Nevada’s bid for the 2022 is gearing up with a team from the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition, headed by Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki, spending a couple of days at U.S. Olympic Committee workshops and meetings in Colorado Spring, Colorado, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Krolicki, in a report Wednesday to the Nevada Commission on Tourism said, “this is probably one of the most fulfilling and intriguing prospects I have been involved with”, adding “the planets are aligning”.
The Reno coalition was incorporated as a non-profit in 2003, reports the Las Vegas Review-Journal. It had been preceded by an organizing committee incorporated a decade earlier that was dissolved.
Krolicki is using as an example the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Games that helped raise the area’s tourism profile. The most recent American Winter Games were in Salt Lake City in 2002. The Olympics that year cost about $1.3 billion, he said, but TV revenues, ticket sales and corporate sponsorships covered the entire bill and left a surplus.
Krolicki said, “this is not going to be put on the taxpayers. This is a solution that will involve all interested parties”.
Venues have been identified for many of the outdoor events, particularly skiing, but they may need alterations to meet Olympic standards. Events such as bobsledding will need to be built from scratch.
The Review-Journal reports the highest priced items could be the two pieces of ice for indoor events, including hockey and figure skating. Krolicki said different options are being examined, including constructing an arena as far away as Sacramento, California.
