Chicago 2016 Olympic bid
Encyclopedia
The Chicago bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics and Paralympics was an unsuccessful campaign, first recognized by the International Olympic Committee
(IOC) on September 14, 2007. The IOC shortlisted four of the seven applicant cities—Madrid, Spain
; Tokyo, Japan
; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
; and Chicago
, United States
; over Baku, Azerbaijan
; Doha, Qatar
; and Prague, Czech Republic
—on June 4, 2008 during a meeting in Athens
, Greece
. This was followed by an intensive bidding process which finished with the election of Rio de Janeiro
at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen
, Denmark
, on October 2, 2009.
In Chicago's bid, the games would have been held from July 22 to August 7, with the Paralympics held between August 12 and August 28. The bid plan emphasized use of Chicago Park District
parks to host the games, but other existing facilities such as Soldier Field
and McCormick Place
would host events. The bid included a plan for North Side, Downtown Loop
and South Side
celebration locations that would have had massive, high-definition
LED
screens for unticketed visitors. The bid noted that there was a very high concentration of event locations and training facilities very close to each other and that the majority of event sites were clustered together. Thus, the vast majority of athletes would have been close to their competitions.
Chicago earned a general score of 7.0 during the Applicant phase, after a detailed study of the Applicant Files received by the IOC Working Group on January 14, 2008. Between April 4 and April 7, 2009, the IOC Evaluation Commission, led by Nawal El Moutawakel
, arrived in Chicago to assess the conditions of the city. The Commission attended technical presentations, participated in question-and-answer sessions about the Candidature File and made inspections in all the existing venues across the city. Though considered a favorite entering the voting process, and despite personal appeals from such high-profile Chicagoans as U.S. President
Barack Obama
, Michelle Obama
, Hillary Rodham Clinton
, and Oprah Winfrey
, Chicago was eliminated on the first ballot in IOC voting on October 2, 2009. Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting with only 18 votes in a three-round exhaustive ballot
of the IOC.
The United States Olympic Committee
(USOC) selected Chicago over Houston, Los Angeles
, Philadelphia and San Francisco, as its candidate city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics
and Paralympics
on April 14, 2007. This is the city's third failure, after two failed attempts for the 1952
and the 1956 Summer Olympics
. Numerous Olympic Games
in North America, including the 2010 Winter Olympics
in Vancouver
, Canada
, hurt Chicago's bid. It would have been the ninth Olympics hosted in the United States, after the 1904
, 1932
, 1984
and 1996 Summer Olympics
; and the 1932
, 1960
, 1980
and 2002 Winter Olympics
.
, Houston, Los Angeles
, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The USOC's chairman at the time, Peter Ueberroth
, visited all potential host cities during April and May 2006. He visited Chicago on May 10. On July 26, 2006, the United States Olympic Committee
(USOC) narrowed its list of American applicant cities to three: Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. San Francisco withdrew its application on November 13, 2006 after the San Francisco 49ers
pulled out of a deal for the construction of a new stadium that would be the centerpiece of the games.
The final stage of the USOC internal selection occurred on April 14, 2007, at Washington, D.C.
's Embassy Row Hotel, where the two remaining bid cities, Chicago and Los Angeles, made a last 40-minute presentation to the USOC board members. At about 9:00 pm UTC, Chicago was announced as the winner of the United States bid for the 2016 Olympic Games
by Ueberroth.
Chicago has had prior experience with Olympic bids. In 1901, the city was unanimously chosen by the IOC to stage the 1904 Summer Olympics
, but the Games were moved to St. Louis
to coincide with the 1904 World's Fair
. Chicago also bid for the 1952
and 1956 Summer Olympics
, without success. Mayor of Chicago
Richard M. Daley
visited Beijing
– host city of the 2008 Summer Olympics
– on May 15, 2006, where he collected information on hosting. The bidding process for the 2016 Olympic Games was officially launched on May 16, 2007.
In June 2007, Olympic bid committee Chairman and CEO, Patrick G. Ryan announced that David P. Bolger was appointed chief operating officer and Rick Ludwig as chief financial officer.
The Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee announced the details of the Olympic bid application on January 15, 2008. 22 of the 27 Olympic venues will be in four clusters within 15 km of the Olympic Village
. Five new venues and eleven temporary venues would have been built for the games at a cost $49.3 million; these construction costs, and the costs of the games were to be borne by the private sector
, with the government financing the infrastructure
.
The bid committee filed a 600-page candidacy file with the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland on February 12, 2009. The file responded to 227 questions given to each candidate city. On February 13, the candidacy file with the final version of Chicago's 2016 Olympic plan was publicly released.
Chicago's bid was supported by major preliminary corporate commitments, philanthropic efforts by wealthy Chicagoans, promised planning participation by a wide range of community and government leaders, and the enthusiasm of the citizenry
. Local support for the bid on the South Side
, particularly in the Washington Park and Woodlawn
community areas
, was divided. Ben Joravsky, a Chicago Reader columnist, was one of the strongest critics of the Chicago 2016 bid. However, 2007 opinion polls indicated 76 percent public support. In 2009, as the final selection approached, opponents of the bid became vocal even though organizers seemed to be pleased with the bid's progress and presentation. Peter Ueberroth stated, "Chicago is going in the right direction, and we are impressed by that."
Long-time Chicago resident and current President of the United States
Barack Obama
was a supporter of Chicago's bid since its inception and noted his support during his Presidential election victory speech in Grant Park
. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama traveled to Denmark to support Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Michael Jordan
was an unofficial spokesman for Chicago's bid. Chicago media mogul Oprah Winfrey
and Olympic champion Michael Phelps
had been widely promoting the bid since the 2008 Summer Olympics
.
The bid plan emphasized use of Chicago Park District parks (Washington Park
, Burnham Park
, Lincoln Park
, Douglas Park
and Grant Park). In addition, existing facilities such as Soldier Field
and McCormick Place
would have hosted events. In addition to the event sites, the bid included North side, downtown Loop and South Side celebration locations in Lincoln and Grant Parks as well as the Midway Plaisance
respectively that would have had JumboTrons for unticketed visitors. The bid noted the high concentration of event locations; the majority of event sites would have been clustered together.
of Aon Corporation, part-owner of the Chicago Bears
, to lead the city's bid process, especially in areas of corporate participation in fundraising.
Mayor Daley said on May 10, 2006 that the Olympics "cannot become a financial burden to the taxpayers of Chicago and Illinois." "The goal is to have the Olympics be totally privately funded and we have unparalleled support from the business community," a mayoral spokeswoman said in July 2006. Daley insisted that no tax money would be used to pay for the city to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and said funding from the private sector and federal dollars for security and infrastructure would cover the costs. "Tax money isn't paying for it," Daley said on February 7, 2009. "The federal government pays for security, which is the highest cost of the Olympics ... The other thing they pay for is infrastructure ... There's no city tax money whatsoever ... We are very strong in that position ... in the regard to having that be sponsored by the private sector and others." In previous years, Daley opposed possible bids for the 2008
and 2012 Olympic Games
owing to former international committee financial-guarantee requirements. The 2016 financial guarantee requirements were not initially formalized.
Early cost estimates hovered at $
5 billion, with $1.1 billion for the lakeside Olympic Village and an additional estimated $366 million for a temporary 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium to be built in Washington Park. Nonetheless, the proposed budget was small in comparison to the Beijing Olympics, which are estimated to have cost $40 billion. Further, the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, initially budgeted to cost $2.4 billion, in fact cost $9 billion. On April 11, 2007, former Governor of Illinois
Rod Blagojevich
proposed $150 million in state funding to help secure the bid to the USOC for Chicago. Current Governor Pat Quinn
stated that he would be willing to support any funding necessary to secure the Olympics for Chicago. By April 14, over $35 million in cash and $13 million in goods had been pledged, including donations in excess of $100,000 from at least 225 individuals and corporations. Chicago had strong allies to pursue federal funds for security and transportation: U.S. Senator
Dick Durbin was the second in command among Democratic Senators as the Whip
, and former Senator Barack Obama had become the President of the United States
. The city announced a $500 million insurance policy against cost overruns and revenue shortfalls.
, United Center
, U.S. Cellular Field
, Wrigley Field
, Allstate Arena
in Rosemont
, Sears Centre
in Hoffman Estates
, and Toyota Park
in Bridgeview
. Venues at Loyola University Chicago
, Northwestern University
, the University of Chicago
, the University of Illinois at Chicago
, Chicago State University
, Northern Illinois University
, and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, among others, were also available and had been mentioned in early news reports as possibilities. Northerly Island
and the lakefront along Lake Michigan
would have hosted all beach and water events. The McCormick Place
convention center, the second largest in the world, was the planned venue for indoor events like judo
and weightlifting, as well as hosting all press offices, while Archery
and the medals podium were slated for Grant Park.
