2016 Bid

Well, it's out there:

• Chicago Olympic bid officials said today the cost of presenting a summer games here in 2016 would be $4.8 billion — including $1 billion in construction and a $450 million “safety net” against shortfalls — the bulk of it privately financed.

  That safety net would be used before the city would be on the hook for up to $500 million if revenues fall short.

$4.8 billion. That's quite a sum for a municipality to be throwing around. We still wonder about that "privately financed" thing though. There was a comment berating us about how he'd rather take the word of a self made billionaire over a bunch of cops. Maybe he'd like to take a look at these recent articles in the news:

• LONDON—As Chicagoans get their first peek Friday at the details of the city's 2016 Olympic proposal, they might keep in mind how much anticipation and excitement greeted the unveiling of London's "bid book" in 2004.
  
  Organizers here also envisioned a grand, affordable Games, putting the price tag at $4.9 billion. These Olympics, in similar fashion to some of the elements in Chicago's proposed Games, were to be paid for in part with corporate sponsorships and heavy private investment in an athletes village that could be sold afterward for a profit.
  
  [...] Five years later, the price tag for the 2012 Games has nearly tripled to $13.5 billion, the result of unexpected cost increases that have dogged nearly every Olympics. A growing recession, which some fear may be Britain's worst since the 1930s, has darkened London's financial picture, just as the U.S. downturn may threaten Chicago's.

Or this one:

• VANCOUVER -[...] The Vancouver Games have an operating budget of $1.63 billion -- a $104 million increase over the original budget that was developed about two years ago.

  Games security was originally estimated at $140 million to be split between the provincial and federal governments. The Canadian government has since acknowledged that cost could be as high as $800 million -- or 1 billion in Canadian funds.

  British Columbia's finance minister Colin Hansen acknowledged Monday that B.C.'s share of security costs will "likely" blow a hole in the province's total Games budget.

So do you still want to take the word of a "self made billionaire" who probably doesn't live in Chicago, doesn't pay Chicago taxes, has never risked a dime of his own money or his company's money on something like an Olympics...

...or maybe, just maybe, take a look around at the trove of public information that says we're on the right track of who is really going to see any sort of financial benefit from these Games. It isn't the person looking back at you in the mirror every morning. Trust us.