City Considers Olympic Stadium Proposals

Only one major obstacle stands in the way of Mayor Daley’s dream of hosting the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Chicago: an Olympic Stadium.

After reviewing numerous stadium ideas, three have emerged for consideration. Each proposal has its merits.

1) Build a “collapsible” stadium between McCormick Place and Soldier Field. It would not have a lot of bells and whistles, which will keep costs down. When the Olympic Games are over, pieces of it can be sold, such as the seats and scoreboard. It appears to be the most feasible option and won’t upset lakefront preservationists.

I do wish they would come up with a better name than “collapsible.” The term conjures up images of houses we used to build as kids made of everything from toothpicks and Popsicle sticks to cardboard boxes and playing cards. One gust of wind, and I can just see that Olympic Stadium collapse, just as the name suggests.

2) Retrofit Soldier Field. The new Soldier Field, which just opened before the 2004 regular season, holds 61,500 seats. This plan calls for removing the video scoreboards at the ends of the field and putting in 20,000 temporary seats. The problem is, the field is a better fit for football than it is for track and field, and to make any adjustments to the field, the city probably would need consent from the Bears.

My question is this: Why didn’t the city rebuild the new Soldier Field as an Olympic-sized, 80,000-seat stadium to begin with? Then our city would already have a stadium in place, and we wouldn’t even have to have this discussion.

3) Tear down McCormick Place and build a new, permanent facility in its place. The mayor thinks McCormick Place East is an eyesore and wants to replace it anyway. But it is the most costly and politically volatile option.

The mayor and his aides have until March 31, 2007, to have a plan in place for an Olympic Stadium. That’s when the U.S. Olympic Committee will select a U.S. city and submit a bid to the International Olympic Committee. The 80,000 to 100,000-seat stadium would be used for track and field events and the opening and closing ceremonies.

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