Preliminary soccer matches would have been played in several venues, of which a few were slated to have been temporarily renamed in line with the IOC prohibition against corporate naming rights
sponsorships to be used for venue names. These venues included the Meadowlands Stadium
(to be completed in 2010 with naming sponsor to be announced) in East Rutherford, New Jersey
; the Rose Bowl
in Pasadena, California
; Lincoln Financial Field
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (which would have been temporarily renamed "Philadelphia Field" for the Olympics); the Edward Jones Dome
in St. Louis, Missouri
("St. Louis Dome"); FedExField
in Landover, Maryland
("Landover Field"); and TCF Bank Stadium
("Minneapolis Stadium"), a new stadium which opened in September 2009 on the campus of the University of Minnesota
in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Swimming events were originally planned to be held in the West Side's Douglas Park, but in a December 2008 plan revision the swimming events would have moved to Washington Park and a velodrome
for track and BMX cycling events would have moved from Northerly Island
to Douglas Park. The Cycling hub will be in Madison, Wisconsin
.
While some venues might have changed at short notice, the Chicago 2016 Bid Book indicated that the following venues would have been permanently constructed: an Aquatic Center, the Olympic Stadium (to a limited long-term degree), a Canoe/Flatwater/Rowing area at Monroe Harbor, a Canoe/Kayak-Slalom Course, a velodrome
in Douglas Park, and Field Hockey Fields in Jackson Park.
to accommodate an approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) course for rowing
events. This would have enabled rowing competitions to take place on a course running from Northerly Island
to about Randolph Street. This course would have featured a picturesque Chicago Loop
skyline backdrop for television viewing, which by 2016 might have included the Chicago Spire, if it was completed. In order to accommodate the Olympics, all non-Olympic watercraft would have been required to vacate Monroe Harbor for a year. Canoeing events would have been held in the former location of Meigs Field
on Northerly Island
near the Adler Planetarium
. Historically, this site staged some venues for the 1933 World's Fair.
The Olympic Stadium would have been built in Washington Park
, a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places
in the Washington Park community area of the same name on the city's south side. Chicago initially proposed building a temporary 80,000-seat track
stadium adjacent to Soldier Field
and having the two stadiums host dual Opening and Closing Ceremonies. However, the final proposal called for a $366 million temporary stadium to be built in Washington Park. The stadium would have been replaced by a 10,000 seat multi-use venue after the games. The smaller post-Olympic stadium would have been more in line with public interest in restoring the historic park after the games. The new stadium would have featured a high-tech reflective sheathing material to accommodate huge TV picture projections on its outside walls. The temporary stadium would not have had concessions inside the stadium, unlike permanent local venues, although concessions were planned outside the stadium. The stadium would have featured a basic oval shape, but it would also have adhered to Olympic design rules which dictate that there must be an overhanging lip at one end to cover dignitaries and the media. IOC president Jacques Rogge
praised Chicago's design in November 2007 as a possible "blueprint for the future", reflecting the desire of the IOC to make the games both more affordable and to have a smaller ecological footprint on the host city.
and the Illinois Central Railroad
tracks in the Near South Side
and Douglas
community areas
. At the time, the parking lot was being used to stage events at McCormick Place. The village was slated to have pedway
s over Lake Shore Drive. This location was meant to enable 88% of the Olympic athletes to be within 15 minutes of their competition venue.
Initially, the Olympic Village was to be located entirely on the McCormick Place truck yards, but in November 2006, The Michael Reese Hospital
site became listed for sale. Planners determined that the Hospital site would likely have been superior in terms of lower cost and more successful urban planning
implementation. In November 2007, Mayor Daley announced a plan to acquire the 37 acres (149,733.8 m²) site, and the following June the hospital decided that it would cease operations. In July 2008 the city announced its official bid for the property: The city planned to borrow $85 million to buy the Michael Reese Hospital campus, near 31st and King Drive, from its current owner, Medline Industries. Medline would only get $65 million, because the company agreed to make a $20 million “charitable contribution” back to the city. The city would use that $20 million to pay up to five years of interest on its $85 million debt, demolish the hospital, and clean up the site. Then sometime in the next couple years it planned to sell the site for at least $85 million to a developer or developers, who in turn were expected to build a complex big enough to house about 15,000 Olympians. After the games the developer would sell or rent out the units.
In September 2008, the city realized it had underestimated demolition and environmental cleanup costs, which put the transaction at risk. Additionally in September the Associated Press
reported a recalcitrant property owner may force the hospital site to be abandoned. These problems needed resolution by the bid committee by February 2009, the date which bid books were due. That month, the city requested a renegotiation of terms and within a week Michael Reese hospital filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. In December 2008, new terms for the deal became public. Although original financing plans included no taxpayer funding, the late deal was only possible with $500 million of taxpayer participation via a guarantee by the city to cover possible revenue shortfall and $45 million for Chicago Police Department
costs. In addition, in early 2008, records were uncovered that show the campus of Michael Reese Hospital to have been designed, in large part, by one of the twentieth century's most well-respected modernist architects, Walter Gropius
. Thus, the plan for the Olympic Village battled the growing belief that preserving the old hospital campus would be better from an urban planning and historic preservation standpoint, and also rose questions about financing the village. In addition, the planned demolition of 28 buildings put the sustainability record the city was attempting to create in question.
of their home teams: the Chicago Bears
, Chicago Bulls
, Chicago Cubs
, Chicago White Sox
, Chicago Blackhawks
, Chicago Wolves
, and more recently, Chicago Sky
(WNBA), Chicago Fire, the Chicago Red Stars
(the new women's soccer team), and the Chicago Machine
. Other events such as the Chicago Marathon
, one of the five World Marathon Majors
, will also play a part in Chicago's Olympic-planning process.
Chicago has hosted major and historic world gatherings in the past, including the famous 1893 World's Columbian Exposition
, the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition
and the 1959 Pan American Games
, as well as matches for the 1994 FIFA World Cup
soccer tournament. Chicago has also hosted the most United States presidential nominating convention
s. Chicago was scheduled to host the 1904 Summer Olympics, but the games were instead relocated to St. Louis
to coincide with its Louisiana Purchase Exposition
, more commonly known as the Saint Louis World's Fair. Chicago was also the first host of the Special Olympics
in 1968.
More recently, Chicago hosted the Gay Games VII
in July 2006, and the 2007 AIBA Boxing Championships
in October 2007. The championships were a qualifying event for the 2008 Summer Olympics
and a chance for Chicago to showcase its staging skills to IOC members. AIBA head Dr. Ching-kuo Wu enthused the tournament was the "best ever", especially considering the short six-month lead time Chicago had to organize the games.
.
Chicago not only changed its logo, but relaunched its campaign. It changed its motto from "Stir the soul" to "Let friendship shine". Chicago used social media more than any other city bidding, and was keen to make 2016 a ‘New Media Olympics’. It established a number of groups on Facebook
, and on September 29, 2009 the bid's official page surpassed 100,000 members; it also used Flickr
and Twitter
.
Chicago City Council
alderman
Edward Burke
proposed that a fifth star be added to the Flag of Chicago if the city won its bid for the Olympic games in 2016.
, which operates a vast network of buses and elevated/subway 'L'
trains, and the Metra
and South Shore Line
commuter rail services that connects more than 230 suburban destinations to Chicago. These transportation options would have allowed public transit access to the Games for city residents and people throughout northeastern Illinois into northern Indiana and southern Wisconsin.
Chicago's main airport, O'Hare International Airport
is the second-busiest airport in the world. The Chicago region is served by two other major commercial airports, Midway and Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport
, along with several smaller airports. The city is served by all major worldwide airlines, and O'Hare is an international hub for both American
and United Airlines
, while Midway is a hub for domestic carrier Southwest Airlines
. There is also a considerable network of rail lines and interstate highways in the region. Chicago has over 30,000 hotel rooms in the immediate downtown area alone, and it has the largest skilled-labor workforce in the US catering to conventions and other large-scale media events.
Chicago is in the Central Time Zone
(UTC -5 during the summer months), which is very is well-suited to North American television coverage. The NBC
television network with its sister cable broadcasters is by far the largest media vendor and contract purchaser of the Olympic Games.
controversies arose for "Chicago2016.com" and "Tokyo2016.com", when both were registered in 2004 by entrepreneur Stephen Frayne, Jr., an MBA student at the Kellogg School of Management
; he also claimed around 40 other domain names whose city/year format mimicked the way Olympic Games are marketed. Frayne's stated intent for the site was a "comprehensive, balanced discussion" of the benefits and pitfalls of holding the Olympics in Chicago; the Chicago 2016 committee contended that his real intent was to profit from cybersquatting
. The Chicago Olympic bid organization, which had been using Chicago2016.org as its official web site, sought control of Chicago2016.com through a complaint filed with an international arbitration organization. Attempts by the USOC to have the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO) release the names have failed. Frayne sued in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, seeking an injunction against the arbitration proceedings. On September 25, 2008, the WIPO arbitration panel granted Frayne's motion
to suspend and terminate proceedings setting up a battle in the federal court in the Northern District of Illinois.
