July 22, 2009
On June 30, 2009 the Chicago City Council passed a resolution asking the Civic Federation to conduct a review of the financial projections made by Chicago 2016 for the City’s bid for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Specifically, the resolution asked the Federation to deliver a report and recommendations to the City Council on Chicago’s financing of the 2016 games and any financial impact on taxpayers.
On July 14, 2009, the Civic Federation accepted the City Council’s request and agreed to undertake an independent review of the revenue and expenditure projections of the proposed 2016 Chicago Olympic Games.
Given the extremely tight time frame in which to complete the project, the Civic Federation has engaged L.E.K. Consulting to assist in its analysis. L.E.K. is an international strategic financial consulting group headquartered in London with extensive experience examining Olympic-sized sporting events.
The Federation’s work will be guided by an advisory group of experts drawn from the Civic Federation and other independent institutions.
The project will review the fairness and reasonableness of the underlying assumptions and financial projections contained in the 2016 Olympic bid proposal including: a) revenue and expenditure reports, b) construction contracts and c) insurance guarantees.
To ensure that the City Council has adequate time to evaluate and consider the findings of the report, the project will be completed no later than August 28, 2009.
Chicago is competing against three other cities for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games: Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, and Madrid. The International Olympic Committee will select the winning city on October 2, 2009.