I have read reports indicating that Chicago is the favorite to get the 
bid to host the summer Olympic Games come the year 2016, and I have read others indicating that the Second City is fourth (dead last).
I have read reports indicating that the presence of Barack Obama as president ensures that the games will come to Chicago, and that he literally will get to walk from his Hyde Park home to the Olympic Stadium to be built just a few blocks away.
I HAVE ALSO read other reports indicating that such talk is absurd.
But all of that has been little more than cheap talk. The only rhetoric that truly matters is the talk taking place this week in Switzerland, when officials with Chicago and the three other cities that want to host the Olympics to be held seven years from now will get their only chance to talk to the entire International Olympic Committee.
For Chicago, city officials plan to throw out the same pitch that is given to tourists – all those attractions within walking distance of the downtown hotels, or close enough to mass transit that one can get by in the city without an automobile.
But will getting to see videos touting the wonders of the Bundy Fountain (a.k.a. Buckingham Fountain) truly woo the worldly crowd that comprises the IOC? I don’t know.
ALL I KNOW is that being able to host the games is the kind of event that so-called world-class cities are supposed to be capable of doing so. Hosting an Olympics would be among the historic events that leave their mark on the city’s history (just like the World’s Fairs that came to this city in 1893 and 1934).
I’m not nominating the ’16 Olympics for a fifth star on the Chicago flag (two of the existing four stars commemorate those World’s Fairs). But I can’t help but think that bringing the games to this city could be one of those events that would give us all some stories to tell in the mid-21st Century about what it was like to live in Chicago back when …
What 8-year-old athletic prodigy will wind up having his (or her, for that matter) name forevermore associated with Chicago by performing incredible athletic record-setting events in our fair city.
I also happen to believe these Olympics could wind up inspiring city officials to make some of those long-overdue municipal infrastructure repairs that could provide us Chicagoans with better mass transit and other benefits for years to come.
YEAH, IT WOULD be ideal if city officials would make these improvements for us without the motivation of an Olympic Games. But I’ll take the improvements any way we can get them.
Part of me also is a bit star-struck. It just strikes me as ridiculous that a large-scale city like Chicago cannot handle an event like the Olympics. Too many of the people who are quick to badmouth the concept strike me as being the types who ought to be living in Towanda, Ill.
Not that I’m bad-mouthing Towanda. It’s a cute rural town where the “big city” is nearby in Bloomington.
But I always thought that those of us who choose to live our lives here in Chicago (or those of us who are born here and choose not to relocate) do so because we like the grand scale of the Second City.
NOW AS I understand it, one of the drawbacks to the Chicago bid is that the U.S. government won’t offer up a guarantee that it will pay for any financial shortfalls that occur from the actual staging of the games.
City officials are hoping that a $1.2 billion fund put together from city, state and insurance guarantees is good enough in the minds of the IOC.
I actually think that not having the federal treasury being involved ought to be a plus, particularly when it comes to swaying those people who for whatever reason don’t like the thought of public funding being used for athletic events.
So what is the true significance of this week? It will be Chicago’s last chance to make its strengths known to the world (and I honestly believe Chicago is capable of being matched up to any other city on Planet Earth), since the International Olympic Committee doesn’t plan to listen to too much more public rhetoric.
THERE DEFINITELY WON’T be any more delegations coming to Chicago to check us out.
After this week, it will be a matter of waiting patiently while the committee ponders in a back room – making its final decision public on Oct. 2.
It sounds so much like the ways of Chicago politics of old.
It strikes me as the perfect reason why our city ought to get the games. If there’s anyone who can appreciate the intrigue of the Regular Democratic Organization (a.k.a., the Machine), it’s the IOC.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Could U.S. Cellular Field and Wrigley Field become the venues that see (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-06-14-olympic-bids_N.htm) the return of baseball and softball to the summer Olympics?
