An Olympic bronze medalist wrestler and a Pro Bowl safety discussed the Chicago 2016 Olympic bid in front of about 60 Northwestern students Thursday.
World Sport Chicago Chairman Bill Scherr, a former Olympic wrestler, and NU Athletic Director Mark Murphy, a former player on the NFL’s Washington Redskins, were the featured speakers at a business symposium at the McCormick Tribune Center, hosted by the Ayers College of Commerce and Industry.
The event, “Chicago 2016: The Olympic Bid, The World is Watching” focused on the bid’s implications for the city of Chicago and NU.
Murphy said the Chicago 2016 campaign had a “heavy NU flavor to it.” Murphy and University President Henry Bienen are participating in the effort. In addition, NU Board of Trustees Chairman Pat Ryan was named the head of the Chicago Olympic effort.
If Chicago is selected, Ryan Field would host preliminary matches for men’s and women’s soccer, and NU athletic facilities would be used as practice sites for swimming, wrestling, field hockey and volleyball, Murphy said.
“The selection of Chicago would have a huge economic impact (on Evanston),” he said. “If we’re hosting soccer matches, there’s going to be an enormous financial gain with restaurants and hotels.”
Scherr cited statistics from the 2000 Summer Olympic games in Sydney, Australia, where 6.7 million tickets were sold, 3.7 billion people watched on television and about $7 billion flowed into the city. These numbers would be even higher for Chicago because the Olympics have been growing every year, he said.
McCormick sophomore David Wu said he thought hosting soccer matches would benefit the university.
“Especially with preliminary soccer games at Ryan and with soccer as such an international sport, NU would be getting a lot of media attention,” Wu said.
Murphy added that hosting soccer matches also could be an interesting experience for residents.
“If we think that Ohio State football fans are rabid, wait until we see some of these soccer fans,” he said.
Murphy said a Chicago Olympics would increase the visibility of the city and NU, especially internationally.
But the pursuit of the bid also could cost a significant amount of money. Chicago is planning to spend between $2 billion and $4 billion in their attempt to be selected, Scherr said. The money will go to advertising, city improvements and hosting Olympic officials. However, he said it should not result in increased taxes for residents.
“There will be no tax raise, as (Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley) has made clear through about 65 speeches,” Scherr said.
The bid could result in major improvements to the infrastructure of the city, including the Chicago Transit Authority system, Murphy said.
“We could be dramatically changing the CTA system in Chicago, which everybody agrees needs to be done,” he said. “The Olympic bid could spur that (change).”
The speakers also addressed the chances of Chicago winning the bid. After beating out Los Angeles for the U.S. selection, it now faces stiff competition from seven cities. Its main competitors are Rio Janeiro, Brazil; Madrid, Spain; and Tokyo, Scherr said. The other candidates are Doha, Qatar; Prague, Czech Republic; and Baku, Azerbaijan.
United States Olympic Committee President Peter Ueberroth recently said Chicago was in fourth place in the competition, with little chance of winning.
But it’s too early in the competition to predict the winner, Scherr said.
“You could throw a blanket over the top four candidates,” he said. “It’s very close.”
The biggest barrier to the Chicago bid is the international perception of the U.S. worldwide, Scherr said.
“The number one issue with the bid is that Americans are disliked globally,” he said. “If the Bush administration (was in place at the time of the vote), we’d have no chance to win the games.”
Despite this obstacle, both speakers said they were optimistic Chicago will be selected when the International Olympic Committee convenes in Denmark in October 2009.
“I think (we’re) going to be in the running,” Murphy said. “It’ll be exciting for Chicago and Northwestern.”
Reach Brian Rosenthal at [email protected].
