Saturday 14 April 2007
US Olympic bid D Day
Today is an important day for the city of Chicago as the US Olympic Committee will choose which American city will lead their bid for the 2016 Olympics. At 10am this morning Chicago and Los Angeles will face off for the right to compete against bids from the rest of the world, which is expected to include Azerbaijan, Doha, Tokyo, Rio De Janeiro, Madrid, Rome and Prague. The pundits believe that the host city will most likely be in the Americas as it is simply their turn after Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London.
Today is an important day for the city of Chicago as the US Olympic Committee will choose which American city will lead their bid for the 2016 Olympics. At 10am this morning Chicago and Los Angeles will face off for the right to compete against bids from the rest of the world, which is expected to include Azerbaijan, Doha, Tokyo, Rio De Janeiro, Madrid, Rome and Prague. The pundits believe that the host city will most likely be in the Americas as it is simply their turn after Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London.Both cities will each pitch a 40-minute presentation followed by 20-minutes of questions put forward by the board of decision makers. Chicago's presentation will be led by two men, Mayor Richard Daley and Patrick Ryan, who incidentially is the founder and executive chairman of the company I work for. "We did not get into this to fail," Ryan said earlier this week.
The winner is expected to be announced at 3pm CT and I will post it on here.
In recent days both State Governors have backed their respective bids with big suggestions of funding. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation this week to provide $250 million in state money, whilst Illinois' has already promised a $150 million guarantee. It is said that the United States is the only country in the world that does not provide a national Olympic guarantee, requiring other levels of government to underwrite downsides.
The host city winner will be announced by the International Olympic Committee on October 2, 2009, just over 4-years after London was rewarded the 2012 Games.
3.50pm Breaking News: Chicago awarded the US Olympic city bid. (more)
¶ 11:28
