The Final Countdown: City Preps For IOC Visit

By Marcus Gilmer in News on Apr 1, 2009 7:00PM

The City of Chicago is putting the finishing touches on its clean up as we prepare to welcome the International Olympic Committee's evaluation commission tomorrow, their first stop on their candidate city evaluation tour. The last potholes have been filled, the last sidewalk has been pressure-washed, and the homeless have all been rounded up and temporarily relocated to an undisclosed location for the next week.

The 13-member commission will be shown the red carpet while they're in town over the next few days. Pat Ryan, Chicago 2016 CEO, is optimistic about Chicago's place as the first visit for the commission, telling the Sun-Times, "We'd rather be first than last. We can help set the bar as high as we want to...They're here six days and then they're home for a few days then they're out again. So by the time of the fourth one, they're going to be pretty tired, just physically...There's an advantage to the freshness."

The Trib's Phillip Hersh insists that the upcoming IOC visit won't win 2016 Games for Chicago, but a poor showing at the presentation could certainly lose the 2016 Games. Referring to London's dry runs before the IOC evaluation commission visited them for the 2012 Games decision (which London won), Hersh highlights the importance of being prepared.

"There are two critical things to demonstrate during the visit," Keith Mills, the chief executive of London's successful bid, said Tuesday.

"One is to lay to rest any criticisms raised in the first evaluation (a year earlier). The other is that how you manage the visit is as important as what you say, because if you can't manage the visit flawlessly, how can you organize the Olympic Games?"

Chicago, the first of the four finalists on the visit schedule, has done extensive dry runs and is not concerned about possible protests, Ryan said in a meeting Tuesday with the Tribune editorial board.

It's that last part which will prove tricky for the Chicago 2016 crew: there will be multiple, high visibility protests taking place this week when the IOC comes to town. Both the Fraternal Order of Police and the group No Games Chicago have planned large pickets, though the police union insists there protest - over a contract dispute with the city - is not intended to harm the city's chances of landing the 2016 Olympics. Meanwhile, Communities for Equitable Olympics, a collection of several smaller community groups announced today that they, too, would proceed with protests because, according to Chicago Breaking News, "it was upset that Mayor Richard Daley and the Chicago 2016 bid team did not secure full City Council approval for a community benefits ordinance prior to the visit."