Mar 23, 2009 11:11 am US/Central
Analysis: Chicago Olympic Bid Slips To Last Place
Reliance On Sponsorships, Turmoil In U.S. Olympic Committee To Blame
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
-
-
A rendering of the proposed 2016 Olympic stadium and aquatics center in Washington Park. At left is the swimming venue and at right, the open pool would host the water polo competitions.
Courtesy Chicago 2016
Hopes and preparations for the
2016 Olympics have been dominating public discourse and city planning for more than two years, but the latest ranking of the four finalist cities for the games shows Chicago has slipped into last place.
The city's Olympic committee has its work cut out for it over the next two weeks, as it tries to put minds at ease about the viability of the Chicago's bid.
The Web site
GamesBids.com released a mathematical model called Bid Index for the four finalist cities for the 2016 Games. The analysis has Tokyo leading the pack with a ranking of 61.41, followed by Rio de Janeiro with 59.95, Madrid with 58.73, and Chicago in last place with 58.37.
The city is earning low marks because of dependence on sponsorships during a time of severe economic decline.
The turmoil in the U.S. Olympic Committee is also a contributing factor.
Chicago is the only city relying heavily on sponsorships, and without a 100 percent public government guarantee.
The International Olympic Committee will make its final decision about the 2016 host city on Oct. 2.
The website games.bids.com is run by some expert Olympic bid watchers, statisticians and numbers-crunchers. The man who runs the Web operation does not count Chicago out.
"There's never been a race like this, where all the contenders have an equal chance of either winning the race outright or being eliminated on the first ballot," Rob Livingstone said in a telephone interview. "It's so close."
Mayor Daley was showing the crown prince and princess of Denmark the sights of the city Monday. He had nothing to say about the web rating.
But the city's Olympic bid committee was talking.
"I feel confident as our own business community has stepped up in the past two years to support this as well as other causes that they will continue to do so," Chicago 2016 president Lori Healey said. "It's good for Chicago, good for the economy, and it's good for the people of the city."
And there's a wild card in the selection process. Even those who are dubious about Chicago's approach to winning the contest say if the president of the United States shows up to plead the case of his home town, all bets are off.
"I think that'll be probably the single biggest force of the whole bid election, is whether he shows up or not," Livingstone said. "I mean, if you're betting on the race, that's basically what you're betting on."
The website picked Paris to win the 2012 games. London, of course, won that bidding war. But some experts say that was only because then-Prime Minister Tony Blair made an appeal.
The city is not slowing down its plans and preparations in the slightest. Last week,
city crews repaved the streets in Washington Park near where opening ceremonies would be held and a grand Olympic stadium would be built. They also trimmed trees and painted restroom buildings nearby. They want the park to look presentable when International Olympic Committee plans to visit the city and examine the sites April 2.
The repairs in Washington Park brought some controversy, since they were rushed last week ahead of potholes that have plagued the city on major thouroughfares.
Meanwhile, Daley also attended a huge Olympic rally on Saturday. More than 2,000 people from 17 Asian-American communities in Chicago staged a rally at Lane Tech High School to support Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics.
But not everyone in Chicago wants the Olympics. When the IOC visits, activists will hold an anti-Olympics rally, staged by people who believe the money for the Olympics would be better spent on public needs.
"We've got a lot of beautiful things going on here, but for right now, there are some issues that we need to resolve, and we need to clean up our homes first," one woman said Monday in an argument against the Olympics. "They say, 'Start with the problem at home.' Chicago needs to clean up the problem at home."
But another man countered: "I think Chicago deserves it. I mean, you can see how with Millennium Park and everything, Chicago is a city moving forward."
A total of $50 million have already been spent on preparations for the prospective Chicago Olympics.
CBS 2's Joanie Lum and Mike Parker contributed to this report.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
Jewish Celebrities
Click to enlarge
Stumble It!
