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Chicago 2016 committee officials revealed yesterday how much they think the 2016 Olympics would cost if the Games came to Chicago: $2 billion.
Where did they get that figure? Add $900 million in venue construction, spread across five venues, and $1.1 billion for an Olympic Village to be built near McCormick Place.
What do I think of this estimate? I wrote last year about how the London 2012 bid steamrolled its initial budget, its cost (at that time, mind you) quadrupling to a behemoth $19.5 billion dollars.
How about a federal bailout for the CTA? Maybe the IOC can chip in some dough. But I digress.
According to the committee, 45 percent of the tickets would cost less than $50, with 500,000 tickets set aside for children as part of “Chicago’s youth outreach.’’ Total ticket revenue is estimated at $705 million.
What do you think?