"He started by saying we spent $75 million, and the next city was going to have to spend $100 million, and we didn't even have a chance," said one attendee, paraphrasing the mayor, who was the driving force behind the bid. "It was all politics and all money. All politics and all money. (The International Olympic Committee) didn't care about the athletes, and they didn't care about the quality of the bid."
Another attendee said she came away from the 15-minute speech believing the city never understood the depth of its disadvantage. And Daley reportedly told the group that had the city known from the start that the International Olympic Committee was intent on taking the games to new regions of the globe, they never would have spent the time or the money on the effort.
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Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Mayor Daley Sounds Off About the Olympics
It's been awhile since we had any Olympic news (since there really isn't any news since it's dead...), so we thought we would take a trip down memory lane. Today we read about Mayor Daley's 'rant' at the 2016 final group meeting. Not surprisingly he wasn't happy about the Olympic outcome, but according to witnesses his displeasure was the most obvious its ever been. The part of the story that we found most interesting was:
I think maybe the cities that are best able to handle an Olympics might be the ones least interested in handling an Olympics.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Rick Santelli on CNBC this morning, Illinois now has the second lowest debt rating (after California) among U.S. states.
Yesterday one of the human rights organizations accused the Brazilian police in Rio and Sao Paolo of executing 12000 (yes, twelve thousand) people in the last 10-15 years. The article I read also noted the police helicopter getting shot down in Rio about 1 mile from the stadium where the opening and closing ceremonies would be.
So maybe Daley is right. No matter, I wouldn't trust that guy or his crime family with 50 cents let alone the money he would have tried raising for the Olympics.
All I want for Xmas is to see King Richie being led away in Federal handcuffs.
ReplyDeleteDaley is right, it was not about the athletes, the quality of the bid, the sustainability (green-ness) of the city's plan. Rio was the 'romantic' vote and they won.
ReplyDeleteThe IOC needs to decide on a revolving continent schedule so local communities like Chicago won't have to pay so much money to create an Olympics bid.
Oh yeah, one more thing... DALEY IS EVIL!!!!
please stop with the Daley rants, they are so mind-numbing and worthless! OR try to be a little more creative, jeez!
The simple fact is that Daley pushed hard for this without doing his homework and look where it got him.
ReplyDeleteThe Chicago bid was by far the most deserving of them all! After learning about the aspect of the five bids and their possibilities, it was easy to understand that Chicago's bid was the best.
ReplyDeletewithout doing his homework???
It is the unpredictable IOC and their politics that undermined Chicago, Daley and the USOC were more than prepared.
The IOC had something Daley wanted and he was denied for seemingly "unpredictable political" reasons. Sounds like the shoe was placed on the other foot for once. Deal with it. Not everyone responds to bribery and nepotism.
ReplyDeleteNice character displayed by our Mayor too. Sour Grapes and all. World-class city? Not based on the actions our pouty leadership.
"It is the unpredictable IOC and their politics that undermined Chicago, Daley and the USOC were more than prepared."
ReplyDeleteSpot on. The USOC (run by NBC)only cared about their television contract squable, and the creation of an Olympic Channel Network to siphon more money from the games.
They cared not about Chicago, and operated as an independent entity during the bids. Many of the IOC did not even participate in the tours or event in Copenhagen. And Obama was shown the respect he deserves.
The clue for me was when Jim Scherr stepped down from his IOC job 6 months before the bid date. At that time it should have been clear what was going down; Jim has a strong affinity for Chicago, and had a huge personal interest in seeing the games in Chicago. He saw what was going on with the folks on his side that he could not take it and left.
Those of you tearing apart Daley clearly never lived in the city when Harold Washington was mayor.
ReplyDeleteMoreover, and most ironic, is the fact that our South Loop neighborhood would not even exist as it is today (and probably not this blog either!) if not for Daley!
The South Loop went residential way before Daley took office. Printers Row had several commercial/loft conversions back in the 1970's and both Dearborn Park developments were established prior to the Daley administration.
ReplyDeleteBringing it back around to the original topic: It makes me cringe every time our Mayor opens his mouth. If he wants to act like Chicago got dealt a bum hand from a stacked IOC deck, fine . . . but it's like the pot calling the kettle black. He's been handed pretty much everything (at taxpayer expense) his entire life and doesn't have a graceful, diplomatic bone in his body in relation to losing.
“You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
Harold Washington's contributions (in the Illinios House/Senate, as Mayor and WW2 vet) far surpasses anything Richie could ever hope to accomplish.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I'm white and have lived here all my life.
To listen to our Mayor speak, you'd almost think his primary agenda was to promote positive athletic sportsmanship and international fellowship . . . but then he makes his true motives clear.
ReplyDeletesounds like more lame reasons to bitch & whine about everything and blame Daley for it all. So so tired of this.
ReplyDeleteIt's not my fault that Daley makes George W. Bush look like an intellectual colossus.
ReplyDeleteIn response to any of you looking for another politician whom makes Daley look like a stellar orator, two words: Todd Stroger.
ReplyDeleteDaley and Stroger are indeed two sub-moronic peas in the same dysfunctional pod.
ReplyDeleteToo bad there's no clear solution in sight.