Tickets to competitions in the Park City area during the 2034 Winter Olympics could be even tougher to come by than they were during the Games of 2002.

And the ones 22 years ago for crowd favorites like freestyle skiing and snowboarding were, essentially, pure gold to the people who managed to procure them.

A scarcity of tickets may be a byproduct of the overarching vision for the venues for a Games in 2034. Early depictions of the three local competition venues point to the possibility of lower crowd capacities, something that would be expected to reduce the number of publicly available tickets in circulation and bring about wider ramifications for the operations of a Games.

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As excitement builds with the likelihoodthe the Games of 2034 will be awarded to Salt Lake City in July, attention seems to be shifting from a bid process that has stretched for years to the actual mechanics of the staging of a second Winter Olympics in the state.

The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games, the group bidding for the event in 2034, recently provided some details about the slate of proposed venues, including Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and the Utah Olympic Park. The projected crowd capacities of the venues are notable even nine and a half years prior to the start of the Games since they are crucial to a range of logistical matters, extending well beyond ticket availability, that will be addressed during the planning stage.

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Information released as part of a broader submittal to the International Olympic Committee indicates the venues at Park City Mountain and Deer Valley are conceptualized to hold fewer spectators than in 2002. The venue for the sliding sports at the Utah Olympic Park would also hold fewer people than in 2002. A comparison of the capacities for the ski jumping venue at the Utah Olympic Park was not readily available.

The crowd capacities of the venues for 2034 could shift over coming years as the bid committee transforms into an organizing committee and the detailed designs for each location are finalized. It could be some time before the capacity figures are known with certainty.

The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games described the capacity numbers submitted to the IOC as projections prepared long before the event would be held. The capacities were based on factors like the field of play of the competitions, the geography of the finish areas, the estimated demand for tickets and the transportation system, the group said. It also said there were unspecified “lessons learned from 2002” as the capacities were considered for another Games.

“Given that we are 10 years out, the capacities may change given changes in the factors noted,” the Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games said.

The number of spectators each of the venues has the capacity to hold will be a pivotal variable in the overall organization of a Games since it will influence many other aspects of the plans. The spectator figures, as examples, will affect the blueprints for parking, transportation and security, as well as the designs of the temporary stadiums built at the venues. Staffing and the need for volunteers will depend at some level on the crowd figures, and the process of the loading and unloading of the venues for each competition will hinge on the capacities.

Park City would be one of the top draws during a Games for lodging and celebrations, as in 2002. Even if the crowds at the competitions are smaller than during the previous Games as a result of the venue designs, it seems likely Park City will retain its role as a charming, mountainous counterbalance to the metropolitan setting in Salt Lake City and the Wasatch Front. The Games of 2002 illustrated Park City has the ability to attract large crowds wanting to experience the atmosphere even if they lack tickets to the competitions.

If the venues in 2034 hold fewer spectators than those in 2002, meanwhile, some the effect on the market for tickets would be forecasted. The official post-Games report drafted by the organizing committee that staged the 2002 event indicated 99.8% of the tickets for competitions at Park City Mountain were sold, 99.4% of the tickets for competitions at Deer Valley were sold and 100% of the tickets for sliding sports at the Utah Olympic Park were sold. The figure was 95% for ski jumping at the Utah Olympic Park.

Tickets for competitions at the three Park City-area venues commanded prices on the secondary market well above face value in 2002. Successes by American athletes at the three locations seemed to drive demand even higher and, as the Games wore on, Park City thrived amid the giant crowds. 

The Salt Lake City-Utah Committee for the Games filed the submittal with the IOC in the period before the Lausanne, Switzerland-based organization’s likely awarding of the Games of 2034 to Salt Lake City. The selection is anticipated to occur on July 24, during IOC meetings in Paris on the eve of the opening of the Summer Olympics in the French capital. Salt Lake City is the IOC’s preferred host for 2034. Leaders from Park City and Summit County are slated to travel to Paris with the state delegation for the IOC meetings, with the trip also acting as a fact-finding mission with the two jurisdictions expected to expand their Games efforts after the award of the 2034 event. There will be extensive work in coming years between Park City, Summit County and an organizing committee.