Following a two-hour meeting with the team from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) who were visiting the Chicago to see if it could represent the U.S. in a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games, Mayor Richard Daley announced that Patrick Ryan, executive chairman of Aon Corp., will head an exploratory committee to help determine whether Chicago would make a formal bid if selected.
The business community would play a vital role in any potential bid by the city because the bidding process must be 100 per cent privately financed so it won’t be a cost to the potential host city, USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth has said.
Daley reportedly stressed that Chicago is at the “very, very early stages” of the process and “a long way” from deciding whether to make a formal bid.
Of the two-hour meeting with the USOC, Daley said, “it was a frank discussion. Every city is going to have a frank discussion with them. And there’s where it begins. You don’t sign a contract immediately…this is a whole process. You have to have vision. You have to have a commitment. You have to have the passion. You have to have the business community. You have to have everyone behind you. It isn’t a Mayor Daley show. This is the Olympics”.
Daley said “Chicago would be an ideal site” and the Olympics “would provide a strong platform to show off our city to literally billions of people. There would be strong potential benefits for tourism and economic development”.
He cited the city’s international status, convenient air service to all parts of the globe, and an ample supply of restaurants and hotel rooms to accommodate Olympic-sized crowds.
Daley talked about the city’s success hosting World Cup soccer in 1994 and the Democratic National Convention in 1996, as well as major summer events which draw hundreds of thousands of people to the lakefront.
“There must be new investments for people in our neighbourhoods, starting with improved infrastructure and more affordable housing. Next, real safeguards must be in place to protect the city’s finances and our taxpayers. This effort cannot become a financial burden to the taxpayers of Chicago and Illinois”.
According to the Sun Times, Daley also renewed a promise not to pursue the Olympics unless there are “safeguards” in place to protect the city’s finances and the event produces “new investments for people in our neighbourhoods”.
But Daley still touted Chicago’s benefits as a transportation hub and a “comparatively safe” city with the hotel, restaurant and security infrastructure needed to host an event on the whole stage.
The Chicago Tribune reports that sports observers have pointed out in recent weeks that the biggest challenge facing a potential Chicago Olympic bid is an Olympic Stadium. Daley has made it clear the city cannot spend $1 billion on a new stadium to host the Olympic track and field events that the 61,500-seat Soldier Field – still considered a possible venue for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies – is too small to accommodate.
When asked at a press briefing following the meeting with local officials about how he views Chicago, Ueberroth said that it is “a city on the move …Chicago is going in the right direction, and we are impressed by that”.