Guaranteed at Least the Bronze

By Benjy Lipsman in News on Jul 27, 2006 6:25PM

Chicagoist is clearly proud of our city. We love showing it off when out-of-town friends and family. vist. And we'd love to see the whole world learn about its beauty, cultural institutions and people. That's why we want to see the summer Olympics come to chicago in 2016.

The city learned that it has made the first cut -- competing with two other cities to be chosen as the United State's bid to the Olympic Committee. In addtion to Chicago, Los Angeles and San Francisco are also still in the running. Houston and Philadeplhia were eliminated from consideration.

Chicago scored very well in the evaluations, and surpringly well in the heavily weighted international polling. However, USOC Chairman Peter Ueberroth implied that mayoral instability would be a huge disadvantage, should Daley not seek another term. Would Daley risk jeopardizing Chicago's chances by not running? We have a feeling that he'd run again rather than risk that. Or we could see him stepping aside as mayor, but becomming head of the Chicago Olympic Committee.

Regardless, the decision for which American city will be proposed to the IOC should be determined by the end of this year. Before a final decision is made, all of the cities still in the running will need to revise their proposals. Among the changes Chicago will need to make is to dump the idea of a 2-stadium opening ceremony. We still say that turing a new Olympic Stadium into Wrigley II is the way to go.

Clearly, the Cubs could never move from the North Side. We realize that. But there is a lot of room in Lincoln Park (the park, not the neighborhood), and it could be increased with land fill. Just as most of the downtown lakefront currently sits on. So, build a new Olympic Stadium in what's currently Lincoln Park, near Addison. When then Olympics are over, the stadium gets reconfigured as Wrigley II. Instead of homers landing on Waveland, they'll land in the waves.

Images via Google Maps