The International Olympic Committee will vote on Salt Lake City's 2034 Winter Olympics bid in July, but the NHL must give the city a chance to show its readiness.
Last Saturday, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman hinted at the possibility of an outdoor game in Florida in his State of the League press conference.
I also wrote a counter-column about how inevitable an outdoor game in Utah was.
And on Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee officially moved Utah's bid on the 2034 Winter Games to a July ratification vote.
It all makes the awarding of the Olympics to Salt Lake City inevitable, according to the article written by KSL.com and Deseret News.
Now the eyes turn to the NHL offices in New York.
Yes, there is much to do, and unfortunately, years of work to be done to get Salt Lake ready for their turn on the world's stage again.
World-famous Temple Square is at least three to five years, if not more, from completing its massive renovations.
A spat is continuing over the future of downtown (which, really, is nobody's fault except the powers-to-be).
But Salt Lake deserves its chance to host an outdoor game within the next five to seven years -- maybe sooner -- to showcase how ready they are for the Olympics.
Imagine players walking out in the snow and cold, and Marie Osmond singing the national anthem in a sold-out Rice-Eccles Stadium.
The pomp, pageantry, the circumstance, it's just too perfect.
Utah needs an outdoor game not just for the eyeballs, but also for a warm-up for the Olympics.
Without one, the world will be left in the dark to just how ready the city really is.
Utahns know how ready they really are, now the NHL needs to give them a shot.