What would an Olympics Games in Chicago look like? Here's an outline of the current plans.
On April 14, 2007, the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) announced that Chicago was selected over Los Angles to represent the United States in the effort to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Hosting the Olympics would have a huge impact on Chicago: new facilities, improved transportation, community revitalization and floods of new income. (Or, depending on who you talk to, gentrification and drained city funds.)

Before you start the celebrations or doomsday declarations, remember that we still have a long way to go before we know if Chicago is selected. Official international competition begins in late 2007 and ends in October 2009 with the announcement of the selected host city for the 2016 Games. International cities competing for 2016 have not been officially announced, but Madrid, Tokyo, Rio de Janeiro and Rome have already declared their intention to bid.

Speculating what might happen in 2016 (or after) is less reliable than filling in next year's March Madness bracket this July. We do have some clues, however, from the two world's fairs held in Chicago in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The World's Columbian Exposition in 1893 initiated construction of the Museum of Science and Industry and the Art Institute of Chicago. As for funding issues, the Century of Progress Exposition in 1933 was planned during the Great Depression. It was funded entirely with private money, and the exposition ended up being the first international fair in U.S. history that paid for itself. (It also ran for more than a year and a half.)

The two most notable construction projects for the Chicago Olympics would be the Olympic Stadium and Olympic Village. Washington Park would be the site of the Olympic Stadium, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies and the track and field events. The stadium will be an 80,000-seat temporary facility that will be converted post-Olympics into a 5,000-capacity venue (with expansion capability).

Positioned just south of McCormick Place, the Olympic Village would create 27 acres of new lakefront development. The location ensures that 88 percent of the athletes will live within 15 minutes of their competition venue. This is a major feature for the Olympic athletes. Next year at the China summer games, some athletes will have to take a 4-hour flight to their venue. After the games, the village would become private housing.

The Chicago 2016 proposal contains an unusually compact venue plan that is split between four clusters: north, south, central, and west. The plan utilizes existing structures such as: Northerly Island (cycling and beach volleyball), McCormick Place (wrestling, fencing, badminton and more), Solider Field (soccer or, as the rest of the world call it, football), North Avenue Beach (triathlon) and the United Center (basketball and some gymnastics).

The Olympics plan also borrows a Chicago staple: the course of the LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon. According to Executive Director Carey Pinkowski, most of the Olympic marathon route would be the same for first 22 miles as the current LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon course. At 35th Street, the course would continue south and finish at the Olympic Stadium. Due to Chicago's flat, fast course, this could be the very first time that a World's Best run be run at the Olympic Marathon: traditionally, Olympic marathon courses are hard and hilly.

The Olympic plan has all the makings of a lucky bride: something old (Soldier Field), something new (the stadium and the village), something borrowed (the marathon course), and, if you count Lake Michigan, even something blue. So will it be a white wedding or a failed engagement? Turn to page 46 for one opinion, and look in our September issue for another.