The Olympics, they are great, everybody loves them, but do you love them in your city? Tomorrow we will see the details of Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympic Games. With the Olympics comes massive construction which will make it harder to travel around the city not only in 2016, but in the years leading up. However, this time inconvenience can be offset by the sense of pride having the Olympics would bring. The real question is the question of the year, where is the money coming from?
In the proposal we may learn how the city is coming up with the $500 million in private guarantees as well as the $1.1 billion needed to build the Olympic village. Mayor Daley has said that city taxes will not pay for the games and most funding will come from the federal government, but last month Daley said the city was willling to pay for extra police used to patrol the games as well as paying for extra barriers and protection. So in this time of sacrifice how much are we willing to sacrifice for our city and national pride? Are you hoping for a good proposal and a big win for the City of Chicago or are you praying that Madrid is as good at hosting an Olympics as they are at soccer?
Please leave your comments.
Comments (1)
I think the comment about "this time of sacrifice" assumes the games are coming this year and not in 2016. I doubt the recession will be lasting 7 years. The IOC is very careful about looking at the financing put in place by the host city. If they are satisfied, that should be reason enough for Chicago to be considered and hopefully win the bid.
Posted by Tom | February 13, 2009 7:30 AM
Posted on February 13, 2009 07:30