Chicago 2016 Gets Ready For Its IOC Close-Up

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Mar 25, 2009 5:00PM

March 2007

April 2007

A January 2009 No Games Chicago meeting

Rahm Emanuel addresses the crowd at last summer\'s rally celebrating Chicago\'s selection as one of the four candidate city finalists

It's time for that final spit shine. The Chicago 2016 organization is in its home-stretch for preparations concerning the International Olympic Committee's final site visit, which begins next Friday, April 3. The visit lasts through Tuesday, April 7, and during that time, Chicago 2016 will make 17 different presentations to the IOC evaluators, as well as take them around to different parts of the city to showcase Chicago's beauty, filled potholes and all. Yesterday, Chicago 2016 even gave reporters a preview of what they would be presenting to the IOC, including a preliminary version of their final promotional film with voice-over from native actor William Peterson (formerly of C.S.I. fame).

Per the Trib:

After an April 2 travel day, the evaluators will meet with Chicago officials for a private reception and meeting on April 3. The bid team will take the officials on a winding tour of proposed venues on the morning of April 5. The route is likely to include stops at the proposed Olympic Village site at the Michael Reese Hospital campus on the South Side, the proposed Olympic stadium site in Washington Park, Lincoln Park on the North Side and Douglas Park on the West Side.

On April 6, the organizers plan a "cultural event" at a location they declined to disclose. On the 19th floor of the Aon Tower on Tuesday, a marketing team was working on a presentation for the visit. Sandusky ushered reporters into the room to observe the marketers taking a dry run through part of a presentation about Chicago's history. As they hammered out a draft of the presentation on the city's history, bid officials said they decided to pare away a section on Chicago's fur trading roots, to emphasize the "public-private partnerships" that produced the 1933-34 world's fair during the Great Depression.

The above-mentioned tour will include 12 stops and take approximately 10-and-a-half hours. Officials will have another reason to wring their hands on the eve of the IOC's visit: on Thursday, April 2, No Games Chicago is coordinating an Anti-Olympics rally at Federal Plaza.