Remember, too, that Olympics rarely come out the way organizers sell them to the public. Just look at the last Summer Olympics, where the Greek government went heavily into debt and has nothing to show for it other than a huge Olympic hangover and a bunch of venues no one uses.
Athens was not alone, by any means. Atlanta was an Olympic-sized mess in 1996, filled with lost bus drivers and bankrupt street merchants. Sydney is still paying off the 2000 games, and Salt Lake City never got the tourism boost it anticipated from the 2002 Winter Olympics.
In Montreal, the mayor declared prior to the 1976 Olympics that there was a better chance of a man having a baby than the games having a deficit. The baby would have been 30 last year when the last payment was made on a white elephant of an Olympic stadium in that city.
Taxpayers in Chicago should be worried, very worried. The City Council has already backed a $500 million guarantee to pay for any debts that might arise, and the games are still nine years away. Based on London’s experience preparing for 2012 and the grandiose building plans laid out by Chicago organizers, it could get real ugly, real fast.
First, of course, Chicago must win the IOC vote, something New York didn’t come close to doing. At a time when anti-American sentiment runs deep in much of the world, it faces a difficult task of lining up the 60 or so votes needed to win.
The competition will be tough. Madrid finished third in the 2012 vote, and says it will be back. Rome, Tokyo, Prague and Rio de Janeiro also are potential candidates.
Chicago has an advantage in that it will get a head start on most other cities. It already has a plan, and now has 30 months to both fine tune it and begin selling it to the world.
Chicagoans certainly have a right to feel proud about their bid and their city.
At the same time, though, they should keep a firm grip on their wallets.
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