If Obama gets 2016 Games, Daley will be king, not mayor

If Obama gets 2016 Games, Daley will be king, not mayor

John Kass

September 30, 2009

"I don't want to get into a political game," Chicago 2016 Chairman Patrick Ryan told reporters in Copenhagen, as contingents from Chicago, Rio, Madrid and Tokyo politicked for the right to host the Olympic festival. "This race is about sports and competition. This should not be about a competition between heads of state. It's all about the athletes and Paralympians.

"President Obama is coming here out of respect for the athletes and the bid," Ryan said.

Oh, really?

Ryan may be many things, but dumb isn't one of them. He's a realist, worth a gazillion dollars. His former archrival, Near North Insurance boss Mickey Segal, is a broken man, sitting in federal prison, probably going stir-crazy. Someday, Ryan will end up owning the Chicago Bears. Yet he talks in terms of sport and competition.

If you think Chicago's Olympic push is about sports, you're mistaken. Sports has nothing to do with this. It's like in the old movie, with Michael Corleone telling truths to his future wife, saying, "Now who's being naive, Kay?"

Whether you want the games or not, please try muffling out those giddy broadcast news types and their frenetic cheerleading and understand what you're really watching.

If Chicago gets the games, the contracts and the grease and immense leverage to reshape a city will be used as originally intended. To rebuild the boss, to give a mayor facing deficits and taxpayer revolts and headaches a much-needed shoring up of his political infrastructure.

Surely the Obama White House, run by former Daleyites, knows that a Chicago Olympics will keep the mayor politically secure. That crown was once heavy and uncertain upon Daley's head, when the feds were raiding City Hall and sending his underlings to prison. Only a few years ago, the mayor ridiculed the Olympic idea. These days, he carries the torch in his teeth.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-kass-30-sep30,0,456539.column

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N/T

john kass. Someone isn't allowed to change their mind?

Apparently it's still being peddled. And on DU.

Look, after selling off all the city's parking meters, he is one of the most unpopular guys in town, if not the country. He's been mayor for 6 terms. That's 24 years. Believe me, we'll be electing us some fresh machine corruption here.

to go to America?

They don't want the tens of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of revenue they bring?

cronies.

Here is what Chicago opponents of the games have to say:

http://nogames.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/book_of_evidence.pdf

I say COMPANIES THAT EMPLOY PEOPLE.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8677260&mesg_id=8678863

with any the issues listed. In fact the games would improve your infrastructure. The other reasons are weak as well. Apparently the "incompetent" government can't handle the olympics but it can provide better hospitals, housing, schools and trains though.

:silly:

complained about the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

However, that Olympics was responsible for the majority of the modernization of Atlanta.

Roads were paved.

The 'poor' areas of the city were revamped.

Additional mass transit was created.

Atlanta's airport was expanded to handle the influx of traffic.

New communications technology was brought in.

Tens of thousands of jobs were created in the several years Atlanta took to prepare for the event.

Thousands more were employed for the two weeks during the event.

Yes, Atlanta had to 'spend' $300 million and an additional $1.8 billion by the government. The Games brought in billions in revenue, for a net profit of hundreds of millions.



The same benefits await Chicago.

addressing. daley likes to window dress downtown streets and downtown parks. Believe me I'm a hospice nurse. I see ALL of our city, north, west and south. We need tax money going to the proper areas not to games.

To blame Obama trying to bring home the Olympics for the fact that Chicago has political problems is disingenuous at best.

Ayers, Rev Wright, Acorn, Daley, etc, etc, ad infinitum.

Chicago's Olympic bid: An expensive proposition

The Windy City would face a tough financial challenge in hosting the Olympics, experts say, but it's well prepared with stadiums, infrastructure.

By Aaron Smith, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: September 30, 2009: 8:46 AM ET

Chicago 2016, the organization leading the effort to host the games, expects a cost of $3.8 billion, including a "rainy day" fund of $450 million in case of unforeseen increases.

But there's good reason to be skeptical of that projection, said Robert Livingstone, producer of GamesBids.com and a leading expert in the Olympic selection process. Host cities routinely overrun their Olympic budgets, he said.

"It's going to be more expensive than we think it's going to be, because it typically is," Livingstone said. "I think every city is going to lose money. It's not an efficient event."

The bidding process alone is costing Chicago about $100 million, even if it doesn't win, Livingstone noted.

An argument often made by host city advocates is that presenting the international spectacle is good for a local economy. But such "trickle-down effects," like benefits to local businesses, are "almost impossible to measure," Livingstone said.

"I think a lot of people look at the Olympics, and they try to justify it by how much money it adds to the economy," said Livingstone. "(But) if you're in this to make money and improve your economy, you're in it for the wrong reasons."

A Chicago 2016 spokesman, who asked not be named, stood by the $3.8 billion projection. "Our numbers are completely feasible thanks to the infrastructure already in place, the number of venues already built and the temporary nature of the majority of those we're planning to build," he wrote, in an e-mail.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/09/30/news/economy/chicago_olympics_economics/index.htm?postversion=2009093008

You've made a strong showing lately though. Keeping pluggin' and you can make it to the top!

:hi:

their mayors?