One of the main questions that needs to be addressed regarding a Chicago bid for the Games is the apparent need to build a stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies and the Athletics events (i.e. Track and Field).
Mayor Daley has floated the idea of building a stadium for this purpose that would also be used for a second NFL football team in Chicago. Such a stadim would cost between $400 million and $1 billion. In the press and elsewhere this idea has not been very favorably received.
Crain’s Chicago Business recently printed a story (it may have been an editorial submitted by a person not employed by Crain’s) that proposed building a stadium at the University of Chicago.
A respected sports faciltiy consultant submitted the idea and the Tribune ran an article that mentioned remodeling and renovating one of the horse racing tracks in the Chicago area to accommodate the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
The main reason for this discussion is because the conventional wisdom is that the main stadium needs to have seating for about 80,000. Other than questioning the conventional wisdom, what alternatives does Chicago have regarding an Olympic Stadium? Is there a lower cost alternative that would satisfy the IOC?
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If the IOC wants 80,000 spectators to see the Parade of Nations, seating could be erected in an area outside Soldier Field that the athletes would parade past prior to entering into the stadium for the more traditional entrance. It seems that there are plenty of spaces near Soldier Field to accommodate well over 20,000 spectators. Video screens could then provide the people sitting in these seats with live footage of the events taking place in the stadium.
Alternatively, if it is not too far for the athletes to walk, seating could be erected in Hutchison Field (just north and west of the Field Museum on the west side of Lake Shore Drive where the sunken softball fields currently are located). The athletes could proceed under LSD and around or through the Field Museum to Soldier Field.) This would be a great way to highlight the Museum Campus.
If Daley is actually considering the idea of using what may be the new Olympic stadium for '16 as a home for a second NFL team, he is not being smart about it. With the way the Bears are doing now, we don't need another team. Look at the Cubs vs. Sox, fans aren't that friendly. We can all get under the Bears banner.
However, I would be agree if there were a notion to use the new stadium to be a DOME stadium so that we may host the Superbowl someday, as well as use it for other various sporting events. I was dissappointed when we reconstructed Soldier Field and did not add a retractable dome to it, why shouldn't we? A superbowl in Chicago would be amazing!
With Millenium Park now available to the public and getting great publicity, and the Bears doing well, and the Sox winning two years ago, Chicago is beginning to get out of New York's shadow. The 2016 Olympics would greatly improve that step.
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