June 13, 2006

Chicago stadiums: Can't stop at just one

Headline on the website of one of Chicago's TV stations:

Collapsible Stadium Proposed For Chicago Olympics

Wow, is that ever not the image they wanted.

The actual story is a bit less dramatic: As part of its bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, one option being considered is to build a temporary stadium on the Chicago waterfront. (Soldier Field, which was gutted and rebuilt in 2002 at tremendous public cost, has too few seats to host Olympic opening and closing ceremonies, and has too small a field surface to use for track events.) As stadium consultant Marc Ganis told the Chicago Sun-Times:

"You build a stadium for a designated number of seats. But you don't put a brick facade on the building or worry about what the outside walls look like because they'll be covered with banners anyway. You don't use a lot of granite and stone. That's how you reduce the cost from $600 million to $300 million."

Save $300 million by skimping on granite? If that's really possible, I can think of another city that might want to consider it.