The Olympic bid candidature documentation published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) states that each bid must "...provide documentation indicating that appropriate measures have been taken to register domain names that are of value to your candidature such as '[City] 2016' followed by extensions .com .net .org as well as the country code concerned."
; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
was made on October 2, 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In 2007, USOC head Peter Ueberroth contended that Chicago was in "third or fourth place", with a need to focus more on the international relations rather than just having a stronger technical bid. In September 2009, the IOC gave a written evaluation of the venues, budgets, transportation plans and public support. Chicago's bid was not federally underwritten, unlike other bid cities, which concerned the IOC, given declining tax revenue during a major recession in the US economy. Nevertheless, with Chicago's strong hosting of the AIBA Boxing Championships
which exposed the city to many IOC members, the city was cited as a current favorite, and one member claimed the Games were "theirs to lose." Chicago also successfully hosted the 2006 Gay Games, another multinational sporting event. Both events were planned with short lead times.
In April 2009, the Chicago 2016 bid committee was the first of the four finalists to host the 13-member IOC Evaluation Commission. They presented twenty films to the committee. Among the video spokespersons were Hillary Rodham Clinton
(raised in suburban Chicago) and Michael Jordan. In addition to meeting with bid organizers, the IOC commission met with bid opposition groups when they visited. After the IOC commission left Chicago, the Chicago City Council
approved an Olympic Community Agreement ordinance that was drafted by Alderman Toni Preckwinkle
. The agreement committed 30 percent of Olympic Village units to affordable housing conversion and guarantees women and minorities a portion of Olympic-related contracts. Former Illinois Senate
President Emil Jones
derided the agreement as an inadequate deal. Some Chicago residents opposed to the Chicago bid, particularly because of the financial implications of the undertaking to Chicago residents, launched a website called "chicagoansforrio.com" to persuade the IOC to give the Olympics to Rio instead. In a public poll, Chicago residents were almost evenly divided on the bid, with 47% supporting and 45% not supporting.
, despite some high profile backers, such as US President Barack Obama
and Chicago-based television hostess Oprah Winfrey
, going to Copenhagen to support the bid.
Since balloting is secret and IOC members rarely share their voting tendencies, there has been much speculation as to why Chicago lost the Olympic bid so early in the process. Michelle Higgins on The New York Times
blog argued that overly restrictive passport
and visa
policy was one such reason. CBS 2 Chicago's website suggested that anti-Americanism
may have contributed. Bid CEO Patrick Ryan was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times
as saying "bloc voting" and assumptions by others in the IOC that Chicago had enough votes to make it to the second round of voting led to its early demise. The same article hinted at fractious relations, noted by The Seattle Times
, between the IOC and USOC over the corporate background of the USOC executives and the "inordinate" share of revenue that they receive.
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee is an international corporation based in Lausanne, Switzerland, created by Pierre de Coubertin on 23 June 1894 with Demetrios Vikelas as its first president...
(IOC) on September 14, 2007. The IOC shortlisted four of the seven applicant cities—Madrid, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; Tokyo, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
; and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
; over Baku, Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
; Doha, Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
; and Prague, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
—on June 4, 2008 during a meeting in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
. This was followed by an intensive bidding process which finished with the election of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
at the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, on October 2, 2009.
In Chicago's bid, the games would have been held from July 22 to August 7, with the Paralympics held between August 12 and August 28. The bid plan emphasized use of Chicago Park District
Chicago Park District
The Chicago Park District is the oldest and largest park district in the U.S.A, with a $385 million annual budget. It has the distinction of spending the most per capita on its parks, even more than Boston in terms of park expenses per capita...
parks to host the games, but other existing facilities such as Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
and McCormick Place
McCormick Place
McCormick Place is the largest convention center in the United States. It is made up of four interconnected buildings sited on and near the shore of Lake Michigan, about 4 km south of downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA. McCormick Place hosts numerous trade shows, including the Chicago Auto Show,...
would host events. The bid included a plan for North Side, Downtown Loop
Chicago Loop
The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...
and South Side
South Side (Chicago)
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...
celebration locations that would have had massive, high-definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
screens for unticketed visitors. The bid noted that there was a very high concentration of event locations and training facilities very close to each other and that the majority of event sites were clustered together. Thus, the vast majority of athletes would have been close to their competitions.
Chicago earned a general score of 7.0 during the Applicant phase, after a detailed study of the Applicant Files received by the IOC Working Group on January 14, 2008. Between April 4 and April 7, 2009, the IOC Evaluation Commission, led by Nawal El Moutawakel
Nawal El Moutawakel
Nawal El Moutawakel is a Moroccan hurdler, who won the inaugural women's 400 m hurdles event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming the first female Muslim born on the continent of Africa to become an Olympic champion. She was also the first Moroccan and the first woman from a Muslim...
, arrived in Chicago to assess the conditions of the city. The Commission attended technical presentations, participated in question-and-answer sessions about the Candidature File and made inspections in all the existing venues across the city. Though considered a favorite entering the voting process, and despite personal appeals from such high-profile Chicagoans as U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, Michelle Obama
Michelle Obama
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is the wife of the 44th and incumbent President of the United States, Barack Obama, and is the first African-American First Lady of the United States...
, Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
, and Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
, Chicago was eliminated on the first ballot in IOC voting on October 2, 2009. Chicago was eliminated in the first round of voting with only 18 votes in a three-round exhaustive ballot
Exhaustive ballot
The exhaustive ballot is a voting system used to elect a single winner. Under the exhaustive ballot the elector simply casts a single vote for his or her favorite candidate. However if no candidate is supported by an overall majority of votes then the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated...
of the IOC.
The United States Olympic Committee
United States Olympic Committee
The United States Olympic Committee is a non-profit organization that serves as the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States and coordinates the relationship between the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency and various...
(USOC) selected Chicago over Houston, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Philadelphia and San Francisco, as its candidate city to host the 2016 Summer Olympics
2016 Summer Olympics
The 2016 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, are a major international multi-sport event to be celebrated in the tradition of the Olympic Games, as governed by the International Olympic Committee...
and Paralympics
2016 Summer Paralympics
The 2016 Summer Paralympic Games will be the fifteenth Paralympics and will take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2016. The host city of the Games was announced at the 121st IOC Session held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on October 2, 2009.-Barra Cluster:* Olympic Aquatics Stadium - Swimming* Olympic...
on April 14, 2007. This is the city's third failure, after two failed attempts for the 1952
1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...
and the 1956 Summer Olympics
Bids for the 1956 Summer Olympics
The selection process for the 1956 Summer Olympics consisted of ten bids, and saw Melbourne be selected ahead of Buenos Aires, Los Angeles, Detroit, Mexico City, Chicago, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Montreal at the 43rd IOC Session in Rome, Italy, on 28 April 1949...
. Numerous Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
in North America, including the 2010 Winter Olympics
2010 Winter Olympics
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially the XXI Olympic Winter Games or the 21st Winter Olympics, were a major international multi-sport event held from February 12–28, 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with some events held in the suburbs of Richmond, West Vancouver and the University...
in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, hurt Chicago's bid. It would have been the ninth Olympics hosted in the United States, after the 1904
1904 Summer Olympics
The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States from 1 July 1904, to November 23, 1904, at what is now known as Francis Field on the campus of Washington University...
, 1932
1932 Summer Olympics
The 1932 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the X Olympiad, was a major world wide multi-athletic event which was celebrated in 1932 in Los Angeles, California, United States. No other cities made a bid to host these Olympics. Held during the worldwide Great Depression, many nations...
, 1984
1984 Summer Olympics
The 1984 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIII Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event held in Los Angeles, California, United States in 1984...
and 1996 Summer Olympics
1996 Summer Olympics
The 1996 Summer Olympics of Atlanta, officially known as the Games of the XXVI Olympiad and unofficially known as the Centennial Olympics, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia, United States....
; and the 1932
1932 Winter Olympics
The 1932 Winter Olympics, officially known as the III Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1932 in Lake Placid, New York, United States. The games opened on February 4 and closed on February 15. It would be the first winter olympics held in the United...
, 1960
1960 Winter Olympics
The 1960 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VIII Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event held between February 18 and 28, 1960 in Squaw Valley, California, United States. In 1955 at the 50th IOC meeting, the organizing committee made the surprise choice to award Squaw Valley as...
, 1980
1980 Winter Olympics
The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIII Olympic Winter Games, was a multi-sport event which was celebrated from 13 February through 24 February 1980 in Lake Placid, New York, United States of America. This was the second time the Upstate New York village hosted the Games, after 1932...
and 2002 Winter Olympics
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event that was celebrated in February 2002 in and around Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. Approximately 2,400 athletes from 77 nations participated in 78 events in fifteen disciplines, held throughout...
