Hey there! The folks at the Salt Lake City-Ut Committee for the Games believe they can cover the $2.83 billion needed for the 2034 Winter Olympics without tapping into taxpayer funds. They aim to, you know, just about “break even” financially.
So, on Monday, they shared their game plan and financial projections for 2034. This happened right before the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Future Commission presents recommendations to the IOC Executive Board. There might be a vote next month on whether Salt Lake City will host 2034 Winter Olympics.
Fraser Bullock, the big boss at the committee, shared that the funding plan relies a lot on commercial sources like sponsorships, ticket sales, and such. They’re hoping to pull in nearly $3 billion from these avenues, which covers most of the expected $4 billion total revenue.
If all goes well, they want to put $260 million into a “legacy” fund for community sports programs in Utah. Another $905 million is set aside for a joint marketing deal with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympics crew.
Bullock mentioned during a video chat with reporters that they’re keen on breaking even by sticking to a simple Olympian rule: don’t spend more than you earn. They’re even aiming higher than just breaking even!
The budget details were sent over earlier this year in response to a questionnaire from the Future Host Commission. The folks behind this have thought long and hard about how much everything will cost and bring in. They started by looking at what went down during the 2002 Winter Olympics and made lots of tweaks over time.
A bunch of whizzes who’ve worked on recent Olympics helped them figure it all out. They looked at how costs and revenues would change over time – considering stuff like hiring more people and selling tickets later on.
Bullock knows things might shift around over the next ten years but believes their current plan is rock solid. He praised their thorough number-crunching work from start to finish.
The costs they’ve projected are pretty similar when adjusted for inflation compared to what was spent back in 2002. One key reason things aren’t way pricier now is because they don’t need to build new places – despite hosting lots more events now.
Brett Hopkins, head honcho of the board of directors, said maintaining current venues keeps things more certain heading into 2034. Running those spaces during games-like stuff is set to cost roughly $1.1 billion.
As game day nears, around forty departments will handle smaller budgets with more than a thousand line items in total. They expect about 1,700 full-timers working along with part-timers and volunteers – costing almost half a billion bucks. Other spends cover tech stuff, parties (like opening ceremonies), PR activities, and more!
Hopkins highlighted how they’ll adjust ticket prices by demand – making hotter events cost more than less-popular ones so everything adds up nicely privately. They think around 30k tickets could go for about thirty-four bucks each.
Apart from sponsorships and ticket sales, they reckon cash will roll in from various non-taxpayers through IOC programs ($750 million), merchandising/licensing ($200 million), + another $300 million or so from different sources.
They’ve planned for ups-and-downs with prices and incoming money hoping to make over $1 billion overall including $260 million that’d go towards local programs post-Games.
Budgeting an Olympics could practically count as an Olympic sport itself,” Hopkins joked! There’s such big work going on behind-the-scenes.”
Economic Impact
This long document also chats about what economic impacts might come good! Some fancy folks at University of Utah reckon hosting these Games in 2034 could boost economic activity by roughly $3.9 billion based on some estimates made back in 2030
Utah’s Gov., Spencer Cox seemed quite pumped too! He thinks having those Winter Games would be grand news for their state – “It’s an exciting opportunity,” he said!
The final word is that come July 24th we might just see Salt Lake City win officially as hosts for 2034 after being tagged as a “preferred host” just last year by IOC!
