Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Ryan Smith has announced a significant venue change for the 2034 Winter Olympics, moving hockey events to the Delta Center in downtown Salt Lake City.
- This change reflects a broader effort to revitalize the city's downtown area and accommodate NHL hockey.
- Figure skating and short track speedskating will be moved to the Maverik Center in West Valley City.
SALT LAKE CITY – The head of Utah's next Olympics wasn't expecting Utah Hockey Club owner Ryan Smith to announce a venue change for the 2034 Winter Games.
But that's exactly what happened hours before the new National Hockey League's inaugural game Tuesday night at the Delta Center in downtown Salt Lake City.
"You're going to be getting a little bit of a party tonight," Smith told reporters. "And just out of the corner of your eye, I just want you to envision that going for a lot longer here because with the Olympics coming, where this will be the hockey venue, sorry, I'm telling that right now. If you're the home to NHL and not have the hockey ... ."
Smith also owns the arena that is being remodeled to accommodate hockey along with his Utah Jazz team as part of a downtown Salt Lake City revitalization effort .
Fraser Bullock, president and CEO of the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games that successfully bid for the 2034 Olympics and Paralympics, said he didn't know Smith was going to tell everyone about the planned venue change that has been in the works for some time.
"Surprise! Lot of enthusiasm today and we are very excited to partner with Ryan and the NHL," Bullock told the Deseret News via text from his seat at the Utah HC-Chicago Blackhawks game that the state's new team won 5-2. "It's a great moment in time for Utah," the Olympic leader said.
When Utah hosted the 2002 Winter Games, the Delta Center was home to figure skating and short track speedskating. That was the plan for 2034, too. Then Smith decided to go after an NHL team in Arizona, which led the Utah Legislature to quickly pass a bill in early March setting up downtown's multibillion-dollar makeover.
Smith announced the NHL was coming to Utah in April after buying the Arizona Coyotes for $1.2 billion. And last week, Salt Lake City Council signed off on a sales tax increase that will fund $900 million in bonding to renovate the Delta Center as part of a new entertainment district.
With Olympic hockey moving to the Delta Center, Bullock said figure skating and short track speedskating would move to the Maverik Center in West Valley City, which hosted hockey in 2002 and was set to do it again in 2034, along with the smaller Peaks Ice Arena in Provo.
"There are typically adjustments from the bid plan and given the addition of NHL hockey to the Delta Center, it would be a great fit to have Olympic hockey there. We will work with the IOC to make this change," Bullock said. "Maverik is a great arena for Olympic-sized ice."
While in Utah late last month, International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach met with Smith, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Salt Lake County Mayor Jenny Wilson to hear the plans for downtown. Bullock said the committee had been notified about the venue change weeks in advance of Bach's two-day visit.
Bullock said the discussion with the outgoing international committee president "was about downtown transformation," not using the Delta Center for hockey. He said the bid committee, which will become an Olympic organizing committee by the end of the year, "will be working through this with the IOC for the next several months."
Contributing: Dennis Romboy