.
USOC city selection
Initially, five American cities vied for the 2016 Olympics: ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
, Houston, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. The USOC's chairman at the time, Peter Ueberroth
Peter Ueberroth
Peter Victor Ueberroth is an American executive. He served as the sixth Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1984 to 1989. He was recently the chairman of the United States Olympic Committee; he was replaced by Larry Probst in October 2008....
, visited all potential host cities during April and May 2006. He visited Chicago on May 10. On July 26, 2006, the United States Olympic Committee
United States Olympic Committee
The United States Olympic Committee is a non-profit organization that serves as the National Olympic Committee and National Paralympic Committee for the United States and coordinates the relationship between the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Agency and various...
(USOC) narrowed its list of American applicant cities to three: Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco. San Francisco withdrew its application on November 13, 2006 after the San Francisco 49ers
San Francisco 49ers
The San Francisco 49ers are a professional American football team based in San Francisco, California, playing in the West Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League . The team was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the All-America Football Conference and...
pulled out of a deal for the construction of a new stadium that would be the centerpiece of the games.
The final stage of the USOC internal selection occurred on April 14, 2007, at Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
's Embassy Row Hotel, where the two remaining bid cities, Chicago and Los Angeles, made a last 40-minute presentation to the USOC board members. At about 9:00 pm UTC, Chicago was announced as the winner of the United States bid for the 2016 Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...
by Ueberroth.
Bid details
1904 Summer Olympics
The 1904 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the III Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States from 1 July 1904, to November 23, 1904, at what is now known as Francis Field on the campus of Washington University...
, but the Games were moved to St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
to coincide with the 1904 World's Fair
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
. Chicago also bid for the 1952
1952 Summer Olympics
The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...
and 1956 Summer Olympics
1956 Summer Olympics
The 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was held in Melbourne, Australia, in 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, which could not be held in Australia due to quarantine regulations...
, without success. Mayor of Chicago
Mayor of Chicago
The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of Chicago, Illinois, the third largest city in the United States. He or she is charged with directing city departments and agencies, and with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council, appoints department and agency leaders.-Appointment...
Richard M. Daley
Richard M. Daley
Richard Michael Daley is a United States politician, member of the national and local Democratic Party, and former Mayor of Chicago, Illinois. He was elected mayor in 1989 and reelected in 1991, 1995, 1999, 2003, and 2007. He was the longest serving Chicago mayor, surpassing the tenure of his...
visited Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
– host city of the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
– on May 15, 2006, where he collected information on hosting. The bidding process for the 2016 Olympic Games was officially launched on May 16, 2007.
In June 2007, Olympic bid committee Chairman and CEO, Patrick G. Ryan announced that David P. Bolger was appointed chief operating officer and Rick Ludwig as chief financial officer.
The Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee announced the details of the Olympic bid application on January 15, 2008. 22 of the 27 Olympic venues will be in four clusters within 15 km of the Olympic Village
Olympic Village
An Olympic Village is an accommodation centre built for an Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials, athletic trainers, and other staff. Since the Munich Massacre at the 1972...
. Five new venues and eleven temporary venues would have been built for the games at a cost $49.3 million; these construction costs, and the costs of the games were to be borne by the private sector
Private sector
In economics, the private sector is that part of the economy, sometimes referred to as the citizen sector, which is run by private individuals or groups, usually as a means of enterprise for profit, and is not controlled by the state...
, with the government financing the infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
.
The bid committee filed a 600-page candidacy file with the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland on February 12, 2009. The file responded to 227 questions given to each candidate city. On February 13, the candidacy file with the final version of Chicago's 2016 Olympic plan was publicly released.
Chicago's bid was supported by major preliminary corporate commitments, philanthropic efforts by wealthy Chicagoans, promised planning participation by a wide range of community and government leaders, and the enthusiasm of the citizenry
Demographics of Chicago
During its first century as a city, Chicago grew at a rate that ranked among the fastest growing in the world. Within the span of forty years, the city's population grew from slightly under 30,000 to over 1 million by 1890...
. Local support for the bid on the South Side
South Side (Chicago)
The South Side is a major part of the City of Chicago, which is located in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Much of it has evolved from the city's incorporation of independent townships, such as Hyde Park Township which voted along with several other townships to be annexed in the June 29,...
, particularly in the Washington Park and Woodlawn
Woodlawn, Chicago
Woodlawn, located in the South Side of the City of Chicago, Illinois, USA, is one of 77 well defined Chicago community areas. It is bounded by Lake Michigan to the east, 60th Street to the north, Martin Luther King Drive to the west, and, mostly, 67th Street to the south...
community areas
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
, was divided. Ben Joravsky, a Chicago Reader columnist, was one of the strongest critics of the Chicago 2016 bid. However, 2007 opinion polls indicated 76 percent public support. In 2009, as the final selection approached, opponents of the bid became vocal even though organizers seemed to be pleased with the bid's progress and presentation. Peter Ueberroth stated, "Chicago is going in the right direction, and we are impressed by that."
Long-time Chicago resident and current President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
was a supporter of Chicago's bid since its inception and noted his support during his Presidential election victory speech in Grant Park
Grant Park (Chicago)
Grant Park, with between the downtown Chicago Loop and Lake Michigan, offers many different attractions in its large open space. The park is generally flat. It is also crossed by large boulevards and even a bed of sunken railroad tracks...
. President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama traveled to Denmark to support Chicago's bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan is a former American professional basketball player, active entrepreneur, and majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats...
was an unofficial spokesman for Chicago's bid. Chicago media mogul Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
and Olympic champion Michael Phelps
Michael Phelps
Michael Fred Phelps is an American swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medals—six gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, becoming the most successful athlete at both of these Olympic Games editions...
had been widely promoting the bid since the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
.
The bid plan emphasized use of Chicago Park District parks (Washington Park
Washington Park (Chicago park)
On December 6, 1879, former U.S. President Ulysses Grant took part in a tree planting ceremony in the park. A memorial boulder with a plaque commemorated the event. In the 1920s black semiprofessional baseball teams played at Washington Park...
, Burnham Park
Burnham Park (Chicago)
Burnham Park is a public park in Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The park, which lines along six miles of Lake Michigan shoreline, connects Grant Park at 14th st. to Jackson Park at 56th St. The of parkland is owned and managed by Chicago Park District. It was named for urban...
, Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park
Lincoln Park is an urban park in Chicago, which gave its name to the Lincoln Park, Chicago community area.Lincoln Park may also refer to:-Urban parks:*Lincoln Park , California*Lincoln Park, San Francisco, California...
, Douglas Park
Douglas Park (Chicago park)
Douglas Park is a large Chicago Park District park that also serves as a cultural and community center in Chicago, Illinois. It is named after the U.S. Senator Stephen A. Douglas, who died in 1861. Originally named South Park, its are in the North Lawndale community area of Chicago in Cook County,...
and Grant Park). In addition, existing facilities such as Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
and McCormick Place
McCormick Place
McCormick Place is the largest convention center in the United States. It is made up of four interconnected buildings sited on and near the shore of Lake Michigan, about 4 km south of downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA. McCormick Place hosts numerous trade shows, including the Chicago Auto Show,...
would have hosted events. In addition to the event sites, the bid included North side, downtown Loop and South Side celebration locations in Lincoln and Grant Parks as well as the Midway Plaisance
Midway Plaisance
The Midway Plaisance, also known locally as the Midway, is a park on the South Side of the city of Chicago, Illinois. It is one mile long by 220 yards wide and extends along 59th and 60th streets, joining Washington Park at its east end and Jackson Park at its west end. It divides the Hyde Park...
respectively that would have had JumboTrons for unticketed visitors. The bid noted the high concentration of event locations; the majority of event sites would have been clustered together.
Financing
Ueberroth and members of the national committee met with Daley on May 10, 2006, for the initial assessment. Daley appointed business executive Patrick G. RyanPat Ryan (executive)
Patrick G. Ryan is the founder and retired executive chairman of Aon Corporation. He served as the Chairman and CEO of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid committee. Following the unsuccessful 2016 Chicago bid, he founded Ryan Specialty Group as a holding company aimed at providing specialty services to...
of Aon Corporation, part-owner of the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, to lead the city's bid process, especially in areas of corporate participation in fundraising.
Mayor Daley said on May 10, 2006 that the Olympics "cannot become a financial burden to the taxpayers of Chicago and Illinois." "The goal is to have the Olympics be totally privately funded and we have unparalleled support from the business community," a mayoral spokeswoman said in July 2006. Daley insisted that no tax money would be used to pay for the city to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games and said funding from the private sector and federal dollars for security and infrastructure would cover the costs. "Tax money isn't paying for it," Daley said on February 7, 2009. "The federal government pays for security, which is the highest cost of the Olympics ... The other thing they pay for is infrastructure ... There's no city tax money whatsoever ... We are very strong in that position ... in the regard to having that be sponsored by the private sector and others." In previous years, Daley opposed possible bids for the 2008
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
and 2012 Olympic Games
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...
owing to former international committee financial-guarantee requirements. The 2016 financial guarantee requirements were not initially formalized.
