Top 10 Reasons to Pick Chicago

Today I am starting a David Letterman style top ten list - but instead of providing comedy, I hope to inform with the Top 10 Reasons to Pick Chicago for the 2016 Summer Games. In true Letterman style, today we start with Reason Number 10:

Reason Number 10: O'Hare Airport and Chicago’s Location – Chicago’s location provides something that very few other U.S. cities have – it is central. Chicago is in the middle of the nation and is easy for people on the East Coast and West Coast, North and South to get to. This is evidenced by the fact that O’Hare International Airport is consistently the busiest airport in the world. Not only does O’Hare provide a gateway for international travel but it is the best airports in the country for U.S. travel. From O’Hare it is approximately 2 hours to the East coast, 2 hours to most of the South and Southwest and 4 hours or less to most of the West coast. And we don't just have O'Hare in Chicago - we also have the smaller, but typically lower cost, Midway International Airport.

Beyond O’Hare and Midway, the City of Chicago is within reach of much of the country by car! Most of the Midwest and much of the South can easily reach Chicago with less than a day’s car ride. The combination of O’hare airport and Chicago’s proximity to most of the U.S. makes Chicago the best place in the U.S. to hold what will be the most accessible North American games to date. The Olympics is about amateur sport. That is, sport that is supported by the people. It is only appropriate that it be accessible to as many people as possible. That is reason number 10 that the U.S. Olympic Committee should select Chicago as the bid city for the 2016 Olympic Games.