There are mixed reactions to Mayor Richard Daley’s announcement that Chicago is considering a bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
The Chicago Sun-Times reports that according to some experts “Mayor Daley’s Olympic dream could end up being a financial and logistical nightmare for Chicago”.
Some say the costs associated with preparing and hosting such a “gargantuan event” would far outweigh any long-term benefits.
It quotes Allen Sanderson, a University of Chicago sports economist, saying for a host city the Games are a continuous “oozing of money”. Jobs created for the Games wouldn’t extend much beyond that, he said.
Eldon Ham, a sports law professor at Chicago-Kent and John Marshall law schools said that cities must plan very carefully when it comes to the future use of venues that would have to be built specifically for the Games, or they run the risk of being stuck with costly facilities that just collect dust. “If they were wise on where they laid things out and built new facilities, we do have the infrastructure to support it. But it would be much better to build five or six new factories, or something like that, where it is just an ongoing positive”, Ham said.
Bill Testa, an economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago said, “you need to think about what it is you’re building on when you’re making this kind of investment. A lot of it is image and bringing people here for the first time”.
But the newspaper quotes some business leaders saying that those are the reasons why Chicago should, at the least, pursue a bid.
Jerry Roper, president of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce said, “the Olympics would do wonders for Chicago. Here’s a city that continues to position itself in the global tourism marketplace…we need to be going after world-class events”.
One of the factors the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) considers when selecting a U.S. candidate city is if the city is “going to have to invest significant dollars and capital resources in the development of facilities” said USOC spokesman Darryl Seibel. He said it can be a disadvantage.
But Roper and others in the business community say Chicago has everything going for it – bustling airports, public transit, lots of hotel rooms and big-league stadiums.
Marc Ganis, president of the Chicago-based sports business consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd. said, “Chicago can use the Olympics to extend mass transit and build infrastructure (to the south Chicago neighbourhood) and what you have is a major lakefront community rising from dirt that today is contaminated. Imagine the housing and retail that can be built on the property leaving a lasting Olympic legacy on the South Side”.