Early cost estimates hovered at $
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
5 billion, with $1.1 billion for the lakeside Olympic Village and an additional estimated $366 million for a temporary 80,000 seat Olympic Stadium to be built in Washington Park. Nonetheless, the proposed budget was small in comparison to the Beijing Olympics, which are estimated to have cost $40 billion. Further, the 2004 Olympic games in Athens, initially budgeted to cost $2.4 billion, in fact cost $9 billion. On April 11, 2007, former Governor of Illinois
Governor of Illinois
The Governor of Illinois is the chief executive of the State of Illinois and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by popular suffrage of residents of the state....
Rod Blagojevich
Rod Blagojevich
Rod R. Blagojevich is an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat, Blagojevich was a State Representative before being elected to the United States House of Representatives representing parts of Chicago...
proposed $150 million in state funding to help secure the bid to the USOC for Chicago. Current Governor Pat Quinn
Pat Quinn (politician)
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Quinn III is the 41st and current Governor of Illinois. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Previously elected three times to statewide office, Quinn was the sitting lieutenant governor and became governor on January 29, 2009, when the previous governor, Rod Blagojevich,...
stated that he would be willing to support any funding necessary to secure the Olympics for Chicago. By April 14, over $35 million in cash and $13 million in goods had been pledged, including donations in excess of $100,000 from at least 225 individuals and corporations. Chicago had strong allies to pursue federal funds for security and transportation: U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
Dick Durbin was the second in command among Democratic Senators as the Whip
Assistant party leaders of the United States Senate
The Assistant Majority and Minority Leaders of the United States Senate are the second-ranking members of the party leadership of the United States Senate....
, and former Senator Barack Obama had become the President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. The city announced a $500 million insurance policy against cost overruns and revenue shortfalls.
Venues
Despite the current lack of an Olympic stadium, Chicago has dozens of existing sport venues: Soldier FieldSoldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
, United Center
United Center
The United Center is an indoor sports arena located in Chicago. It is named after its corporate sponsor, United Airlines. The United Center is home to both the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League...
, U.S. Cellular Field
U.S. Cellular Field
U.S. Cellular Field is a baseball ballpark in Chicago, Illinois. Owned by the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, it is the home of the Chicago White Sox of Major League Baseball's American League. The park opened for the 1991 season, after the White Sox had spent 81 years at old Comiskey Park...
, Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales...
, Allstate Arena
Allstate Arena
Allstate Arena is a multi-purpose arena, in Rosemont, Illinois.It is home to the Chicago Rush, of the Arena Football League, DePaul University's men's basketball team, the Chicago Wolves, of the AHL, and the Chicago Sky, of the WNBA.It is located near the intersection of Mannheim Road and...
in Rosemont
Rosemont, Illinois
Rosemont is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States located immediately northwest of Chicago. The village was incorporated in 1956, though it had been settled long before that...
, Sears Centre
Sears Centre
The Sears Centre is an 11,000-seat multi-purpose family entertainment, cultural and sports center in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, a northwest suburb, 25 miles from Chicago. The arena has 43 luxury suites on two separate levels...
in Hoffman Estates
Hoffman Estates, Illinois
Hoffman Estates is a northwestern suburb of Chicago in Illinois. The village is located primarily in Cook County with a small section in Kane County, Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the village population was 49,495 and estimated to be 52,520 in 2003...
, and Toyota Park
Toyota Park (Bridgeview)
Toyota Park is a soccer-specific stadium located at 71st Street and Harlem Avenue in Bridgeview, Illinois. It is the home stadium of the Chicago Fire Soccer Club, members of Major League Soccer . Toyota Park was developed at a cost of around $100 million. The facility opened June 11, 2006...
in Bridgeview
Bridgeview, Illinois
Bridgeview is a village in Cook County, Illinois in the United States. It is located approximately from the Chicago Loop. As of the 2010 census, the village population was 16,446...
. Venues at Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago
Loyola University Chicago is a private Jesuit research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1870 under the title St...
, Northwestern University
Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston and Chicago, Illinois, USA. Northwestern has eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools offering 124 undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees....
, the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, the University of Illinois at Chicago
University of Illinois at Chicago
The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, near the Chicago Loop...
, Chicago State University
Chicago State University
Chicago State University is a state university of the U.S. state of Illinois, located in Chicago.-History:Cook County Normal School was founded in 1867, largely through the initiative of John F. Eberhart, the Commissioner of Schools for Cook County...
, Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University
Northern Illinois University is a state university and research institution located in DeKalb, Illinois, with satellite centers in Hoffman Estates, Naperville, Rockford, and Oregon. It was originally founded as Northern Illinois State Normal School on May 22, 1895 by Illinois Governor John P...
, and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, among others, were also available and had been mentioned in early news reports as possibilities. Northerly Island
Northerly Island
Northerly Island is a man-made peninsula along Chicago's lakefront. The site of the Adler Planetarium, Northerly Island connects to the mainland through a narrow isthmus along Solidarity Drive dominated by Neoclassical sculptures of Kościuszko, Havliček and Copernicus...
and the lakefront along Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...
would have hosted all beach and water events. The McCormick Place
McCormick Place
McCormick Place is the largest convention center in the United States. It is made up of four interconnected buildings sited on and near the shore of Lake Michigan, about 4 km south of downtown Chicago, Illinois, USA. McCormick Place hosts numerous trade shows, including the Chicago Auto Show,...
convention center, the second largest in the world, was the planned venue for indoor events like judo
Judo
is a modern martial art and combat sport created in Japan in 1882 by Jigoro Kano. Its most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the object is to either throw or takedown one's opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue one's opponent with a grappling maneuver, or force an...
and weightlifting, as well as hosting all press offices, while Archery
Archery
Archery is the art, practice, or skill of propelling arrows with the use of a bow, from Latin arcus. Archery has historically been used for hunting and combat; in modern times, however, its main use is that of a recreational activity...
and the medals podium were slated for Grant Park.
Preliminary soccer matches would have been played in several venues, of which a few were slated to have been temporarily renamed in line with the IOC prohibition against corporate naming rights
Naming rights
In the private sector, naming rights are a financial transaction whereby a corporation or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, typically for a defined period of time. For properties like a multi-purpose arena, performing arts venue or an athletic field, the term ranges from three...
sponsorships to be used for venue names. These venues included the Meadowlands Stadium
Meadowlands Stadium
Meadowlands Stadium is a multi-use stadium in Soweto, Gauteng, South Africa. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home venue of Soweto Panthers F.C. in the Vodacom League. It was built in 2008 for the 2010 World Cup....
(to be completed in 2010 with naming sponsor to be announced) in East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford, New Jersey
East Rutherford is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough population was 8,913. It is an inner-ring suburb of New York City, located west of Midtown Manhattan....
; the Rose Bowl
Rose Bowl (stadium)
The Rose Bowl is an outdoor athletic stadium in Pasadena, California, U.S., in Los Angeles County. The stadium is the site of the annual college football bowl game, the Rose Bowl, held on New Year's Day. In 1982, it became the home field of the UCLA Bruins college football team of the Pac-12...
in Pasadena, California
Pasadena, California
Pasadena is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Although famous for hosting the annual Rose Bowl football game and Tournament of Roses Parade, Pasadena is the home to many scientific and cultural institutions, including the California Institute of Technology , the Jet...
; Lincoln Financial Field
Lincoln Financial Field
Lincoln Financial Field is the home stadium of the National Football League's Philadelphia Eagles. It has a seating capacity of 68,532 . It is located in South Philadelphia on Pattison Avenue between 11th and 10th streets, also aside I-95 as part of the South Philadelphia Sports Complex...
in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (which would have been temporarily renamed "Philadelphia Field" for the Olympics); the Edward Jones Dome
Edward Jones Dome
The Edward Jones Dome The Edward Jones Dome The Edward Jones Dome (more formally known as the Edward Jones Dome at America's Center, and previously known as The Trans World Dome (from 1995–2001) is a multi-purpose stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, and home of the St. Louis Rams of the NFL. It was...
in St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
("St. Louis Dome"); FedExField
FedExField
FedExField is a football stadium located in an unincorporated area near the Capital Beltway in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, near the site of the old Capital Centre . FedExField is the home of the Washington Redskins football team...
in Landover, Maryland
Landover, Maryland
Landover is an unincorporated community in Prince George's County, Maryland, United States, within the census-designated place of Greater Landover. The Prince Georges County Sports and Learning Complex is in Landover...
