By Kathy Bergen | Chicago’s unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Olympics raised $75.9 million,
and spent $59.4 million of the total on its 42-month campaign, bid
leader Patrick Ryan disclosed Monday. World Sport Chicago, a non-profit created as an affiliate of the bid,
received the other $16.5 million, including $6 million that will support
future sports programs.
“Although unsuccessful in our attempt to bring the 2016 Games to
Chicago, we believe the bid showcased the greatness of our city and its
citizens to the world, and inspired tens of thousands of Chicago youth
to become engaged in sport,” Ryan said in a prepared statement.
The final report comes three days after the Chicago 2016 bid organization filed its federal tax forms for 2009. Chicago’s bid was eliminated in the first round of voting by the International Olympic Committee on Oct. 2, 2009 in Copenhagen, ultimately losing out to Rio de Janeiro.
The final tally includes money raised through cash contributions, event revenues, merchandise sales and interest income. The bid also received $16.2 million in donated goods and services, bringing total resources to $92.1 million.
The tax filing also detailed the highest-paid employees and independent contractors.
Ryan, the founding chairman of Aon Corp., worked on a pro bono basis, but the organization had 13 other employees whose total compensation packages, including salary, bonus and benefits, exceeded $100,000 last year.
The top five packages went to David Bolger, a former key Aon executive who served as the bid’s chief operating officer ($491,584), Douglas Arnot, senior vice president for sport ($388,984), John Murray, a McKinsey & Co. veteran who was chief bid officer ($388,738), Richard Ludwig, treasurer and chief financial officer ($366,414), and Lori Healey, a former chief of staff to Mayor Richard Daley who served as president of the bid ($240,720).
The five top contractors were Ogilvy & Mather, for web site design and maintenance ($1.21 million), Hill & Knowlton Inc., communications consulting ($1.17 million), ProActive, a Freeman company, event production ($641,339), DeMarsh Construction Co., construction services ($452,129), and RSA Films Inc., film production ($407,481).
While the bid was privately financed, the city of Chicago became financially involved through its $91 million purchase last summer of the Michael Reese Hospital grounds as a potential site for an Olympic Village. The city intends to resell the property for private development before its first payments on the purchase come due in another four years.
I am so unceasingly grateful to the No Games Chicago coalition for working FOR FREE to stop the Games from coming to Chicago. Those who know the whole story know how crucial their efforts were to saving Chicago taxpayers (and federal tax payers) from being gouged by the IOC and Daley’s friends. Good luck Rio!
As a result of the Chicago 2016 related unnecessary and ill advised purchase of the Michael Reese campus with taxpayer dollars, Dictator Daley has been able to have an Olympic sized temper tantrum that has included destroy buildings designed by WALTER GROPIUS. First time Gropius buildings have been intentionally destroyed. Helluva legacy Dickie!! Shows the world what a real world class cultural rube you truly are.
Who is Walter Gropius?
Walter Gropius is an architect of the Bauhaus school. He also designed the former Pan Am Building (now the Met Life building) in New York. No doubt he would have been thrilled about his building being destroyed in the name of patronage disguised as sports.
It wasn’t just one Gropius building it was a collection of 4 or 5 that were destroyed, using tax dollars, to prepare the site for ….. Folks there is no plan for that site. The “greenest” construction is adaptive reuse not destruction and rebuilding. Toni Preckwinkle also bears responsibility for this cultural destruction by not demanding that nothing be done without a plan. She caved to Daley!
Who cares about Gropius and his has been designs, anyway?
Have you been to the metlife bldg? It is quite unspectacular and boring. I am an architecture buff, but do remember that Chicago was at one time (no longer) notable for its architecture precisely because new things were built from the ashes of the fire. Now all the modern architecture is built in Asia or Europe or Middle East. Time for America to realize very few things are really worth saving.
And to all who think Chicago is better off without the games, you people are the reason America is joke in the world today, a place still living off the riches created in the 50s and 60s when it was a beacon to the rest of the world. Nobody in the world knows Chicago as anything but a backwater compared to NYC or LA or SF or even Miami (unbelievable). You cannot sustain success without making some investment, and America has stopped investing in itself. Today a lot of places in the world are richer than the USA.
ALL THE head honchos got paid well and fortunately for US taxpayers we dodged a cannonball of debt.
Trickey dickey daley still gets his pacifier of Obama-a-rama federal cash.
Thank God, Chicago 2016 (and the Mayor) bought the dumpy Michael Reese Hospital complex. Reese has long been in disrepair and to those whiners, a Gropius structure was spared and will be refurbished to its original state.
New modern retail and residential structures are needed for this lakefront portion of Bronzeville. They didn’t need 2 hospitals in such close vicinity anyway, as Mercy Hospital is only several blocks away and Advocate Medical Group’s Bronzeville office is based there.
People who are against progress and change should not live in the nation’s 3rd largest city, they should move to a shack out in nowhere, where nothing ever changes, except the seasons!!!
All the yuppies decry the destruction of the Gropius-designed Michael Reese Hospital… but would they have ever gone there for treatment?
No.
@jojo
Actually, the yuppies are still decrying why the money matters, the olympics would’ve been great… get a clue.
@forget gropius
I’m calling your bluff… name 1 country (just 1) who has a higher product per capita than the US.
Personally, I’d hope a country like China where 1/3 of the world’s population resides has a higher gross national product than the US, but I’m pretty we earn more per capita.
Sure… investment is great. Can you imagine what $91,000,000 would’ve done for the city proper? Or the $1,210,000 spent on the olympic 2016 website?
Maybe you’re just dense, but the ones who didn’t want the olympics weren’t opposed to investments in the city; we’re actually just questioning why invest that amount of money into a single invent when, for instance, only 1 out of 2 public school students will graduate.
You say, “Today a lot of places in the world are richer than the USA.” Do you think it might have to do with how THEY SPEND their money? Perhaps on things that aren’t a single event?
@terry re: per capita income
1 Qatar 83,841
2 Luxembourg 78,395
3 Norway 52,561
4 Singapore 50,523
5 Brunei 49,110
6 United States 46,381
The biggest mistake was ever thinking the Olympics would be awarded TO Chicago. It was signed sealed and delivered to Brazil long before the “dog and pony” shows started.
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