Daniel Honigman

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!

Perhaps the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times can learn a lesson from the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph in its coverage of the London 2012 Olympics.

According the the Telegraph article, a new study done at the University of East London cites lost money and lost jobs – 70,000 of them – for Athens after the 2004 Olympics. (To be honest, I haven’t read this study yet.)

To be balanced, here’s a report by an economist at the University of Nottingham that came out in 2005. The author, Adam Blake concluded that the 2012 Olympics would be good for London and the rest of Britain.

Of course, that study was funded by London’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport, Greater London Authority Economics and the London Development Agency. And it was written before the costs quadrupled to £9.3 billion (about $19.5 billion).

I’ll link you folks to the new study once I can get my hands on it.