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News Tue May 27 2008
Second-Hand Games
To some it may seem like a great example of recycling, but there's something unseemly about being offered a leftover stadium to use should Chicago win its bid for the 2016 Olympics. But there stands London offering to give the city the bulk of the stadium they plan on using for their own 2012 Olympics. The plan calls for London to give at least 55,000 seats from the eventual 80,000-seat stadium to Chicago to be used in Washington Park.
It sounds like something Mayor Daley and the rest of the Chicago Olympic committee would definitely be intersted in, given that their ever-inflating estimates for the games are a continual source of scrutiny. Anything they can use to show that the games won't cause the city any further financial hardship will be held aloft for all to see like the baby Kunta Kinte in Roots. But a second-hand stadium that's supposed to hold 55,000 people transported across the ocean? Is that even safe? And would the haughty International Olympic Committee look down their collective noses at this hand-me-down gesture?
Anybody want to buy a slightly used Olympic flame?