Chicago Mayor Richard Daley told a city hall news conference Wednesday that he would appoint an exploratory committee later this month made up of business and civic leaders to investigate the feasibility of Chicago bidding for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
The mayor said, “I’d like to make it clear that we haven’t bid for the Olympics. No decision has been made about whether or not we will do so”.
But if the city decides to seek the Games, he said, “you are not going to use any local money that would be used for the local budget that would impair improvements in education, housing, jobs, homeless programs, parks”.
Last fall the mayor’s Olympic point man said the need for an 80,000 to 100,000-seat stadium – on the heels of the controversial $606 million renovation of Soldier Field – could make Daley’s Olympic dream a “non-starter”. But Wednesday the mayor strongly disagreed. He called the stadium hurdle as a “minor thing” that could be overcome with creative thinking. “You don’t know if you have to finance another stadium. How’s that?” Daley told reporters.
Although he reportedly talked about building a new stadium in Chicago for a second National Football League team that would double as the main Olympic venue Daley said Wednesday it also might be possible to use an existing arena elsewhere.
He talked about the possibility of moving Opening and Closing Ceremonies and track and field events far outside the city – possibly linked by high-speed rail – after establishing the political parameters for making a formal Olympic bid.
“You look at Indiana, Wisconsin, Milwaukee, South Bend. You have the University of Illinois at Champaign. Then you look at how well you improve transportation to Champaign-Urbana. You would need it. You need better transportation to Milwaukee. You need better transportation to South Ben. You have a lot of options”.
Jim Scherr, chief executive officer of the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC), said at the news conference that Chicago would “not only be an excellent host for the Olympic games, but would have an opportunity to be a successful bidder if it chose to bid and if we chose to run. But we are quite a ways down the line there, without deciding even to have a bid process yet”.
Scherr and Daley also announced Chicago has been selected as a new “Community Partner” joining three other U.S. cities that have agreed to promote Olympic programs and ideas.
Partners agree to assist the USOC in fundraising and other athlete-support activities. Chicago will focus on helping the related Paralympic Games for the disabled.
Scherr said that being a partner also will be “very important” for any American city which hopes to compete to attract the Olympics.
Participating “demonstrates not only to us but the international community that a city is willing to support the Olympic movement”.
The city is also setting up a Web site that will ask the public about possible future uses for facilities built for the Olympics.
