Chicago 2016 bid

from this afternoon's Crain's Chicago Business (9/12):

Chicago’s Olympics bid about changing image: 2016 chief
By John Pletz
Sept. 12, 2008

"(Crain’s) — After two trips to Beijing in the past six weeks, Patrick G. Ryan is more convinced than ever that Chicago’s best chance for winning its bid to host the Olympics is geography — hosting the games in a relatively compact swath of land along the lakefront near the city’s hotels, museums and other attractions.
“If you look at Beijing, the games were far out,” Mr. Ryan, CEO of the Chicago 2016 bid committee, told the Executives’ Club of Chicago on Friday morning. “London’s will be at the East End. And that’s OK. But in Chicago, they can be in the center city.” Mr. Ryan unveiled Chicago’s slogan — “In the center of the city, in the heart of a nation” — in a video used to market the city’s bid. The bid committee will underscore the point even more in the next few months as it revises its plans for the games before submitting a final proposal to the International Olympic Committee in February. Mr. Ryan says Chicago doesn’t expect major changes to its bid.

The city is competing against Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro to host the Summer Games eight years from now. The decision will be made in October 2009." ...

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