SACRAMENTO, April 26 (UPI) -- A group of California civic and business leaders said Tuesday they want to bring the 2022 Winter Olympic Games to Lake Tahoe.
The California Winter Games Committee says it is exploring ways to bring the games to the Sierra Nevada region for the first time since the 1960 Squaw Valley Games, The Sacramento Bee reported.
Committee members said they intend to work with Nevada leaders in the Reno-Tahoe Winter Games Coalition to build a statewide effort in California to win the Olympic bid when a site is selected in 2015.
"We believe California needs a strong statewide effort to match up with the knowledge and resources from Nevada," said Michael Faust, president and chief executive officer of the Northern California World Trade Center and committee president.
The games would be expected to bump up the state and local economy, bringing jobs to a region with an unemployment rate above 12 percent, the Bee reported.
State Sen. Ted Gaines, who represents El Dorado and Placer counties, which was home to the Squaw Valley Games, said the potential economic benefits to his district from tourism and infrastructure improvements "would be enormous."
"An Olympics would draw attention to California on a worldwide basis," Gaines said Monday. "We have a number of ski resorts around the lake in Placer and El Dorado counties. We have a lot of infrastructure in place."
