"That's Crazy": Experts Slam Daley's Olympian Claim

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Aug 24, 2009 2:20PM

Mayor Daley has tossed around the number $22.5 billion as the value of the economic boost the city of Chicago would receive if it hosts the 2016 Olympics. But some experts are saying that number is more Olympian dream than reality. Crain's talked to several experts about MayDay's projected boon for the city and the answers they came away with leave us a bit cold about hosting the games.

"That's crazy," says Victor Matheson, a professor of economics at College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts who has studied the economic impact of the Olympics. "Anyone using this $22.5-billion number as justification to vote for the Olympics is being led down the garden path."

The figure far exceeds estimated benefits in forecasts prepared by other cities that have sought the games. Atlanta, for example, figured the games it hosted in 1996 would produce an economic jolt of just $7 billion in 2009 dollars.

Similarly, the Chicago Olympics bid committee's prediction that the 2016 games would create 315,000 jobs over 11 years is more than four times the jobs estimate for Atlanta.

It seems Chicago 2016 is putting a lot of faith behind numbers such as a 48 percent increase in attendance to the Games over the 1996 Atlanta games (the last Summer Olympics held in the U.S.) and a huge boost to tourism in the years after the games, a boost that never really materialized for Atlanta. The experts Crain's talked to estimated the economic boost for the city would most likely fall somewhere between $11 and $17 billion. Two other studies also projected that enormous job growth to actually fall between 70,000 and 77,000 jobs created. Meanwhile, the Chicago 2016 committee continues with those ward-by-ward meetings but bid head Patrick Ryan remains so confident in the citizens' support of the city's bid, he sees no need to get an actual number, saying, "We have no reason to poll." Ryan and other from the Chicago 2016 team were in Berlin over the weekend to make their last pitch to IOC members before the October 2nd vote.