infrastructure."
Boise has also conceded that fact, at least in the foreseeable future. "Put us down for 2038 or 2042," Carl Wilgus, Idaho's director of tourism, said. "You know what? I'll only be 88 years old by the time the Games happen if they happen in '38."
Another potential bid from Lake Placid, host of the 1932 and 1980 Winter Games, appears to be stalled by attempts to pair it with cities in Quebec, Canada. Multination bids are seen as an unnecessary headache by the IOC.
Vanden Heuvel says Reno-Tahoe will be ready to go as soon as the USOC announces it is accepting bids. However, the area may have to wait a while. It'll be at least two years before the USOC turns its attention to bidding for any Winter Games.
"Our attention is focused entirely on supporting New York 2012 and their efforts to bring the Games to the United States," USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel said. "Until that vote is taken by the IOC in 2005, we won't be bidding on any other Olympic events."
New York City was selected by the USOC as America's choice for the 2012 Summer Games in a process that began in 1999, six years before the IOC vote. The IOC traditionally chooses an Olympic host seven years before a Games.
Besides backing New York's bid against eight international competitors, including Moscow, Paris and London, the USOC is also busy preparing for the upcoming 2004 Summer Games in Athens.
There's also the ongoing turmoil surrounding the USOC. A congressional committee is currently trying to sort out the organizational problems that have led to a steady turnover of leaders in recent years.
Seibel declined to handicap the chances of Salt Lake's being selected to bid again on behalf of the United States. "It would be extremely premature at this point to begin speculation on that," he said. "Right now, there's been no formal discussion at all about any U.S. city."
Utah's Robbins believes that once the USOC starts talking, it'll be about Salt Lake.
"We would certainly anticipate — and hope — they would give us another opportunity," he said. Especially since Salt Lake has the necessary sports facilities and more than $75 million from Games profits to ensure they stay Olympic-caliber.
"From the standpoint of duplication, for one of our neighbors to put several hundred million into building (Olympic facilities) when we already have them doesn't make any sense," Robbins said.
"I think what's happened is surrounding states and cities saw we had such success that they said, 'Boy, we ought to look at this.' Nobody can blame them, but we ought to start looking at this hard again."
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