City has spent $9M on Olympic bid; $22M left
Chicago 2016 spent $9.2 million to complete the first leg of Mayor Daley’s Olympic journey — with $22.4 million left in the bank — and plans a July 14 fundraiser at Millennium Park to raise the money it needs to get to the finish line.
“The bid raised significantly more than it spent and set us up nicely for the international campaign,” said Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky.
Last spring, the U.S. Olympic Committee chose Chicago over Los Angeles as the American bid city to host the 2016 Summer Olympic Games.
The international phase kicks off June 4, when the International Olympic Committee narrows the list of seven candidate cities to four or five finalists. Chicago is almost certain to make the cut. The IOC is scheduled to make its final choice in October, 2009.
On Friday, Chicago 2016 released a tax form for the year ending June 30, 2007, that provides a sneak peak at its Round One spending.
It shows the city's bid committee raised $32.7 million, spent $9.2 million on the domestic campaign and had $22.4 million leftover. That's a running start on the $49.3 million Chicago needs to compete on the international stage.
The largest single expenditure was $5 million, which went to the USOC for Chicago-based staff, travel and other bid-related expenses.
With no full-time employees for the domestic phase, the Olympic organizing committee relied on “in-kind” contributions and a team of paid consultants.
The tax filing lists only the top five: public relations giant Hill & Knowlton ($924,134); Doug Smith, former chief assistant to Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan ($251,389); marketing consultants Gordon Kane and Mark Mitten ($220,000 apiece) and the architectural firm of Skidmore Owings & Merrill ($208,242).
One of the leading in-kind donors was Aon, the insurance brokerage and consulting firm founded by Pat Ryan.
An Aon proxy statement shows the company donated: $284,052 worth of unoccupied office space that was used as Chicago 2016 headquarters; $732,000 worth of temporary employees and consultants and $1.5 million in support services through its Aon Foundation.
Aon was paid “less than $5,000” to act as insurance broker for Chicago’s domestic bid, Sandusky said. Another 2016 director, Robert Berland, owns a printing company that was paid a small fee to print brochures and business cards used to promote Chicago’s Olympic bid.
The July 14 fundraiser at Millennium Park is expected to be patterned after the March, 2007 gala at McCormick Place Lakeside Center — proposed site of volleyball in 2016 — that raised $9.4 million to bankroll Daley’s Olympic dream.
Three thousand invitations went out prior to the event. Co-chairs willing to cough up $100,000 got priority seating for 10 and the right to designate a member of Chicago 2016. If $100,000 was too steep, invited guests were asked to purchase tables of 10 with three levels of contributions featuring the Olympic medal colors: gold ($25,000); silver ($10,000) or bronze ($5,000). Individuals tickets to the event cost $500.