Category: Chicago 2016

Looks like Chicago’s going to have some tough competition.

Earlier today, the Spanish Olympic Committee approved Madrid’s bid as its official candidate for the 2016 Olympic Games, two years after losing to London for the 2012 Games. Madrid placed third out of five cities for the 2012 Games.

The Madrid bid committee still has to file its bid with the International Olympic Committee. So far, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo have been approved by their respective national Olympic committees, but the initial bids must be filed by Sept. 13.

While Madrid is one of the only major European capitals never to have hosted the Games, Barcelona – another Spanish city – hosted the 1992 Olympics.

“This is an initiative that represents an important step based on the experiences of 2012,” Madrid mayor Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said. “Today, Madrid confirms the irreversible decision to be an Olympic city.”

My opinion: Madrid’s bid is new and improved. Its bid committee is savvy. Chicago’s bid – and its committee – are limping along.

Hmm…

I was just checking out some of the sites that have been sending some traffic my way when I saw an interesting addition: The Wall Street Journal.

Listed in my new Google Analytics, I saw that a piece on my site from last week, “IOC says logo fiasco won’t hurt Chicago 2016 bid,” was referenced in the “Related Articles” section after the story. The widget was powered by Sphere, a news blog aggregator.

This helps solidify DanielHonigman.com as the Google #1-ranked blog about the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid and the #4 site overall.

Thanks a lot, Wall Street Journal!

I called in on the Chicago Access Network Television show, “Muhammad and Friends,” hosted by Munir Muhammad. (Don’t laugh. I was drawn in by the John Coltrane rendition of “My Favorite Things” during the break.)

Muhammad, appointed by Governor Rod Blagojevich to the Illinois Human Rights Commission in 2003, had Chicago Deputy Police Superintendent Charles L. Williams on his show today, and I was able to ask him about any Chicago 2016 security plans in place.

While he unfortunately would not say any specifics (perhaps because they didn’t have any plans yet) he maintained that there was some sort of regional plan in the works.

My impression was that this would involve Illinois State Police and the Illinois National Guard, operating out of Chicago’s spanking-new $6.5 million security command center in McCormick Place.

Still, your guess is as good as mine.

It’s about time we heard from the other side of the table.

Those who would be directly affected by the Chicago 2016 Olympic games are finally starting to weigh in. I just read a refreshingly candid editorial in yesterday’s Chicago Defender, written by managing editor Glenn Reedus.

He writes:

“Some of the residents of Washington Park and Douglas Park are standoffish about the games to their neighborhoods. Well, if the committee wants to begin discussions; the residents are likely to be more inclined when they see someone who looks like them associated with the process.”

The Defender has pretty much been the only voice of the South Side black community over the last century or so, and I think it’s about time they weighed in, editorially, on the Chicago 2016 bid.

The Chicagoist reported today that Dr. Ching-Kuo Wu, an International Olympic Committee member and President of the International Amateur Boxing Association, was in town earlier this week to take a look a look at the UIC Pavilion at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

From Oct. 17-Nov. 1, the Pavilion will be the site of the World Boxing Championships and is the proposed site for all Chicago 2016 boxing events. Unfortunately, nothing has yet been reported on his findings.

There’s also been no word on if Wu stopped by Jim’s Original for a Maxwell Street Polish, but we’ll keep you posted…

…or something like that.

In today’s Chicago Tribune business section, Olympic reporter Philip Hersh reports that neither the International Olympic Committee nor the U.S. Olympic Committee believe the Chicago bid will be unaffected by the Chicago 2016 logo fiasco.

Hersh reports:

“I believe Chicago has, at all times, acted in good faith, and I would consider this a very minor incident, especially since Chicago is already changing its logo,” International Olympic Committee member Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr. of Spain said in an e-mail.

“I believe this incident will not have any repercussion on the bidding campaign that will actually begin in the coming months,” said Samaranch, a member of the IOC marketing commission and a senior member of the Madrid 2016 bid team.

The Chicago 2016 committee unveiled the logo on Oct. 12, and it doesn’t seem, says Hersh, that they will need to buy back any merchandise or take down any posters. The artwork, which contains a torch, just can’t be the city’s official Olympic logo.

The best news for the bid’s proponents: Chicago’s bid won’t be sanctioned.

Let’s just see what they come up with now. (I recommend the following logos, submitted by one of my readers last week.)

I posted several days ago that the London 2012 Olympics may have an adverse effect on London and its suburbs. I got my hands on a copy of the report (available in both PDF and RTF formats) that was delivered to the assembly by Gavin Poynter, Head of the School of Social Sciences, Media and Cultural Studies at the University of East London.

Are you kidding me?

John Kass, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune, wrote in today’s paper that the Chicago 2016 bid campaign dropped Polish- and Greek-language greetings from its “Welcome to Chicago” mini-campaign.

This is insane. The Polish have enjoyed a 150-year history here in Chicago and the Olympics originated in Greece. Greek was dropped because the committee couldn’t figure out how to say “Welcome to Chicago” in the language.

But here’s the reason Polish was dropped, according to Chicago 2016 spokesman Patrick Sandusky.

“Well, we didn’t have room for everybody.”

It just shows that the Chicago 2016 committee could give two s**ts about the city. Way to win over local support. I’m not Polish and I’m even pissed about this.

(NOTE: I also find it odd that Chicago 2016 hasn’t made any of its press releases public after winning the U.S. bid last month. Do they really have nothing to say?)

Chicago Tribune Olympics reporter Philip Hersh, as always, is on the ball. And he brings some sad news.

The Chicago 2016 logo is history, according to International Olympic Committee rules. The rules state that logos “shall not contain the Olympic symbol, the Olympic motto, the Olympic flag, any other Olympic-related imagery (e.g. flame, torch, medal, etc.), slogan, designation or other indicia or the distorted version thereof or a design confusingly similar thereto.” (ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS ALERT: I’ve linked to a .PDF version of the rules.)

Will this hurt Chicago’s chances of getting the 2016 Olympics? Maybe. If anything, it either shows American stupidity (Oh, we actually won the American bid for the Games! Why did we make a logo we can’t use?) or arrogance (F*** the rules – we’ll design our logo however we want). Either way, it was stupid. And the Chicago 2016 committee should be ashamed of itself.

For the new logo, how about incorporating a symbol that has long been a part of Windy City tradition: the Chicago-style phallus.

I’ll update you all on the new Chicago 2016 logo when it’s unveiled to the public. Stay tuned!