AN OLYMPIAN HIAWATHA? Chicago has been chasing the 2016 Olympics, and the neighbors want a piece of the action.

A Chicago Olympics would likely bring more than a half million people to the Windy City. A few events could end up within a short drive of Milwaukee, including the possibility of mountain biking at Kettle Moraine State Forest's southern unit. But most of the competition would take place in and near downtown Chicago, and most visitors would probably book hotel rooms as close as possible to those venues.

Still, with that many people pouring into town, there would be a spillover into southeastern Wisconsin, said Patrick Sandusky, spokesman for the Chicago 2016 Committee, which is organizing the city's Olympics bid. Even Milwaukee, which is 90 miles away, could benefit, in part because of the Amtrak trains that run several times a day between the two cities, he said.

No train service is likely to be available, unfortunately, to a potential playing field for the soccer preliminaries.


By 2016, construction on the locker room should be finished. I suspect that the end-zones will not be converted into terraces so that the yobs will feel at home.