Excerpt:
Earlier events that placed Chicago on an international stage, Ms. Healey said, also came during periods of financial gloom: a World’s Fair in 1893 and again in 1933.
To hear Ms. Healey and other bid leaders tell it, there is no downside. If the International Olympics Committee were to choose Chicago over Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo on Oct. 2, advocates predict the Games would not only break even but would also make money (as have, they say, earlier Olympics in the United States), generate more than $22 billion in indirect economic impact on the city and create $1 billion in new tax revenue. Many of the sites needed for the events would not require construction because they already exist.
Organizers say private financial support is mounting, with $60 million raised so far for the bid, and no city dollars are expected to be needed for either the bid or the Games.
On that last point, however, residents of Chicago seem skeptical. They have heard promises before.
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