Daley's Confidence Grows On Chicago's Olympic Bid

By Kevin Robinson in News on Sep 22, 2009 2:00PM

Local speculation is running rampant these days as the people of the greater Chicagoland are wondering if Chicago's Olympic bid will pass muster next month. Mayor Daley is feeling pretty damn good about Chicago's chances of hosting the 2016 Summer Olympics. "I'm much more confident in our presentation, I'm much more confident in our sponsorship, I'm much more confident that we have all the facts and figures," Daley said yesterday. Never one to clam up in front of media types, Daley went on to explain his reasoning by way of a quick geography lesson.

"When you look at our competition, and the challenges we face with the Olympics and Beijing just had the Olympics so Tokyo, Japan is very close to China, then you take Madrid is very close in Europe to London and London's getting 2012. Our competition comes in Rio de Janeiro and Rio de Janeiro I'm getting more confident because they're getting the 2014 soccer, that's the biggest event some believe it's bigger than the Olympics. I'm much more confident in our presentation, I'm much more confident in our sponsorship, I'm much more confident that we have all the facts and figures for the Olympic and Paralympics."

And the Mayor even appears to have gotten a quick lesson in White House protocol. When he was asked about the possibility of President Obama making the trip to Copenhagen to support the bid, Daley blanched: "I cannot say that. It will be up to them to make the decision."