Chicago is uber-pumped for 2016 Olympics

April 15th, 2008 | Posted by PostmanR

It’s still yet to be seen if Chicago is going to wrangle in the 2016 Summer Olympics — fingers crossed! — but if nothing else, the idea of it is certainly warming up to the city and its surrounding locales. For realz. Check out the results from this poll via Phil Hersh at the Trib:

The poll, taken during the peak of the Olympic torch relay protests April 7-9, showed 84 percent of respondents “supported” or “somewhat supported” having the Summer Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in Chicago. The poll respondents were from 16 counties in the Chicago metropolitan area as far away from the city center as Kankakee and northern Indiana.

When the United States Olympic Committee commissioned the same poll a year ago to determine levels of support in the two finalist cities, Chicago and Los Angeles, 76 percent were in favor.

There are obviously many positives here: top-notch athletic competition at your doorstep, exposure for the city, increased revenue streams, and the freaking Olympics would be here. Pretty neat. But, there are negatives. Crowded places become more crowded. Threat of terrorist attacks. Construction. People. Everywhere.

By the summer of 2016 I’ll be 31 years of age — it hurts just to type that number — so I’ll hopefully be covering the games from my hovercraft on my iPhone XXVI. Will we even know what basketball is by then? Perhaps Slamball will finally get the pub it deserves?

Stay tuned for the future!