The Chinese propaganda machine is making it known that Chicago is “well prepared” to host (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/15/content_11547424.htm) the Olympics in 2016. Chicago’s propaganda machine is (http://www.chicago2016.org/) spreading the same message.
bid to host the summer Olympic Games come the year 2016, and I have read others indicating that the Second City is fourth (dead last).I have read reports indicating that the presence of Barack Obama as president ensures that the games will come to Chicago, and that he literally will get to walk from his Hyde Park home to the Olympic Stadium to be built just a few blocks away.
I HAVE ALSO read other reports indicating that such talk is absurd.
But all of that has been little more than cheap talk. The only rhetoric that truly matters is the talk taking place this week in Switzerland, when officials with Chicago and the three other cities that want to host the Olympics to be held seven years from now will get their only chance to talk to the entire International Olympic Committee.
For Chicago, city officials plan to throw out the same pitch that is given to tourists – all those attractions within walking distance of the downtown hotels, or close enough to mass transit that one can get by in the city without an automobile.
But will getting to see videos touting the wonders of the Bundy Fountain (a.k.a. Buckingham Fountain) truly woo the worldly crowd that comprises the IOC? I don’t know.
ALL I KNOW is that being able to host the games is the kind of event that so-called world-class cities are supposed to be capable of doing so. Hosting an Olympics would be among the historic events that leave their mark on the city’s history (just like the World’s Fairs that came to this city in 1893 and 1934).
I’m not nominating the ’16 Olympics for a fifth star on the Chicago flag (two of the existing four stars commemorate those World’s Fairs). But I can’t help but think that bringing the games to this city could be one of those events that would give us all some stories to tell in the mid-21st Century about what it was like to live in Chicago back when …
What 8-year-old athletic prodigy will wind up having his (or her, for that matter) name forevermore associated with Chicago by performing incredible athletic record-setting events in our fair city.
I also happen to believe these Olympics could wind up inspiring city officials to make some of those long-overdue municipal infrastructure repairs that could provide us Chicagoans with better mass transit and other benefits for years to come.
YEAH, IT WOULD be ideal if city officials would make these improvements for us without the motivation of an Olympic Games. But I’ll take the improvements any way we can get them.
Part of me also is a bit star-struck. It just strikes me as ridiculous that a large-scale city like Chicago cannot handle an event like the Olympics. Too many of the people who are quick to badmouth the concept strike me as being the types who ought to be living in Towanda, Ill.
Not that I’m bad-mouthing Towanda. It’s a cute rural town where the “big city” is nearby in Bloomington.
But I always thought that those of us who choose to live our lives here in Chicago (or those of us who are born here and choose not to relocate) do so because we like the grand scale of the Second City.
NOW AS I understand it, one of the drawbacks to the Chicago bid is that the U.S. government won’t offer up a guarantee that it will pay for any financial shortfalls that occur from the actual staging of the games.
City officials are hoping that a $1.2 billion fund put together from city, state and insurance guarantees is good enough in the minds of the IOC.
I actually think that not having the federal treasury being involved ought to be a plus, particularly when it comes to swaying those people who for whatever reason don’t like the thought of public funding being used for athletic events.
So what is the true significance of this week? It will be Chicago’s last chance to make its strengths known to the world (and I honestly believe Chicago is capable of being matched up to any other city on Planet Earth), since the International Olympic Committee doesn’t plan to listen to too much more public rhetoric.
THERE DEFINITELY WON’T be any more delegations coming to Chicago to check us out.
After this week, it will be a matter of waiting patiently while the committee ponders in a back room – making its final decision public on Oct. 2.
It sounds so much like the ways of Chicago politics of old.
It strikes me as the perfect reason why our city ought to get the games. If there’s anyone who can appreciate the intrigue of the Regular Democratic Organization (a.k.a., the Machine), it’s the IOC.
-30-
EDITOR’S NOTES: Could U.S. Cellular Field and Wrigley Field become the venues that see (http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/2009-06-14-olympic-bids_N.htm) the return of baseball and softball to the summer Olympics?
The Chinese propaganda machine is making it known that Chicago is “well prepared” to host (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-06/15/content_11547424.htm) the Olympics in 2016. Chicago’s propaganda machine is (http://www.chicago2016.org/) spreading the same message.
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