As he stayed in Auronzo di Cadore, Italy, during the Milano Cortina Winter Games, Dallin Koecher, the executive director of Heber Valley Tourism, Economic Development and Chamber of Commerce, was given a glimpse of how the Heber Valley had let the opportunities of the Olympics pass it by during the 2002 Olympics.
Despite being less than an hour’s drive from the Games territory of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Koecher said that “you would have no idea the Olympics were happening” while visiting the municipality of about 3,300 people.
“There was no major effort to be like, ‘Hey, it’s the Olympics. Let’s stay open later. Let’s do this. Let’s kind of maximize on this.’ It was just business as usual, or no business as usual, as it turned out to be,” Koecher said about Auronzo di Cadore.
During the 2002 Olympics, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center in Midway hosted the biathlon and cross-country skiing competitions. But, as Koecher put it, “the community just let people come and go,” without reaping the reward of an influx of tourists to Wasatch County.
With Soldier Hollow hosting those same competitions during the 2034 Games, Koecher and other Wasatch County representatives are eager not to make the same mistake.
“From a community standpoint, we want to make sure that when visitors come to the Heber Valley, they know that this is an Olympic destination, not just a sleepy little town,” he said.
That’s why Koecher participated in the International Olympic Committee’s Observer Program with other statewide representatives invited to study how communities and venues in and around Cortina d’Ampezzo adapted to the Olympics.
Koecher left for Italy on Feb. 7 and returned Tuesday. He was the only Wasatch County representative to participate in the observer program. Koecher visited Cortina d’Ampezzo instead of Milan, so he could observe the biathlon competition, and watched the women’s 7.5-kilometer sprint at the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena on Feb. 14.
“I think in Europe, they look at cross-country skiing and Nordic events like we look at college football,” Koecher said with a laugh. “Just massive.”
Able to accommodate up to 19,000 spectators, the arena had the highest spectator capacity of any venue in the Milano Cortina Winter Games. Soldier Hollow accommodated about 20,000 people per day over 16 days of the 2002 Games, according to Luke Bodensteiner, the venue’s general manager.
Bodensteiner expects about 15,000 people per day in 2034, a prospect that excited Koecher. This could be a chance for visitors to shop for trinkets, dine, explore the area and enjoy Heber City’s Main Street Park. The city is currently redesigning the park to support increased event programming, with the intention of completing the makeover by the 2034 Games.
Although Koecher said the Antholz-Anterselva Biathlon Arena had all the grandeur of a football stadium, he thought that Soldier Hollow had the venue beat in offering a good view of the competition for spectators.
“In Italy, we’re in the stands, and you can basically see the shooting range and the penalty track and the start and finish line, which are all great and really exciting. But as soon as they leave the stadium, you don’t see them until they come back,” he said, “Whereas at Soldier Hollow, you have the opportunity to watch without having to be out there. … You can watch these skiers through the trails and stuff from the spectator stands.”
However, both venues face a similar challenge of only having “one road in, one road out,” Koecher said.
He explained that the Olympic organizers dealt with that problem in Italy by temporarily operating shuttles during the Games. He said that could be a viable solution in the Heber Valley, but the experience of being stuck on buses for much of his trip led him to dream up an additional idea: a Heber Valley Railroad train route traveling between Heber City, Midway and Deer Valley East Village.
“(It) would be a solution for the Games, but also create a long-term legacy piece that would benefit our community, Soldier Hollow, the railroad, ongoing, not just for the four weeks of the Olympic and Paralympic Games,” Koecher said.
He said using the railroad and shuttles would allow people to park in areas like Southfield Park or Deer Creek High School, alleviating traffic and parking congestion in hotspots like Soldier Hollow.
While the biathlon competition was a highlight, the bulk of Koecher’s trip was spent traveling to other Games venues and talking with International Olympic Committee members, volunteers and paid staff about the challenges and opportunities posed by the Olympics.
What stuck out to Koecher most was the lack of lodging dedicated to non-local volunteers.
“Some of the volunteers said that it was just up to them. ‘OK, go find your housing and figure it out yourself.’ So, they turned to Facebook groups. They turned to social media to find housing,” he said.
He said Utah has the opportunity to do a “better job” of filling that need, perhaps by organizing an online, statewide system that would match people willing to open their homes to volunteers during the Games.
Even if the practice isn’t adopted in such an official capacity, Koecher is hopeful that it can be picked up in the Heber Valley.
“It’s really kind of like hosting a foreign exchange student for only a couple of weeks,” he said. “That’s a really neat way to, one, experience a new culture by having somebody in your home, but also share our culture.”
As for opportunities, he said broadcasting was a big one.
“The biathlon and cross-country events are hugely popular in Europe. So when they are on TV, they’re going to want their new valley-wide shots, maybe even talk a little about the community as the broadcasters are talking about the events,” he said. “There’s an opportunity for us to use this as a marketing tool, or at least a way to showcase our community to the world.”
Koecher was unable to meet Cortina d’Ampezzo Mayor Gianluca Lorenzi with the rest of his group because the meeting took place on Koecher’s date of departure.
He said that by the time the meeting was set up, he had already planned to fly home early to minimize the cost of the trip, which was about $4,000 and paid for by Heber Valley Tourism’s budget. The bulk of that budget is funded by Wasatch County Transient Room Tax revenue.
Although Koecher was unable to meet Lorenzi, he asked members of the group to share notes about what they’d learned from their conversation with him.
Koecher said being “boots on the ground” during the observer program was an insightful experience he encouraged other Wasatch County representatives to participate in during the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games and the French Alps 2030 Winter Games.
Heber City Mayor Heidi Franco has indicated that she is interested in participating in the program during either of those Games. She was supposed to attend this year in Koecher’s place but had to decline when her grandson was born.
Bodensteiner will be participating in the observer program during the Paralympic Games in Val di Fiemme, Italy, from March 6 to 11.
Koecher will present findings from his trip to the Heber Valley Community Impact and Legacy Committee — a group made up of representatives from Soldier Hollow, the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation, Heber City, Midway and Wasatch County — sometime next month.