Apr 5, 2009 10:15 am US/Central
IOC Tours Possible Chicago Olympic Venues
(CBS)
The weather may not be cooperating, but this is Chicago's day to shine. The Chicago 2016 committee is showing the IOC evaluation team what our city would offer as a host of the Olympic Games. CBS station WBBM-TV's Chief Correspondent Jay Levine is traveling with Sunday's tour.
It may be the most important part of the International Olympic Committee's inspection of Chicago: The venue tour.
On Sunday morning, Chicago 2016 organizers took the inspection team to the city's venues -- from those like Soldier Field that already exist to those like the Olympic Stadium that haven't been built.
WBBM-TV was there when the IOC evaluation commission arrived at McCormick Place, which will be called the Lake Michigan Sports Complex for the games. It will be the site of 11 Olympic sports including gymnastics, volleyball and fencing, in addition to serving as the main press center and broadcast location for the games.
McCormick Place is one of 12 stops on a 10-hour tour that will cover the north, south and west side sports venues. The steel grey skies, stinging rain and biting wind aren't making Sunday the ideal day for a tour, and the commission members have traded their suits and ties for attire more suitable to the weather.
At each stop, they'll hear a presentation on what will happen there, giving them a chance to see for themselves the plan they first saw in Chicago's bid book, and then in the formal presentation Saturday.
Their first stop Sunday morning was at the site of the proposed Olympic Village, now the mostly shuttered Michael Reese Hospital, which will be a 21-building complex for 16,000 athletes with gardens between buildings, an amphitheater, dining halls and a promenade to a private recreation center and beach right on Lake Michigan. After the games, the village becomes a new south side mixed income neighborhood.
IOC officials say Mayor Richard Daley and former Olympic diver Greg Louganis met them at the proposed venue.
One message they hope the IOC will take from the tour is just how close the venues are to each other as well as how close they are to the city's major museums and other cultural attractions.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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