Chicago Olympic official urges transportation improvements

A senior Chicago 2016 bid committee official said last week transportation improvements would be critical to the city’s hopes to be chosen Olympic Games host. The next major step in the 2016 bid process comes this Wednesday, when Chicago is expected to be among three to five cities the International Olympic Committee’s executive board chooses as finalists. That decision will rely heavily on an IOC working group’s report evaluating eleven areas of each city’s bid, based on documents the applicants submitted to the IOC in January. Designation as a finalist — officially called a “candidate city” — means the IOC believes the city is technically capable of being an Olympic host. The 2016 bidders also include Tokyo, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, Prague, Doha (Qatar), and Baku (Azerbaijan). Prague and Baku are almost certain to be eliminated.

The Chicago Tribune’s Philip Hersh writes that politics, friendships, and emotions become factors when the IOC members choose the winner 2 October 2009, but weaknesses exposed by the working group’s report will be persistent negatives if a city cannot find ways to defuse them. According to Doug Arnot, Chicago 2016 venues and games operations director, transportation is a potential weakness, particularly for a bid working with a largely antiquated public transportation system. Among the other strong bids, Tokyo and Madrid have more modern subway systems and more extensive rail networks. “We wouldn’t be surprised to see some remarks [in the report] on transportation,” Arnot said. “They (IOC members) know there is good infrastructure, but it has a bit of history to it. We expect that is going to be a bit of concern on their part.” Many cities have used the Olympics as a catalyst for improvements in transportation. Salt Lake City found that federal money for highway upgrades suddenly become much more available after it was named 2002 Winter Games host.

The IOC has issued overall rankings of all the bidders only in the last three Olympic host city selections. The highest-rated city was the eventual winner only once-Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympics. London, the 2012 Olympic Games host, finished considerably behind Paris and Madrid (which were virtually tied at the top) in the working group’s report, and the British immediately changed the leadership of the bid committee. Sochi, Russia, the 2014 Winter Games host, was a distant third to the other finalists, Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Salzburg, Austria. Beijing, the 2008 winner, had the highest ranking in only one of the eleven areas evaluated, which include government support, transportation, security, finance, and past sports events experience. “The grade is less important than the response to the grade,” Arnot said.