The Park City Chamber/Bureau has no current plans to tap a consultant to assist with the community’s early work toward the 2034 Winter Olympics.
The hiring of a consultant was seen as a step that would continue the momentum in the months after the Games were awarded to Salt Lake City in July 2024. The Chamber/Bureau shortly afterward pushed back the process to secure the services of a consultant and, this week, indicated the effort is delayed indefinitely.
Jennifer Wesselhoff, the president and CEO of the Chamber/Bureau, said her group is “keen to work collaboratively with the Utah Organizing Committee and community partners when the time is right,” a reference to the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games that is planning the Winter Olympics.
“As we are still nine years away from the Games, we believe there’s ample time to make necessary advancements,” she said.
The Chamber/Bureau just days after the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games of 2034 posted a request for proposals for a consultant to draft a 10-year action plan for the Winter Olympics. City Hall and the County Courthouse were involved in the effort as well. Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park — the three Park City-area Games competition venues — were also participating.
The Park City area will be crucial to the operations of the Games, with the venue blueprints, transportation, security and the celebration among the logistical matters addressed by the organizing committee, local government officials, the competition venues and others.
The original posting by the Chamber/Bureau seeking a consultant envisioned a plan covering a decade of preparations for the Games. The work was expected to address a wide range of issues, including infrastructure, the economic impact, the timeline, environmental aspects of the Games and funding strategies.
One of the topics, as an example, involved assessing “the need for new or upgraded sports venues, accommodations, transportation systems, and other critical infrastructure.”
Another called for a consultant to “analyze the potential economic impact of hosting the Winter Olympic Games on the local economy.”
The consultant work was expected to have been completed by Jan. 15 of 2025.
There has been other progress in the 11 months since the awarding of the Games. The organizing committee has created a leadership structure and begun discussions with communities where Games activity is planned in 2034. It has also set a conceptual timeline for the work toward the event.
Wesselhoff’s statement that there are nine years until the Games addresses one of the overriding themes of the initial phase of the work. The International Olympic Committee awarded the Games of 2034 nearly 10 years before the event. In a previous selection process, used when Salt Lake City was named the host of the Winter Olympics in 2002, Games were awarded seven years prior.
The additional time between the awarding of the Games and the opening ceremony is expected to provide more opportunities at the outset for talks between the organizing committee and the communities about a vision for 2034.