Mayor Daley at World Cup opening ceremony
1 media/EXH_RMD16_07_0119_0007_002_005-Edit_thumb.jpg 2020-06-11T13:47:16-05:00 Allan Berry ecbff91fd95c913af0b15c5fb02dfea79da3c78a 5 4 Mayor Richard M. Daley stands with President Bill Clinton and other dignitaries during the opening ceremonies of the World Cup in Chicago, April 1994. EXH_RMD16_07_0119_0007_002_005-Edit plain 2020-07-07T16:30:19-05:00 1994-04 Dan Harper eff3db32ed95b3efe91d381826e2c10c145cd452This page is referenced by:
-
1
media/EXH_RMD16_07_0119_0007_001_031.jpg
2020-04-16T13:18:38-05:00
World Cup 1994
45
plain
2021-01-29T16:26:14-06:00
In the early 1990s, soccer was not as popular in Chicago as it would later become. But it was the most popular sport around the world, drawing billions of television viewers.
Mayor Daley saw the chance to host parts of the World Cup festivities as a tremendous economic opportunity for the city. The events would draw tens of thousands of visitors and millions of dollars into Chicago’s economy. The mayor's staff also saw the World Cup as a chance to elevate the city’s image around the world.
In a memo to Mayor Daley, Kathy Osterman, director of the Mayor’s Office of Special Events, pointed out that with the eyes of global soccer fans aimed at the host city, the sporting event would be “an unparalleled opportunity to encourage subsequent tourism by showing the world how beautiful Chicago is as a city.”
Gery Chico explains that the city used the World Cup to present Chicago to global leaders:
Sarah Pang explains that the World Cup was Chicago's “coming out to the whole world,” an early effort in a long-term campaign to attract global attention to Chicago--but the mayor also invited the city's diverse communities to help build the international connections:
At a press conference announcing Chicago's successful bid to serve as a host site for World Cup, Mayor Daley said,We have every ethnic and racial group here in this city, and world soccer will help portray Chicago as an international city.
