U.S. cities come to home of Olympic sports to pitch hosting future world championships

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Sports officials from a dozen United States cities went to the heart of the Olympic family this week to show their country wants to host more world championships and top events.

Coast to coast member cities in the Sports Events & Tourism Association came to the Olympic home city of Lausanne to meet most governing bodies of Summer Games and Winter Games sports, which are always looking to pick host cities for their own competitions.

“If we’re zooming out it is just broader advocacy for the United States,” Sports ETA president and CEO John David told The Associated Press, setting the goal to help Olympics sports “feel that warm embrace that the U.S. wants them.”

The U.S. has already booked a full slate of the biggest events in the next decade — Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 and Utah in 2034, plus World Cups in men’s and women’s soccer next year and in 2031, respectively.

There is still scope and space for championships, like Boston did in March by hosting figure skating’s Worlds, that typically are awarded about three years ahead.

“This is long-term planning,” David said on behalf of the Ohio-based non-profit Sports ETA. “We know that we have to come in here and build trust.”

Heads and beds

The week-long figure skating championships at TD Garden occupied about 17,000 room nights — “and those are just the ones we know about,” said Greg Piatelli of the Meet Boston agency.

“I think that the U.S. wants more and more international visitors because of the type of traveller they are. They want to explore more,” Piatelli told the AP.

Houston received visitors from 100 countries when hosting the weightlifting world championships in 2015, said Janis Burke, who worked there then and now directs Sports ETA’s international strategy.

Still, the soccer World Cup — where 11 American cities will host games along with three in Mexico and two in Canada next June and July — is highlighting issues of access to the U.S. for fans and team officials.

Visa concerns

Haiti and Iran have qualified for the World Cup yet their citizens face travel bans by the U.S. government. The Iranian soccer federation’s top two officials were also denied visas to attend the tournament draw Friday in Washington, DC.

The key, Burke suggested, for hosting future international sports events is good relations with members of Congress.

“All of these cities are very well connected with their elected officials and their communities,” said Burke, who also helped oversee taking the table tennis Worlds to Houston in 2021.

U.S. President Donald Trump promised visas for athletes and team officials coming to the next World Cup and Olympics, though it is unclear which other championships could be classed as “major sporting events” to get exemptions.

“We are hosting world championships all the time and we are not seeing any challenges,” David said.

Ahead of baseball and softball returning to the Olympics in 2028 — going ahead respectively in California and Oklahoma — the governing body’s executive director said it seems business as normal.

“I have just been recently to Los Angeles and Oklahoma City and I didn’t see any issue for ourselves,” Michael Schmidt of the World Baseball Softball Confederation told the AP, comparing them favorably with recent trips to Peru’s capital Lima and Vienna in Austria.

World Cup visitors

The World Cup should draw at least two million visitors to the U.S. and will be the clearest test.

Burke said her former city Houston will be popular with fans coming for any of the seven games scheduled at the Texans’ home stadium.

“I think people will be surprised at what a great World Cup it is,” she said. “Safety is not going to be an issue.”