("Landover Field"); and TCF Bank Stadium
TCF Bank Stadium
TCF Bank Stadium, sometimes referred to as either "The Bank" or "The Gopher Hole," is the football stadium for the Minnesota Golden Gophers college football team at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
("Minneapolis Stadium"), a new stadium which opened in September 2009 on the campus of the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Swimming events were originally planned to be held in the West Side's Douglas Park, but in a December 2008 plan revision the swimming events would have moved to Washington Park and a velodrome
Velodrome
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...
for track and BMX cycling events would have moved from Northerly Island
Northerly Island
Northerly Island is a man-made peninsula along Chicago's lakefront. The site of the Adler Planetarium, Northerly Island connects to the mainland through a narrow isthmus along Solidarity Drive dominated by Neoclassical sculptures of Kościuszko, Havliček and Copernicus...
to Douglas Park. The Cycling hub will be in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
.
While some venues might have changed at short notice, the Chicago 2016 Bid Book indicated that the following venues would have been permanently constructed: an Aquatic Center, the Olympic Stadium (to a limited long-term degree), a Canoe/Flatwater/Rowing area at Monroe Harbor, a Canoe/Kayak-Slalom Course, a velodrome
Velodrome
A velodrome is an arena for track cycling. Modern velodromes feature steeply banked oval tracks, consisting of two 180-degree circular bends connected by two straights...
in Douglas Park, and Field Hockey Fields in Jackson Park.
Rowing
The Monroe Harbor would have been enlarged with a $60-million breakwaterBreakwater (structure)
Breakwaters are structures constructed on coasts as part of coastal defence or to protect an anchorage from the effects of weather and longshore drift.-Purposes of breakwaters:...
to accommodate an approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) course for rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
events. This would have enabled rowing competitions to take place on a course running from Northerly Island
Northerly Island
Northerly Island is a man-made peninsula along Chicago's lakefront. The site of the Adler Planetarium, Northerly Island connects to the mainland through a narrow isthmus along Solidarity Drive dominated by Neoclassical sculptures of Kościuszko, Havliček and Copernicus...
to about Randolph Street. This course would have featured a picturesque Chicago Loop
Chicago Loop
The Loop or Chicago Loop is one of 77 officially designated Chicago community areas located in the City of Chicago, Illinois. It is the historic commercial center of downtown Chicago...
skyline backdrop for television viewing, which by 2016 might have included the Chicago Spire, if it was completed. In order to accommodate the Olympics, all non-Olympic watercraft would have been required to vacate Monroe Harbor for a year. Canoeing events would have been held in the former location of Meigs Field
Meigs Field
Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport , was a single strip airport that operated from December 1948 until March 2003. It was built on Northerly Island, the man-made peninsula that was also the site of the 1933–1934 Century of Progress in Chicago....
on Northerly Island
Northerly Island
Northerly Island is a man-made peninsula along Chicago's lakefront. The site of the Adler Planetarium, Northerly Island connects to the mainland through a narrow isthmus along Solidarity Drive dominated by Neoclassical sculptures of Kościuszko, Havliček and Copernicus...
near the Adler Planetarium
Adler Planetarium
The Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum in Chicago, Illinois was the first planetarium built in the Western Hemisphere and is the oldest in existence today. Adler was founded and built in 1930 by the philanthropist Max Adler, with the assistance of the first director of the planetarium, Philip Fox...
. Historically, this site staged some venues for the 1933 World's Fair.
Stadium
Washington Park (Chicago park)
On December 6, 1879, former U.S. President Ulysses Grant took part in a tree planting ceremony in the park. A memorial boulder with a plaque commemorated the event. In the 1920s black semiprofessional baseball teams played at Washington Park...
, a site listed on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
in the Washington Park community area of the same name on the city's south side. Chicago initially proposed building a temporary 80,000-seat track
Track and field
Track and field is a sport comprising various competitive athletic contests based around the activities of running, jumping and throwing. The name of the sport derives from the venue for the competitions: a stadium which features an oval running track surrounding a grassy area...
stadium adjacent to Soldier Field
Soldier Field
Soldier Field is located on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, Illinois, United States, in the Near South Side. It is home to the NFL's Chicago Bears...
and having the two stadiums host dual Opening and Closing Ceremonies. However, the final proposal called for a $366 million temporary stadium to be built in Washington Park. The stadium would have been replaced by a 10,000 seat multi-use venue after the games. The smaller post-Olympic stadium would have been more in line with public interest in restoring the historic park after the games. The new stadium would have featured a high-tech reflective sheathing material to accommodate huge TV picture projections on its outside walls. The temporary stadium would not have had concessions inside the stadium, unlike permanent local venues, although concessions were planned outside the stadium. The stadium would have featured a basic oval shape, but it would also have adhered to Olympic design rules which dictate that there must be an overhanging lip at one end to cover dignitaries and the media. IOC president Jacques Rogge
Jacques Rogge
Jacques Rogge, Count Rogge , is a Belgian sports bureaucrat. He is the eighth and current President of the International Olympic Committee .-Life and career:...
praised Chicago's design in November 2007 as a possible "blueprint for the future", reflecting the desire of the IOC to make the games both more affordable and to have a smaller ecological footprint on the host city.
Olympic Village
The Olympic Village for housing athletes during the games would have been a $1.1-billion series of newly constructed lakefront buildings that would have been converted to rental and condominium units after the games. The village was to be located immediately south of McCormick Place, which was expected to host 11 event venues, on a current truck parking lot between South Lake Shore DriveLake Shore Drive
Lake Shore Drive is a mostly freeway-standard expressway running parallel with and alongside the shoreline of Lake Michigan through Chicago, Illinois, USA. Except for the portion north of Foster Avenue , Lake Shore Drive is designated as part of U.S...
and the Illinois Central Railroad
Illinois Central Railroad
The Illinois Central Railroad , sometimes called the Main Line of Mid-America, is a railroad in the central United States, with its primary routes connecting Chicago, Illinois with New Orleans, Louisiana and Birmingham, Alabama. A line also connected Chicago with Sioux City, Iowa...
tracks in the Near South Side
Near South Side, Chicago
The Near South Side is a community area of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is located just south of the downtown central business district, the Loop, which is itself a community area...
and Douglas
Douglas, Chicago
Douglas, located on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois is one of 77 well-defined Chicago community areas. The neighborhood is named for Stephen A. Douglas, a famous Illinois politician, whose estate included a tract of land given to the federal government...
community areas
Community areas of Chicago
Community areas in Chicago refers to the work of the Social Science Research Committee at University of Chicago which has unofficially divided the City of Chicago into 77 community areas. These areas are well-defined and static...
. At the time, the parking lot was being used to stage events at McCormick Place. The village was slated to have pedway
Pedway
Pedways are elevated or underground walkways, often connecting urban high-rises to each other, other buildings, or the street. They provide quick and comfortable movement from building to building, away from traffic and inclement weather. Two of the largest networks of underground walkways are...
s over Lake Shore Drive. This location was meant to enable 88% of the Olympic athletes to be within 15 minutes of their competition venue.
Initially, the Olympic Village was to be located entirely on the McCormick Place truck yards, but in November 2006, The Michael Reese Hospital
Michael Reese Hospital
Michael Reese Hospital and Medical Center was an American hospital founded in 1881. In its heyday, it was a major research and teaching hospital and one of the oldest and largest hospitals in Chicago, Illinois. It was located on the near south side of Chicago, next to Lake Shore Drive Michael...
site became listed for sale. Planners determined that the Hospital site would likely have been superior in terms of lower cost and more successful urban planning
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
implementation. In November 2007, Mayor Daley announced a plan to acquire the 37 acres (149,733.8 m²) site, and the following June the hospital decided that it would cease operations. In July 2008 the city announced its official bid for the property: The city planned to borrow $85 million to buy the Michael Reese Hospital campus, near 31st and King Drive, from its current owner, Medline Industries. Medline would only get $65 million, because the company agreed to make a $20 million “charitable contribution” back to the city. The city would use that $20 million to pay up to five years of interest on its $85 million debt, demolish the hospital, and clean up the site. Then sometime in the next couple years it planned to sell the site for at least $85 million to a developer or developers, who in turn were expected to build a complex big enough to house about 15,000 Olympians. After the games the developer would sell or rent out the units.
In September 2008, the city realized it had underestimated demolition and environmental cleanup costs, which put the transaction at risk. Additionally in September the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
reported a recalcitrant property owner may force the hospital site to be abandoned. These problems needed resolution by the bid committee by February 2009, the date which bid books were due. That month, the city requested a renegotiation of terms and within a week Michael Reese hospital filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. In December 2008, new terms for the deal became public. Although original financing plans included no taxpayer funding, the late deal was only possible with $500 million of taxpayer participation via a guarantee by the city to cover possible revenue shortfall and $45 million for Chicago Police Department
Chicago Police Department
The Chicago Police Department, also known as the CPD, is the principal law enforcement agency of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Chicago. It is the largest police department in the Midwest and the second largest local law enforcement agency in the...
costs. In addition, in early 2008, records were uncovered that show the campus of Michael Reese Hospital to have been designed, in large part, by one of the twentieth century's most well-respected modernist architects, Walter Gropius
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius was a German architect and founder of the Bauhaus School who, along with Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier, is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modern architecture....
