Whatever happened to luring the Olympic games to Chicago?

[question everything]

Shortly after being elected, the president and Mrs. Obama went to.... wherever the place was - pushing Chicago for the next Olympic games (2016?)

So now that Boston said no, thanks, for 2024, will Chicago try again?

[truebluegreen]

1. Not if they are smart.

Olympics are as big a scam as FIFA and professional sports: fleeces taxpayers to pay big corps, the elite, etc.

[Old Union Guy]

7. Bravo!

The Olympics is an inherently corrupt institution.

Never mind "reforming" it. The world would be better off without it.

Also see this by George Orwell about international sports in general:

The Sporting Spirit

[truebluegreen]

8. Excellent link, thank you.

And I agree wholeheartedly with the link between sports and nationalism. There are a few events I enjoy watching but I hate it when the USA! USA! chant goes up...I end up not watching at all.

[exboyfil]

2. Sanity

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. yup.

We did OK with the whirled cup, but only because we had only a few games, including the opening. (i was there)

The best thing would be to build 4 or so permanent sites, two for winter and two for summer, and everyone goes to those places only, rotating every so often.

[frazzled]

4. No way

Daley put this city into debt trying to get that unwanted thing, sold the city's parking meters for ready cash and everything. Nobody is going to try for it for a very long time.

[mopinko]

5. the parking meters had nothing to do with the olympics, and no tax money

was spent on the bid. it was all private money.

and he did not "sell the parking meters". he sold laz the rights to install an entirely new system that brought the city into the 21st century. i love the new system. no more digging for quarters under the floor mats.
like the new system or not, but he did not sell the parking meters. there are no parking meters any more.

the olympics would have brought big money to chicago, imho. i wish they would put in a bid. la still has money for youth sports thanks to the olympic legacy. we could really use that here.
being such a big media market, we would have done well.

[frazzled]

6. He sold a 75-year lease for the meters and their revenue in 2008

to Morgan Stanley, together with Allianz Capital Partners and the Sovereign Wealth Fund of Abu Dhabi for over a billion dollars. That's called PRIVATIZATION.

Immediately the cost of parking quadrupled (or more); places where no meters previously existed suddenly had them all over town; and they became enforced sometimes until 10 pm and some all night long.

What makes it worse is that Chicago makes zero dollars--nada--for the revenue from those meters. And we lost plenty of money on it:

The terms were negotiated in secret. City Council members got two days to study the billion-dollar, seventy-five-year contract before signing off on it. An early estimate from the Chicago inspector general was that the city had sold off its property for about half of what it was worth. Then an alderman said it was worth about four times what the city had been paid. Finally, in 2010, Forbes reported that in fact the city had been underpaid by a factor of ten.

http://www.thenation.com/article/privatizations-cutting-edge/

The timing of that sale was always suspicious. Sure, Chicago was already in fiscal trouble. But it was also in trouble with its bid with the IOC, because it pledged no taxpayer money and there was no government financial backing. To be in the running they needed to show there was some cash on hand.

Now we're broke.

It's not about the new ticket system. We could have upgraded that ourselves, raised the price of parking, and raked in big time revenues to support city services, including our schools. Now, we pay for parking all night long ($6.50 per hour in the Loop area). And because of the lost revenue, we lose services, and people suffer.

It was SOLD, for 75 years.

[Sienna86]

9. Thanks for the details on this deal nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

11. Don't forget Daley's "consulting" job he landed with the law firm who handled the deal.

All nice and legal, eh?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

10. Oh boy. We don't have to dig for quarters.

Who the hell has $10 dollars in quarters in their car anyway?

Of course they made it easier to pay. Next step, you'll be able to take out a home equity loan to pay for parking.

[question everything]

13. Yes, I forgot it was Daly

We visited the city in 2007 and there were billboards all around with 2016 scrawled on them.

I remember not being impressed with the way the Obamas tried to push the city. In hindsight - always 20/20 - Chicago was better not to.

[47of74]

12. Back in 2013 Chicago said they weren't going to bid

In 2013 the Mayor's spokesperson said the city wasn't interested in bidding again after the US Olympic Committee sent a letter to 25 large metro areas in the United States, including New York and Chicago;

The last two U.S. bidders, Chicago (2016) and New York (2012), both rejected out-of-hand by International Olympic Committee voters, are on the list.

But Sarah Hamilton, a spokeswoman for Mayor Rahm Emanuel, said Chicago is not interested.

“Our position remains the same – we are not bidding,” Hamilton said.

The letter, which also is going to 10 other cities that have expressed interest, says there is no guarantee a bid will be made. The deadline is a little more than two years from now.

I'm not sure if the city has changed their position or not, but with the deadline approaching for application I would think it'd be hard to throw something together at the last minute.