The 2034 Olympic Winter Games will have a new name (Utah 2034 rather than Salt Lake City 2034), but some of the most in-demand tickets will be for events held in West Valley City and Kearns.

With the Delta Center now home for an NHL team, the hockey competitions for the 2034 Games will be played there. That means figure skating will join short track speedskating with events conducted in the Maverik Center, and of course long track speedskating will take place at the Utah Olympic Oval in Kearns. All of those are huge spectator events, which means grandstands should be filled and bundles of cash will be spent on food, drink and swag on the valley’s westside.

In 2002, both short track and hockey were held at the Maverik. In fact, the Canadian team that beat Team USA for the gold medal in hockey carved and/or penned their names on a wall in the Maverik, a wall that was preserved outside the locker room for many years. Figure skating was held at the Delta Center. Now, figure skating will move to West Valley while hockey moves downtown. Preliminary hockey games will also be held at Provo’s Peak Arena, as they were in 2002.

The arenas have much different capacities – the Maverik can seat about 8,400 while the Delta Center’s capacity for hockey is around 14,000, or will be by 2034 – but no one from the International Olympic Committee seems worried. Both venues will sell out for the Games. And the Maverik will undoubtedly see some changes and modifications once the Utah Grizzlies conclude their time as tenants of the building after the end of this year. That team was sold to new owners who are relocating it to New Jersey.

The Maverik Center has held many ice skating events before and will host the U.S. Synchronized Skating Championships this spring. It’s also going to add visibility of both West Valley City and Kearns to international visitors and TV viewers. American Olympic Games are always the most watched games around the world.

The Maverik Center will be host site for both figure skating and short track speedskating for the 2034 Olympic Winter Games. (Tom Haraldsen/City Journals)