. Thus, the plan for the Olympic Village battled the growing belief that preserving the old hospital campus would be better from an urban planning and historic preservation standpoint, and also rose questions about financing the village. In addition, the planned demolition of 28 buildings put the sustainability record the city was attempting to create in question.
Sports culture
Chicago benefited from a strong sports culture. On August 1, 2006, it was named Best Sports City in the US by Sporting News. Chicagoans are famous for their rabid supportBill Swerski's Superfans
Bill Swerski's Superfans was a recurring sketch about Chicago sports fans on the American sketch comedy program Saturday Night Live. It was a prominent feature from 1991–1992, and its characters have made various other appearances since its inception....
of their home teams: the Chicago Bears
Chicago Bears
The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the North Division of the National Football Conference in the National Football League...
, Chicago Bulls
Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois, playing in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was founded in 1966. They play their home games at the United Center...
, Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
, Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
, Chicago Blackhawks
Chicago Blackhawks
The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...
, Chicago Wolves
Chicago Wolves
The Chicago Wolves are a professional hockey team playing in the American Hockey League. They are the top affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL. The Wolves play home games at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois...
, and more recently, Chicago Sky
Chicago Sky
The Chicago Sky is a professional basketball team based in Rosemont, Illinois, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded before the 2006 WNBA season began. The team is owned by Michael J. Alter and Margaret Stender...
(WNBA), Chicago Fire, the Chicago Red Stars
Chicago Red Stars
The Chicago Red Stars are a American professional soccer club that is based in the Chicago suburb of Lisle, Illinois that participates in the Women's Premier Soccer League. From 2009-2010, the Red Stars played their home games at Toyota Park in the Womens Professional Soccer...
(the new women's soccer team), and the Chicago Machine
Chicago Machine
The Chicago Machine is a mens field lacrosse team that plays in Major League Lacrosse that was based in Chicago, Illinois until the franchise left after the 2009 season to be a travel team in 2010. The team then transferred its roster to the reborn Rochester Rattlers on November 23, 2010 when it...
. Other events such as the Chicago Marathon
Chicago Marathon
The Bank of America Chicago Marathon is a major marathon held yearly in Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Alongside the Boston, New York, London and Berlin Marathons, it is one of the five World Marathon Majors. Thus, it is also an IAAF Gold Label race...
, one of the five World Marathon Majors
World Marathon Majors
The World Marathon Majors is a championship-style competition for marathon runners that started in 2006. It comprises five annual races for the cities of Berlin, Boston, Chicago, London, and New York City. Two other races are also included in the series: the IAAF World Championships Marathon and...
, will also play a part in Chicago's Olympic-planning process.
Experience
World's Columbian Exposition
The World's Columbian Exposition was a World's Fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. Chicago bested New York City; Washington, D.C.; and St...
, the 1933 Century of Progress Exposition
Century of Progress
A Century of Progress International Exposition was the name of a World's Fair held in Chicago from 1933 to 1934 to celebrate the city's centennial. The theme of the fair was technological innovation...
and the 1959 Pan American Games
1959 Pan American Games
The 3rd Pan American Games opened on August 27, 1959 in sunny 90°F heat before 40,000 people in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The first Pan American Games held in North America, they were originally scheduled for Cleveland, Ohio, but the U.S. Congress’s decision to cut $5,000,000 in federal...
, as well as matches for the 1994 FIFA World Cup
1994 FIFA World Cup
The 1994 FIFA World Cup, the 15th staging of the FIFA World Cup, was held in nine cities across the United States from June 17 to July 17, 1994. The United States was chosen as the host by FIFA on July 4, 1988...
soccer tournament. Chicago has also hosted the most United States presidential nominating convention
United States presidential nominating convention
A United States presidential nominating convention is a political convention held every four years in the United States by most of the political parties who will be fielding nominees in the upcoming U.S. presidential election...
s. Chicago was scheduled to host the 1904 Summer Olympics, but the games were instead relocated to St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
to coincide with its Louisiana Purchase Exposition
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
, more commonly known as the Saint Louis World's Fair. Chicago was also the first host of the Special Olympics
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 3.1 million athletes in 175 countries....
in 1968.
More recently, Chicago hosted the Gay Games VII
Gay Games VII
The 2006 Gay Games , colloquially called the Chicago Gaymes, is part of a family of international sports and cultural festivals called Gay Games, sanctioned by the Federation of Gay Games and organized by the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community of the host city of Chicago, Illinois in the...
in July 2006, and the 2007 AIBA Boxing Championships
2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships
The 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships were held in Chicago, United States from October 23, 2007 to November 3, 2007. It was held at the UIC Pavilion. It was the biggest World Championships in AIBA history. The championships were originally awarded to Moscow...
in October 2007. The championships were a qualifying event for the 2008 Summer Olympics
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...
and a chance for Chicago to showcase its staging skills to IOC members. AIBA head Dr. Ching-kuo Wu enthused the tournament was the "best ever", especially considering the short six-month lead time Chicago had to organize the games.
Logo
On May 16, 2007, Chicago was informed that its logo, a representation of a torch with the flames reminiscent of Chicago's skyline, violated IOC rules against using Olympic torch imagery. Bidding rules prohibit logos containing the Olympic symbol, motto, flag or other imagery including a flame, torch or medal. Chicago agreed to revise the logo. The current redesigned logo was released on September 19, 2007. Using the same color palette, a unique six-pointed Chicago star represents a compass pointing in all directions reaching out to the world. Each point represents an Olympic value: Hope, Respect, Harmony, Friendship, Excellence and Celebration. The warm colors initially represented in the flame (or top) of the image refer to the sun, the cool colors represent the green parklands and blue waters of Lake Michigan. Initially beneath the logo were the words "Applicant City". Both logos were designed by Chicago-based design firm VSA PartnersVSA Partners
VSA Partners is an independent branding firm. VSA Partners is headquartered in Chicago, IL with offices in Minneapolis, MN and New York, NY. The firm was founded in 1982 by Robert Vogele as Communication Design Group...
.
Chicago not only changed its logo, but relaunched its campaign. It changed its motto from "Stir the soul" to "Let friendship shine". Chicago used social media more than any other city bidding, and was keen to make 2016 a ‘New Media Olympics’. It established a number of groups on Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
, and on September 29, 2009 the bid's official page surpassed 100,000 members; it also used Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
.
Chicago City Council
Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms...
alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
Edward Burke
Ed Burke
Edward M. Burke is alderman of the 14th Ward of the City of Chicago. A member of the Democratic Party, he was first elected to the Chicago City Council in 1969, and represents part of the city's Southwest Side. Burke has been called Chicago's "most powerful alderman" by the Chicago Sun-Times...
proposed that a fifth star be added to the Flag of Chicago if the city won its bid for the Olympic games in 2016.
Bid factors
The bid relied on Chicago's strength in medical services and doping control, security, accommodations, transportation, technology and media operations. The city's transportation infrastructure includes the Chicago Transit AuthorityChicago Transit Authority
Chicago Transit Authority, also known as CTA, is the operator of mass transit within the City of Chicago, Illinois and some of its surrounding suburbs....
, which operates a vast network of buses and elevated/subway 'L'
Chicago 'L'
The L is the rapid transit system serving the city of Chicago and some of its surrounding suburbs. It is operated by the Chicago Transit Authority...
trains, and the Metra
Metra
Metra is the commuter rail division of the Illinois Regional Transportation Authority. The system serves Chicago and its metropolitan area through 240 stations on 11 different rail lines. Throughout the 21st century, Metra has been the second busiest commuter rail system in the United States by...
and South Shore Line
South Shore Line (NICTD)
The South Shore Line is an electrically powered interurban commuter rail line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District between Millennium Station in downtown Chicago and the South Bend Regional Airport in South Bend, Indiana...
commuter rail services that connects more than 230 suburban destinations to Chicago. These transportation options would have allowed public transit access to the Games for city residents and people throughout northeastern Illinois into northern Indiana and southern Wisconsin.
Chicago's main airport, O'Hare International Airport
O'Hare International Airport
Chicago O'Hare International Airport , also known as O'Hare Airport, O'Hare Field, Chicago Airport, Chicago International Airport, or simply O'Hare, is a major airport located in the northwestern-most corner of Chicago, Illinois, United States, northwest of the Chicago Loop...
is the second-busiest airport in the world. The Chicago region is served by two other major commercial airports, Midway and Milwaukee's General Mitchell International Airport
General Mitchell International Airport
General Mitchell International Airport is a county-owned public airport located five miles south of the central business district of Milwaukee, a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States....
