A Reno-Tahoe 2018 Winter Games Gets Support From Presidential Candidate

From GamesBids.com:
According to published reports there are efforts to bring the 2018 Winter Olympic Games to Reno-Tahoe. KRNV-TV reports that several people gathered at Mt. Rose to discuss the plan and those supporting the 2018 campaign said the Reno-Tahoe Games would include more events than the 1960 Tahoe Winter Games that were confined to Squaw Valley.

The group is confident that Reno-Tahoe has the capability to host such an event, with large venues like Lawlor Events Center and the University of Nevada, Reno, to be the site of a possible Olympic Village.

Steve Trounday of the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition said, “how do we match up against other cities that might be vying for the bid in 2018? I think we match up very well. We have an airport that can handle it. We have the mountains so close. We are one of a few cities that is 45 minutes away from the furthest venue”.

Addressing concerns that traffic could be the biggest roadblock, Trounday said that the region does have multiple highways leading up to Tahoe and a railroad running right through downtown Reno. He also said the Olympic Games could help the area secure a new form of transportation that would benefit future generations.

He said, “I think we can get light rail from the university to Mt. Rose or from Reno to Truckee”.

Gilbert Coleman, a local economist, said the idea of a Winter Games in Reno-Tahoe is completely feasible as Reno is no stranger to tourism.

Supporters of the bid said money generated from the Games would total more than $5 billion and create new jobs.

Republic Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who helped bring the Winter Games to Salt Lake City in 2002, told the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition that if he was elected to the White House he will try to make Reno-Tahoe a reality.

He said, “you can bet, if you are the host city representing the United States, I will work to help this city get the Games”.

He added, “we’d make sure the federal government would be a partner with Nevada and with the Reno region and making sure we had our ducks in a row. You can never know that you are going to get the Games your first time out”.

Jim Vanden Heuvel, chief executive officer of the coalition, called Romney a “miracle worker” in turning around the Salt Lake City Games.

He said Romney’s pledge of federal government support to help in the bid process represents a reversal of decades of tradition that put the responsibility for drawing the Olympics to the United States in the hands of non-profit organizations. He said the governments in other countries take the lead in the bid process.

Romney later said it would “be appropriate” for the federal government to help the region improve its roads to handle traffic from the Games.

He also advised the committee to hire people with experience running the Games.