After Sapporo, a second potential candidate city for the 2030 Winter Games has unveiled the first figures for its Olympic and Paralympic project. The Americans of Salt Lake City, in Utah, revealed on Monday 13 December that the Winter Games would cost 2.2 billion dollars. In detail, the operational costs would amount to 1.75 billion dollars, but the provisional budget also foresees a reserve of 200 million dollars, to be used in case of overruns, and a special fund of 250 million dollars allocated to legacy projects intended mainly to develop sports in Utah. Like the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles, the event would be financed by private money (IOC subsidies, partnerships, ticketing and merchandising). Note: the budget presented on Monday 13 December by the project sponsors does not take into account any renovations or construction of competition venues. Salt Lake City intends to make maximum use of the facilities of the 2002 Winter Games. The American team also announced a budget of 2.8 million dollars for the preparation of the bid file and the bid campaign. At this stage, $1.75 million has been raised, with about $300,000 already spent. But the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC), and the Salt Lake City project sponsors, have not yet decided whether the bid should be for the 2030 edition, or wait until the Winter Games in 2034. In the first case, only 18 months would separate LA 2028 from Salt Lake City 2030, a period of time considered too short to fully exploit the commercial potential of the winter event. Fraser Bullock, the chairman of the bid committee, acknowledged this on Monday 13 December: “We and the USOPC have been working closely with LA 28. We have made great progress, but there is still some way to go.”
