It's official: Chicago is American bid city for 2016 Summer Olympics

[Ryan]

CHICAGO -- Now that Chicago officially is the U.S. bid city for the 2016 Summer Olympics, it must convince the International Olympic Committee it deserves to stage the games.

Organizers were hopeful Tuesday they could triumph over cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo and Madrid.

The U.S. Olympic Committee formally submitted Chicago as its bid in a letter last week to IOC president Jacques Rogge in advance of a Sept. 13 deadline. It was a formality because the USOC has worked with Chicago on its bid since choosing the city over Los Angeles in April.

ESPN.com article

[GTF]

Chicago is a good sports town and might be able to beat out bids from Rio or even Madrid, but perhaps not Tokyo.

[Ed]

Seeing as Japan just hosted a World Championships - that might give an edge to Chicago - unless of course the Osaka events were run to perfection.

[Ryan]

To me, it's a question of whether they would give east Asia two Olympic Games so closely together. Of course, with Athens having 2004 and London having 2012, there's a precedent for it. It probably will come down to Chicago and Tokyo. In a way, it would be cool for myself as a Milwaukee area resident to see the Olympics in Chicago, maybe I could score a few T&F tickets and take the train down there. Of course, my personal interest for seeing Chicago get the bid means nothing when it comes to selecting the host city. May the best city win.

[Ed]

From a non-sports point of view -

The financial spill over into Southeastern WI would be immense -

[Ryan]

From a sports point of view, one discussion of the Chicago bid that was going around for a while was the possibility that some of the less marquee events could be held in the Milwaukee area. Of course, the marquee events like T&F would not be included but the potential benefits for SE WI could indeed be significant. As long as we're not dumping hundreds of millions of dollars into infrastructure that will be useless once the Olympics are over.

Of course, this all would still be assuming Chicago would win the bid. They still have a long way to go.

[Ed]

I'll be nearly a half century if and when this happens 

[GTF]

The Osaka WC would do nothing to prevent Tokyo from getting the OG unless perhaps Osaka had happened to majorly botch the WC.  IOC and IAAF are simply collaborators, not corroborators.  If anything, a well-run WC is more likely to act as a favorable nod (see also: Athens).  If the IOC has a propensity to spread the games around, then that would mean that (all other things being essentially equal) Rio would get it since no South American nation has ever hosted the games.  However, it seems that there are more important things (namely funding) that factor into the decision, especially seeing how Athens and Atlanta were not exactly up to snuff.  And while the host site may see some economic impact (immense seems unlikely, except perhaps in a negative sense; see also: Montreal), the tax base of the locality will likely be sapped to ensure a sufficient infrastructure, unless multiple major corporate donors step in. 

Personally, I prefer what I have seen suggested elsewhere, to build a permanent Olympic facility in Switzerland that would serve both winter and summer games and could serve as a training (and competition) facility in non-Olympic years. 

[Ryan]

GTF, I think the permanent facility idea holds a lot of merit. Of course, it probably has about as much a chance of actually passing as a Rio Olympics.

As for the economic impact, if Chicago and Illinois pick up the tab, then Milwaukee and Wisconsin (not to mention Indiana) would stand to benefit as some of the spectators and athletes would surely spill over the borders. The issue I see would be if we were expected to pick up part of the tab. These things cost so much to host that, as soon as you're put on the hook for paying, it's pretty much a sure thing that you're facing a losing proposition.

[rockinrocker]

I'll be hoping for chicago...and the logo...

[GTF]

I would not be surprised to see the permanent facility idea come to fruition if two or three of the next four Olympic Games turn out to be duds or if security becomes tougher to implement in the current scheme of rotating the host site among huge municipalities.  Whatever the case, I am just glad that it will not likely be anywhere near me anytime soon.