The committee behind Salt Lake City’s bid to host the 2034 Winter Olympics has revealed its first budget forecasts, estimated at US$4 billion, including US$2.84 billion in operating costs.
The committee said that although there would be 40% more events present in 2034 than in 2002, when the city hosted the Olympics, operating costs would be 1% lower when taking inflation into account. .
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will study the proposed budget later this month. Utah’s capital is expected to get the 2034 Olympics on July 24, during a meeting on the sidelines of the Paris Games.
The organization of the Olympic Games often exceeds the budgets presented. They also have a reputation for being difficult to quantify exactly, in part because of the many different elements that count among operating or total costs, but also because of the opacity surrounding certain expenditures filtered by different levels of government. or the IOC.
For example, California lawmakers recently announced they had secured nearly $900 million in federal funds to support infrastructure and transportation projects “in advance of the 2028 Summer Olympics,” which will be held in Los Angeles. Angeles. This figure will not necessarily be found in the Olympic budget.
Four years later, South Korea spent 12.9 billion on the 2018 Olympics, compared to the original forecast of 7 to 8 billion. Official costs have not been disclosed for the latest Beijing Winter Games. However, one report put them at 38.5 billion, after an initial projection of 3.9 billion.
The Salt Lake City bid committee released revenue projections that have them saying they will have a balanced budget with the help of $1.8 billion in sponsorships from U.S. companies.
The committee’s budget includes a $260 million bequest to local sports programs.