LAKE PLACID — Former North Country Assemblyman Billy Jones and a current Brooklyn Assemblyman are calling for the formation of an exploratory committee to look into the potential of bringing the Winter Olympics back to New York, splitting the events between Lake Placid and New York City.

Three years ago, Jones drafted legislation, co-sponsored by fellow downstate Democratic Assemblyman Robert Carroll, to create such a group, which passed the Assembly, but never went to a vote in the Senate.

Jones retired from the Assembly in September to take a job at Clinton Community College. He’s also a member of the board of trustees for the Olympic Regional Development Authority, which manages the local Olympic venues.

He and Carroll wrote an op-ed titled “Bring the Winter Olympics to NYC & Lake Placid,” which was published in the New York Daily News on Thursday.

“This isn’t a commitment to host the Games, but a chance to decide together whether the dream is right,” the op-ed states.

Carroll said the committee would essentially be “kicking the tires” on the possibility.

Jones said they’ve talked about the potential for a New York City-Lake Placid Winter Olympic Games occasionally over the years. The Olympics have grown “exponentially” since Lake Placid last played host in 1980, Jones said, so to make it feasible again, he said the town of a little more than 2,000 year-round residents would have to partner with a major city.

“Lake Placid would never be able to host anything alone,” ORDA Communications Director Darcy Norfolk Rowe said.

The 1980 Games sold 550,000 tickets, and Lake Placid was capped at 51,000 visitors in the village each day.

The last Winter Olympics in 2022 in Beijing were affected by the coronavirus pandemic and only had around 100,000 spectators. Before that, the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang sold around 1 million tickets. The Winter Olympics coming in February in Milan-Cortina are projected to bring 2 million attendees.

Lake Placid was selected by the International Olympic Committee as the “Plan B” option for the 2026 sliding sports last year in the case that the Cortina Sliding Center in Italy was not built in time for competition. The Cortina track ended up on pace to meet the deadline, and the Plan B option was dropped this spring.

Norfolk Rowe said that the bid gave people “a taste” of what it might be like to host a portion of the Olympics.

Jones and Carroll also said the upcoming games show that a big city (Milan) and a small, alpine ski town (Cortina), around a five-hour drive away from each other, can co-host a Winter Olympics.

“By thoughtfully dividing events between NYC and Lake Placid, we can minimize disruption, maximize efficiency and set a new standard for responsible Olympic planning,” the op-ed states.

Jones also said recent past Olympics have had venues built from scratch at enormous cost, which are then abandoned after the games end.

The International Olympic Committee does not want people building venues anymore, Norfolk Rowe said.

“Past Games have been plagued by ballooning budgets, underused facilities and disruptions to local communities,” the op-ed states.

Lake Placid has established venues at Mount Van Hoevenberg, the Olympic Ski Jumping Complex and Whiteface Mountain. The state has put tens to hundreds of millions of dollars a year into upgrading the venues in recent years.

Carroll said seeing the state investing in the upkeep of these facilities is partially what motivated him to advocate for New Yorkers to consider hosting the Olympics again.

Salt Lake City, Utah, has been awarded the bid for the 2034 Winter Games. Los Angeles, California, was awarded the 2028 Summer Games. Norfolk Rowe said because of this, it’s unlikely for the U.S. will get another Olympic Games award soon.

The IOC now awards the Games more than a decade in advance.

It also requires a referendum of public support from regions that are potential bid sites before the IOC considers them as a candidate.

Carroll said they are hoping leaders in business, politics and civic groups see the op-ed, get interested, reach out to them and start discussing how they could start their research.

Norfolk Rowe said Jones has not directly discussed the op-ed with the ORDA board yet, but the board has a meeting next week and they might discuss it then. ORDA Board Chair Joe Martens indicated the agency would be interested in the findings of the committee.

“New York state has made significant investments in our venues to ensure that can continue to attract and host major winter sports events and the Olympic Authority welcomes the opportunity to explore a joint Olympic bid with New York City,” Martens told the Enterprise.

“As an organization who was born from an Olympics, it would be odd if we do not go through a discovery phase to see if it is something that fits us in the future,” Norfolk Rowe said.

ORDA’s venues regularly host World Cup and World Championship events for sliding, ski jumping and biathlon. In 2023, the FISU Winter World University Games were held at its venues.

Norfolk Rowe said the facilities’ infrastructure is pretty solid for world-class events. The Whiteface Mountain ski area would likely need upgrades, she said.

But the community’s ability to host needs to be evaluated, Norfolk Rowe added. The capacity of hotels, restaurants, roads, transportation and other logistics is tight in the remote Adirondack Park. She said they’d also have to evaluate the region’s capability to have an athletes’ village. Nearly 3,000 athletes are set to compete in the Milan-Cortina Games.

Carroll believes the Games could be entirely privately financed. That’s happening in LA and Salt Lake City, he said. There would still need to be local and state payments for infrastructure upgrades, he added. But he added that the Games are often a “catalyst” for getting these projects funding.

“Investments in public transit, housing, accessibility and youth sport would serve generations to come,” the op-ed states. “A legacy fund could expand access to skating, skiing and adaptive winter sport programs across the state, ensuring that every child, regardless of zip code or background, can experience the exhilaration of movement and the joy of belonging.”

Why does Jones want to pursue potentially hosting the Olympics again?

“Well, come on now. That’s self-explanatory,” he said.

Obviously, it’s cool, he said. He added that the idea of co-hosting with New York City is a “wonderful, unique idea” and that costs can be reduced by using all the existing facilities in both locations.

Lake Placid hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980. Major winter sports venues were built for these Games. In the years after the 1980 games, there’s been discussion about Lake Placid hosting again. A quarter-century ago, there was consideration of Lake Placid co-hosting the Olympics with Montreal in Canada, but a true effort never materialized.

The op-ed pitches Madison Square Garden for ice hockey, Barclays Center for figure skating and short-track speed skating and Yankee Stadium for the big air competition.

New York has the nation’s largest media market and an “ideal time zone.” Jones and Carroll predict that a NYC-Lake Placid Games would deliver record attendance, viewership and revenue.

Norfolk Rowe said New York City has never hosted the Olympics. It had bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.