In 2008, I wrote for the official website affiliated with seeking the 2016 Olympic bid for Chicago. I was one of four writers chosen to pen articles (essentially de facto PR) about the city and why it would make the perfect host. I blogged for NBC Chicago back then, and the three other writers selected for this project were also all from NBC Chicago’s website.
Given the extremely interwoven relationship between the Olympics and NBC Sports Group, it’s fairly obvious why Chicago 2016 chose this as the recruiting ground. My specialty was sports, the other three were lifestyle/entertainment, environmental/green and tech/infrastructure.
Despite the fact that I wrote for the official Chicago 2016 channel in the push to bring the games here, I was relieved when I learned my hometown wasn’t getting the Olympics. This despite the fact I know Chicago would have done a much better job preparing for them than Rio.
However, just because you can do something better than someone else doesn’t mean you should. Our city grapples with many of the issues Rio faces. Both cities are all too familiar with gang violence, conflicts with police, corrupt local government, crumbling infrastructure and large neighborhoods defined by crippling poverty.
As Shakespeare wrote, “what’s past is prologue,” and if you knew Chicago’s past history that fateful day in 2009, you also realized that Rio didn’t actually “beat us out.” While a Summer Olympics brings numerous problems for the host city, most of the issues fade from the public consciousness in time.
There is one problem, however, that inevitably lingers for decades: the diversion of public funds to subsidize privately owned sporting venues.
Be sure to check out the photo gallery on the RedEye website too. It has artist renderings of the proposed Olympic sites as well as photos and descriptions of what those sites look like today.
Yes, the public funding of privately owned sporting cathedrals- the very notion sickens me. It’s graft in its purest, most egregious form. The common stadium swindle defines the modern olympics and creates financial ruin on host cities.
Something wicked this way comes, and when you watch the opening ceremonies tonight in Rio, just be glad that this Olympic wickedness never came Chicago’s way.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.