Burke on Chicago 2016 bid: We can go higher
UP THE ANTE? | If $500 mil. guarantee isn't enough for IOC, Council will raise it, alderman says
With the International Olympic Committee questioning the financial guarantees behind the Chicago Olympic bid group's plan, some influential aldermen say the City Council is prepared, if necessary, to up the ante of the city's potential liability.
The Council already has agreed to cover $500 million in potential shortfalls if Olympic revenues fail to cover expenses -- a guarantee Mayor Daley and Chicago 2016 committee officials insist won't need to be tapped.
(Keith Hale/Sun-Times)
After the IOC raised questions this week about financial guarantees if Chicago won the right to host the 2016 Summer Games, Ald. Edward M. Burke (14th), chairman of the City Council's Finance Committee, didn't hesitate. "Is that what it takes to get the International Olympic Committee to designate Chicago?" Burke said. "If that's what it is, yes. This council will vote for that."
Police Committee Chairman Isaac Carothers (29th) agreed that aldermen would be willing to increase the guarantee "to make the IOC feel more comfortable."
Chicago was named one of four finalists this week in the race to win the 2016 Summer Olympics. But in an IOC evaluation of Chicago's plan, judges wrote, "with regard to the government guarantee, the wording provided does not fully conform to the IOC required text.''
Specific problems with the guarantee weren't disclosed. But unlike other nations, the U.S. government does not financially guarantee any Olympic shortfall.
A U.S Olympic Committee official said that, in the past, the U.S. bid city has had to obtain a waiver of this requirement from the IOC.
In addition to the $500 million city guarantee, Gov. Blagojevich has pledged a state guarantee of $150 million, though that promise has yet to be fulfilled.
"We supported the guarantee and provided a letter to that effect to the city,'' Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said. "To our knowledge, the city has not introduced the bill."
The IOC evaluation characterized the Chicago bid's revenue estimates of $3 billion as "optimistic" and said its construction costs "appear low.''
If the Olympics lost money, there would still be a $200 million cushion between the bill collectors and the taxpayers, Chicago 2016 officials have said. That money would come from the sale of 117 luxury seats at a temporary Olympic stadium in Washington Park and from payments from developers chosen to build a $1.1 billion Olympic Village near McCormick Place.
Contributing: Dave McKinney