, along with several smaller airports. The city is served by all major worldwide airlines, and O'Hare is an international hub for both American
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
and United Airlines
United Airlines
United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees United Air Lines, Inc., is the world's largest airline with 86,852 employees (which includes the entire holding company United Continental...
, while Midway is a hub for domestic carrier Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines
Southwest Airlines Co. is an American low-cost airline based in Dallas, Texas. Southwest is the largest airline in the United States, based upon domestic passengers carried,...
. There is also a considerable network of rail lines and interstate highways in the region. Chicago has over 30,000 hotel rooms in the immediate downtown area alone, and it has the largest skilled-labor workforce in the US catering to conventions and other large-scale media events.
Chicago is in the Central Time Zone
Central Time zone
In North America, the Central Time Zone refers to national time zones which observe standard time by subtracting six hours from UTC , and daylight saving, or summer time by subtracting five hours...
(UTC -5 during the summer months), which is very is well-suited to North American television coverage. The NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
television network with its sister cable broadcasters is by far the largest media vendor and contract purchaser of the Olympic Games.
Domain name dispute
TrademarkTrademark
A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...
controversies arose for "Chicago2016.com" and "Tokyo2016.com", when both were registered in 2004 by entrepreneur Stephen Frayne, Jr., an MBA student at the Kellogg School of Management
Kellogg School of Management
The Kellogg School of Management is the business school of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, downtown Chicago, Illinois and Miami, Florida. Kellogg offers full-time, part-time, and executive programs, as well as partnering programs with schools in China, India, Hong Kong, Israel,...
; he also claimed around 40 other domain names whose city/year format mimicked the way Olympic Games are marketed. Frayne's stated intent for the site was a "comprehensive, balanced discussion" of the benefits and pitfalls of holding the Olympics in Chicago; the Chicago 2016 committee contended that his real intent was to profit from cybersquatting
Cybersquatting
Cybersquatting , according to the United States federal law known as the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act, is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else...
. The Chicago Olympic bid organization, which had been using Chicago2016.org as its official web site, sought control of Chicago2016.com through a complaint filed with an international arbitration organization. Attempts by the USOC to have the World Intellectual Property Organization
World Intellectual Property Organization
The World Intellectual Property Organization is one of the 17 specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 "to encourage creative activity, to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world"....
(WIPO) release the names have failed. Frayne sued in the U.S. District Court in Chicago, seeking an injunction against the arbitration proceedings. On September 25, 2008, the WIPO arbitration panel granted Frayne's motion
Motion (legal)
In law, a motion is a procedural device to bring a limited, contested issue before a court for decision. A motion may be thought of as a request to the judge to make a decision about the case. Motions may be made at any point in administrative, criminal or civil proceedings, although that right is...
to suspend and terminate proceedings setting up a battle in the federal court in the Northern District of Illinois.
The Olympic bid candidature documentation published by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) states that each bid must "...provide documentation indicating that appropriate measures have been taken to register domain names that are of value to your candidature such as '[City] 2016' followed by extensions .com .net .org as well as the country code concerned."
Outlook
Chicago made the Candidate city shortlist in June 2008 as one of four finalists to host the 2016 Olympic games. Its technical ranking by the IOC was 7.0; generally beyond the 6.0 minimum threshold, but trailing behind Tokyo and Madrid's bids. (Technical qualities are only part of the final selection process.) The final selection from Madrid, SpainSpain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
was made on October 2, 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In 2007, USOC head Peter Ueberroth contended that Chicago was in "third or fourth place", with a need to focus more on the international relations rather than just having a stronger technical bid. In September 2009, the IOC gave a written evaluation of the venues, budgets, transportation plans and public support. Chicago's bid was not federally underwritten, unlike other bid cities, which concerned the IOC, given declining tax revenue during a major recession in the US economy. Nevertheless, with Chicago's strong hosting of the AIBA Boxing Championships
2007 World Amateur Boxing Championships
The 2007 AIBA World Boxing Championships were held in Chicago, United States from October 23, 2007 to November 3, 2007. It was held at the UIC Pavilion. It was the biggest World Championships in AIBA history. The championships were originally awarded to Moscow...
which exposed the city to many IOC members, the city was cited as a current favorite, and one member claimed the Games were "theirs to lose." Chicago also successfully hosted the 2006 Gay Games, another multinational sporting event. Both events were planned with short lead times.
In April 2009, the Chicago 2016 bid committee was the first of the four finalists to host the 13-member IOC Evaluation Commission. They presented twenty films to the committee. Among the video spokespersons were Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is the 67th United States Secretary of State, serving in the administration of President Barack Obama. She was a United States Senator for New York from 2001 to 2009. As the wife of the 42nd President of the United States, Bill Clinton, she was the First Lady of the...
(raised in suburban Chicago) and Michael Jordan. In addition to meeting with bid organizers, the IOC commission met with bid opposition groups when they visited. After the IOC commission left Chicago, the Chicago City Council
Chicago City Council
The Chicago City Council is the legislative branch of the government of the City of Chicago in Illinois. It consists of 50 aldermen elected from 50 wards to serve four-year terms...
approved an Olympic Community Agreement ordinance that was drafted by Alderman Toni Preckwinkle
Toni Preckwinkle
Toni Reed Preckwinkle is the current Cook County Board President and a former alderman in the Chicago City Council representing Chicago's 4th ward in Cook County, Illinois, United States. She was elected on November 2, 2010, as president of the Cook County Board...
. The agreement committed 30 percent of Olympic Village units to affordable housing conversion and guarantees women and minorities a portion of Olympic-related contracts. Former Illinois Senate
Illinois Senate
The Illinois Senate is the upper chamber of the Illinois General Assembly, the legislative branch of the government of the state of Illinois in the United States. The body was created by the first state constitution adopted in 1818. The Illinois Senate is made up of 59 senators elected from...
President Emil Jones
Emil Jones
Emil Jones, Jr. was the President of the Illinois Senate from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat, Jones served in the Illinois Senate from 1983 to 2009, where he served as President of the Illinois Senate from 2003 to the end of his term...
derided the agreement as an inadequate deal. Some Chicago residents opposed to the Chicago bid, particularly because of the financial implications of the undertaking to Chicago residents, launched a website called "chicagoansforrio.com" to persuade the IOC to give the Olympics to Rio instead. In a public poll, Chicago residents were almost evenly divided on the bid, with 47% supporting and 45% not supporting.
IOC vote
On October 2, 2009, Chicago was knocked out in the first round of voting, and the Olympics went to Rio de JaneiroRio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil, and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, boasting approximately 6.3 million people within the city proper, making it the 6th...
, despite some high profile backers, such as US President Barack Obama
Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
and Chicago-based television hostess Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Winfrey is an American media proprietor, talk show host, actress, producer and philanthropist. Winfrey is best known for her self-titled, multi-award-winning talk show, which has become the highest-rated program of its kind in history and was nationally syndicated from 1986 to 2011...
, going to Copenhagen to support the bid.
Since balloting is secret and IOC members rarely share their voting tendencies, there has been much speculation as to why Chicago lost the Olympic bid so early in the process. Michelle Higgins on The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
blog argued that overly restrictive passport
Passport
A passport is a document, issued by a national government, which certifies, for the purpose of international travel, the identity and nationality of its holder. The elements of identity are name, date of birth, sex, and place of birth....
and visa
Visa (document)
A visa is a document showing that a person is authorized to enter the territory for which it was issued, subject to permission of an immigration official at the time of actual entry. The authorization may be a document, but more commonly it is a stamp endorsed in the applicant's passport...
policy was one such reason. CBS 2 Chicago's website suggested that anti-Americanism
Anti-Americanism
The term Anti-Americanism, or Anti-American Sentiment, refers to broad opposition or hostility to the people, policies, culture or government of the United States...
may have contributed. Bid CEO Patrick Ryan was quoted in the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
as saying "bloc voting" and assumptions by others in the IOC that Chicago had enough votes to make it to the second round of voting led to its early demise. The same article hinted at fractious relations, noted by The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times
The Seattle Times is a newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, US. It is the largest daily newspaper in the state of Washington. It has been, since the demise in 2009 of the printed version of the rival Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Seattle's only major daily print newspaper.-History:The Seattle Times...
, between the IOC and USOC over the corporate background of the USOC executives and the "inordinate" share of revenue that they receive.
External links
- Chicago2016.org — Official bid website
- ChicagoGames.com — Chicago Games
- Chicago2016.com — A "comprehensive, balanced discussion" of the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid; not affiliated with the official Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid Committee.
- Venue fact sheet
- General fact sheet
- Archive of the Chicago Reader's coverage