Olympic Hype One Year Later!

NBC Chicago aired a “documentary” on the 2016 Olympic bid tonight, “Making Big Plans: The Story of Chicago’s Olympic Dreams.” The film was made by Mark Mitten, who was the Chief Brand Officer of the 2016 Committee, and Jim Schmidt, a creative director for Downtown Partners/Chicago – which did marketing work for the bid.

WATCH THE HALF-HOUR VIDEO ON VEOH.COM

According to the Chicago Sun-Times’ Lewis Lazare…

“the documentary ends on a hopeful note with a chapter called “The Beginning or the End?” In this segment, Mitten and Schmidt present comments from several expert sources suggesting the city would be smart to go after the Olympics again. Though the bid failed, Patrick Sandusky, the chief spokesman for the Chicago 2016 committee, is seen at the end of the documentary noting it gave the city a massive amount of marketing exposure on a global scale that otherwise might have taken 30 or 40 years to get. And the bid has left as its legacy World Sport Chicago, a program to train Chicago athletes who just might compete in the Olympics when the Games finally do come to our city.”

Of course, these Olympic pitchmen didn’t check in with any of the No Games Chicago team. We could’ve told them the Other Sode of the “Olympic Dream.” We might’ve mentioned how the citizens of Vancouver lost hundreds of acres of old growth forest, of the violations of civil liberties, of the death of an athlete on the first day of competition and of the $1.5 BILLION DEBT THE CITIZENS OF VANCOUVER MUST NOW DEAL WITH. Oh, and we might’ve also mentioned that the 2013 London games are $10 BILLION OVER BUDGET.

Memo to candidates lining up to run for Mayor. No Games 2020.

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