Chicago's 2016 Olympic Games bid team will present visiting international Olympic officials with a plan that includes the building of the billion-dollar Olympic Village in phases so that it can be used before the games, bid officials said Tuesday.
The International Olympic Committee's evaluation team will arrive?in Chicago?on Thursday to assess Chicago's bid. The team of 16 evaluators will get a chance to size up first-hand all of the promises Chicago 2016 made in the bid book submitted to the IOC in February.
"They're here to verify a lot of what was in the bid book," Chicago 2016 Chairman Patrick Ryan said. "They want to kick the tires. ... They want to see it."
Amid some questions about Chicago's ability to finance the Games without the usual blanket government guarantee, Chicago 2016 officials need to buttress their plans for putting on sporting events with a combination of public and private promises to guarantee the construction costs, Ryan said.
At the center of that financing question lies the planned Olympic Village on the site of Michael Reese Hospital.
Ryan and Chicago 2016 President Lori Healey said their plans call for a mixture of housing, which includes student housing that could be built in phases before the Games. The key would be tenancy agreements that vacated the apartments during the Games for the use of athletes and Olympic personnel.
Chicago is one of the four cities bidding for the 2016 Summer Games. The other three are Toyto, Madrid and Rio De Janeiro.
(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2009)
