Chicago's Mayor Daley and his Olympic task force revealed a revised stadium plan for the 2016 Olympic Games. This plan calls for a two-tiered 95,000-seat stadium to be built in Washington Park on the city's south side. The stadium would be used for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as track and field events. When the games end, the top tier will be removed. What will remain is a 10,000-seat facility for local track and field events, and other community activities.
The previous plan to have a collapsible stadium built between Soldier Field and McCormick Place had too many loopholes and did not make a positive impression with the USOC. This one does a better job of fulfilling the USOC's requirement of having the stadium as part of the city's long-term civic and economic plan. It certainly will help our south side neighbors by bringing in jobs and revenue. Plus the community will have a facility they can use for many years to come.
The location of the proposed stadium could cause some problems. Is there enough public transportation and parking lots available to accommodate the crowds that would attend events there? Would people be willing to travel several miles south of downtown?
Opponents of the plan have suggested that the mayor is presenting the south side stadium plan as a political ploy. What else is new? Aren't most of these major developments politically motivated?
They also say that because the stadium is so far south, viewers will lose sight of the lakefront skyline as a backdrop. That may be true, but with so many camera crews expected to cover the Olympics, we'll likely see alternate views of the city anyway.
Any way you look at it, the new stadium plan is a huge improvement over the previous version.
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