Chicago 2016 organizers don’t think the global economic crisis will have a negative effect on the city’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
Patrick Sandusky, spokesman for Chicago 2016 who is in Acapulco attending the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) meeting, told the Associated Press Tuesday “we don’t feel that we’ll have constraints by the federal government saying ‘we can’t put any more money into this because of the financial crisis'”.
He added, “it’s not something we think would impact Chicago individually. It’s more of a global phenomenon”.
Members of Chicago 2016’s organizing committee are making their first formal presentation to International Olympic Committee (IOC) members Saturday.
Sandusky said Chicago won’t have the problems London is facing in getting financing for construction projects for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games.
He said, “we feel confident that when we’re in the situation London is, which is four years from now, that we would have a very solid plan that would be entirely privately financed”. He said London is planning a “much bigger scale project” than Chicago.
“In terms of what we need to provide for the athletes, and what we need to host the Games, and what we need to make it right for our city and our neighbourhood, we feel confident that the coming years we’ll be able to do that and certainly can show the IOC that we have the necessary guarantees behind the village plan”.
Sandusky said that 22 of the 27 proposed Chicago 2016 venues already exist or will be temporary thereby reducing the cost of the project.
The PASO convention will be Chicago’s first official presentation. There are delegations in Acapulco from the other 2016 candidate cities who will also be making presentations – Rio de Janeiro, Madrid and Tokyo.
Sandusky said, “this is our first formal presentation. It’s something we take quite seriously and we think it’s a great opportunity”.
