SCALPING OLYMPIC TICKETS

SCALPING OLYMPIC TICKETS Last year I attended a forum where I questioned Chicago 2016 Chairman Patrick Ryan abut the cost of tickets to attend Olympic events. In his speech Ryan spoke of how the Olympics were for “the children of Chicago,” as he played staged footage of CPS students excited at the idea that the games might be here. I asked Ryan how the “children of Chicago,” would be able to afford Olympic tickets when they couldn’t afford tickets to a Cubs, Sox or Bears game. He replied that the Committee hoped that businesses would sponsor tickets for children to attend the games. Well, I think the recently released Chicago Civic Federation report will disabuse that notion! Their report estimates that opening tickets will sell for $1,645 (add another $148 for amusement tax) and tickets to the men’s soccer finals would cost $486. You tell me what corporation is going to “sponsor” a child to attend those events! Ryan did also say that viewing of rowing events would be free at the lakefront. I asked some children if they cared about rowing events and I could not find a single one who cared to even watch it on TV. David Greising, in his column in the Chicago Tribune, wrote, “The Civic Federation gave a remarkably robust go-ahead to the Olympics bid on Wednesday. The financial watchdog group's president, Laurence Msall, stepped before microphones in City Hall and declared that the Chicago 2016 projection of a $451 million financial surplus is "fair and reasonable." Greising continued with, “Take a careful look at Msall's report, and one can only wonder: Did he read the darn thing? Greising did his own analysis of the Federation report and points out that , “Between now and the Games, a mere 1 percent difference in the annual growth rate of sponsorship revenue adds up to a $234 million shortfall. A 10 percent increase in construction costs would lop $146 million from the budgeted surplus, not that construction projects in Chicago ever go over budget. Employee benefits are budgeted at 25 percent of salary, when the going rate in Chicago is 30 percent, the report notes. The cost difference? Some $25.5 million. The bid committee budgets $9 million in outside legal costs. That may sound like a lot, but it's less than one-third the estimate of the bid committee's own legal department, which pegged the cost at between $25 million and $40 million.” I also ask, did Laurence Msall read his own committee’s report before his held his City Hall press conference? Maybe the 100 plus page review was too long for him to finish and he just went with the “good parts.” The only fact I know about 2016 is that if we get the Olympics, I will not attend a single event. I will buy tickets and sell them at a premium. I will need the profit to help pay my share of the cost over-runs bill to taxpayers when the games are concluded.