Chicagons Split After Olympic Bid Goes To Rio

(Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

At its heart and soul, Chicago is a city fueled by sports and politics.  In the neighborhood bars in the City and Suburbs, the talk will most likely center around one of those two.  The attempted Olympic bid was the perfect convergence of the two in bars and on sports talk radio shows throughout Chicagoland. 

When it was announced that Chicago failed to make it past the first round of votes for the right to host the 2016 Summer Olympics it set off passions on both sides of the issue from Chicagoans everywhere. Its been three weeks since the announcement was made, Chicago has moved on but the lingering passion of losing the Olympics remains.

As decision day drew closer, the support for Chicago 2016 seemed to be waning.  Most of the polls that were being taken indicated about a 50 percent split for the bid.  This topic wasn't  for the meek, people had strong feelings either way on the bid.  Those that were in favor of the bid have suggested as strong as the US boycotting the games in light of the loss (of course this is not going to happen), or at least, fans boycotting viewing any of the Olympics in 2016. 

Chicagoans are a very proud group.  It took 40 years to shed the international stereotype of a city of gangsters.  Siskel and Ebert at the Movies, Air Jordan and John Hughes in the eighties, Oprah in the nineties and now Barak Obama have put Chicago on the map as a diverse international city. During a trip to Israel in 1985, when I told my cab driver I was from Chicago he commented "Michael Jordan, Al Capone, bang, bang"

The modern Chicago is a city that has seen varying degrees of sports success and big events. Sports fans in their late thirties and over grew up "waiting until next year".  It was 22 years between titles in the four major sports.  The Bears won the 1963 NFL Championship and next won Super Bowl XX (1985 season). Cubs fans attended the Olympic rally at Daley Plaza in downtown Chicago took to flying the Cubs W flags and their "Its going to happen" signs.  That worked out about as well the Cubs success in the last century.

Chicago 2016 would have increased the Chicago's visibility as an international city. It would have been the largest event in Chicago since the 1893 Colombian Exposition (World Fair). As the October 2nd D-Day grew closer, Chicagoans were split about the prospect of Chicago hosting the world. Many people did not like the prospect of the "Daley Olympics" and possible burden of debt to the tax payers. Social Media has provided an interesting cross section of Chicagoans to view the how the announcement was received. 

The perception of many was that these Olympics were all about Chicago.  A Chicago police officer said to me "you live in the burbs. Living and working in this city, I put my Chicago street-cred up against yours any day"  This is a naive and arrogant view of the Olympics.  It takes much more than a single city to put on an Olympics. 

Venues at an Olympics span far greater than a city or even its Metropolitan area.  When Chicago hosted the 1994 World Cup and its opening ceremonies, volunteers and employees came from the entire Chicago area and the upper Midwest to assist in the effort to make the World Cup a success and help put Chicago on an international stage. 

If the Chicago 2016 had been successful, the venues would have extended far beyond the Chicago city limits. The modern pentathlon and aquatics were set to be staged at Northwestern University in Evanston, the shooting competition at Governors State in University Park, the Equestrian in far north suburban Oak Mill Creek and the road cycling was going to take place about 165 miles from Chicago, just west of Madison, Wisconsin. When the Olympics were awarded to Rio, the loss was felt far beyond the Chicago City Limits.

The disappointment of losing the Olympics vs. the exhilaration of them going to Rio has been an interesting battle. The Internet has provided an interesting modern forum for people to share thoughts, debate and gain information on virtually any issue.

The Chicago 2016 Olympic bid created a heated discussion on both sides.  Virtually any topic on the Internet brings many types of opinions.  These range from immature debates with name calling and making one more important than they really are. Social Media has made everyone into an expert.

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