A bill advancing in the Utah Legislature spells out the oversight state officials would have over the 2034 Winter Games to ensure they reflect “Utah values.”
Two years ago, the Utah Legislature put in place the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Coordination Committee to oversee the privately funded bid and organizing efforts and give lawmakers a role in reviewing agreements involving the state.
Now, just days after a new organizing committee for Utah’s next Olympics was announced, that role is being updated in HB321, sponsored by Rep. Jon Hawkins, R-Pleasant Grove, the House chairman of the Games coordination committee.
His bill was advanced unanimously Monday to the full House by the House Economic Development an Workforce Services Committee.
Hawkins, also the chairman of the economic development committee, told members changes were needed after Utah was awarded the 2034 Olympics in Paris by the International Olympic Committee, just before the start of the 2024 Summer Games in France’s capital city.
Why the Paris Games raised concerns about another Utah Olympics
The Opening Ceremonies of the Paris Games gave Utah leaders pause, Hawkins said. Gov. Spencer Cox and other leaders said a portion of the show mocked the biblical Last Supper, but Paris organizers said they never intended to disrespect any religious group.
“Coming out of Paris, in all transparency, there was concern that getting the Olympics required us to conform with the International Olympic Committee and what was presented, for example with the Opening Ceremonies in Paris,” Hawkins said.
“There’s been stated concern from members of the Legislature that we don’t want to replicate that show. Because that’s not the Utah values that we espouse,” he said, adding that sparked a “deliberative process” intended to “ensure that our Games in Utah are our Games.”
At last Friday’s announcement of the new organizing committee, House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, called the Olympics an opportunity to showcase the state’s values and said he can’t “wait to once again show the world who Utah is and what makes us so special.”
Hawkins said the governor, Schultz, and Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, along with a few members of the new organizing committee worked with IOC and U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee officials on how the 2034 Games would be run.
“I think everybody is fully on board with this,” he said. “We do things a little differently in Utah. We like the way that we do things because we’re good at it. We had the most successful Winter Olympic Games in history to this day, in 2002. We want to replicate that in 2034.”
Lawmaker says state will ‘follow the money’ spent on Olympics
Utah’s Olympic organizers are set to spend a total of $4 billion to put on the 2034 Games, money that’s expected to come entirely from private sources, largely the sale of broadcast rights, sponsorships and tickets.
Just as in 2002, Utah taxpayers would be responsible for any shortfall under the host contract with the IOC signed by Cox. Under a new version of the bill adopted Monday, organizers would be required to report to the Legislature’s Games coordination committee once a year.
“One of the responsibilities of this (Games coordination) committee is to have financial accountability for the (organizing) committee,” Hawkins said. “We will, as they said with President Nixon, follow the money.”
The bill also calls for the governor and legislative leaders have to approve any replacements to the Utah members on the new organizing committee board, Hawkins said, proving “a procedure where the Legislature still has oversight of who gets on the committee.”
What’s the state role in naming Utah’s Olympic organizing committee?
The governor and legislative leadership have already named former Utah House speaker Brad Wilson the CEO of the new organizing committee, and a vice chairman of its 25-member board that includes 10 members from Utah.
Fraser Bullock, the bid’s leader and the chief operating officer of the 2002 Winter Games, is the executive chair and president of the board; and Steve Starks, CEO of The Larry H. Miller Company and the governor’s Olympics adviser, is also a vice chairman of the board.
Bullock said he, Wilson and Starks were empowered by the state leader to appoint the organizing committee’s Utah members, which include Ryan Smith, the owner of the Utah Jazz and the Utah Hockey Club, and Southern Utah University President Mindy Benson.
The Utah members have staggered terms of two, three or four years, Bullock said, that can be renewed through the Games. He said the term renewals will be decided by the board, not the governor and legislative leaders.
“It’s my hope that our board as currently constituted will remain intact through the end of the Games, through the renewal process,” Bullock said, adding that the appointments were made with input from a variety of elected officials as well as the business community.