Chicago`s winning effort to bring World Cup soccer games here in 1994 got a big leg up from people strongly grounded in the sport. Much of the letter-writing, cajoling and fundraising was done by Chicago hoteliers who grew up in countries where soccer was often the only game in town.
To many of these businessmen-fans, the chance to have the games and images of the city broadcast to more than 1 1/2 billion people worldwide-an audience that dwarfs football`s Super Bowl and baseball`s World Series combined-far outweighs in importance even the $200 million direct economic impact the mayor`s office predicts.
The World Cup committee Monday designated Chicago as one of nine cities in which games in the tournament will be played. Chicago hoteliers contributed $50,000 to the fund to help win the bid, said Arnold Karr, executive director of the Hotel-Motel Association of Illinois.
Still to be determined is whether Chicago will be the site of the elaborate opening ceremonies, or whether Team USA will be among those assigned to play at Solider Field. But even if neither happens, hoteliers here insist the publicity surrounding the World Cup will be worth the investment.
”Chicago is the best city in America, but nobody in other countries knows about it,” said Richard Bayard, the Swiss general manager of Swissotel Chicago.
”I`m always so disappointed when I go to London or some other European city and I tell them I`m from Chicago. They look at me with pity. I say,
`Don`t look at me like that; I live in the most beautiful city in the United States.”
The negative Chicago image that still smacks more of Al Capone than of architecture, the lakefront and the Chicago Symphony, continues to be an unnecessary drag on internationally based business, he said. The World Cup, he and his colleagues predict, will bring a chance for positive exposure no other event could equal.
”I was at the Olympic Games in Seoul,” said Bayard. ”Since then, Korea has come out of the dark as far as worldwide perception is concerned. And who ever heard of Albertville in France before these last winter Olympics?
”The financial feedback from the World Cup will come from getting Chicago into the eyes of the world.”
The games will be held in June and July, ”when our business is normally fairly good,” said the Hotel-Motel Association`s Karr. ”But we wouldn`t be promising facilities if we couldn`t deliver. The Chicago metropolitan area has 64,000 hotel rooms. The hoteliers will be careful not to jeopardize our normal business. This (the World Cup) is nice, but you only get this once in a lifetime. We need the bread-and-butter business that comes in here every year. We don`t want to tick anybody off. Some groups may have to stay a little farther from downtown than normal, and some might have to be moved out to the suburban area.”
Gerald Roper, president of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, said the hotel community has been asked to set aside 7,500 to 10,000 rooms for every night during the games.
That`s welcome news for Paul Tang, general manager of the Hyatt Regency O`Hare Hotel.
”Of course we will do our best to compete with downtown to get our share of the business,” said Tang. ”Most of the major teams and fans will stay downtown, but there has to be a residual effect. The normal vacationers and businessmen who can`t get a room downtown at that time will come farther out.”
Tang grew up in Hong Kong, where he played soccer every day before school and then again after school.
Now his son, Christopher, 8, plays soccer in Naperville in the Wheatland Soccer Federation. The federation has teams for grown-ups too, but Tang, 42, doesn`t play, contenting himself with watching Christopher play Saturday afternoons.
”I`m not in shape now,” said Tang.
Most Americans have little idea how popular the game is in other countries, he said.
”It`s very emotional, very passionate. Many times you see riots; you`ve seen on television that people have gotten killed at games in Britain.”
Mexicans love soccer, but it will be ”a little bit hard” for many of them to come to the U.S. for the games,” said Gloria Ortiz, president of the family corporation that owns El Jardin Restaurant on Clark Street near Wrigley Field.
”The economy`s not that great there,” she said. ”But those who do come will be fanatics. A lot of Mexicans have families here, and they will come and stay with their families. It`s going to bring a lot of tourism into Chicago. I will have a sign saying `welcome` to fans, and we`ll put a couple of ads in Spanish newspapers.”
Two years ago, on the final day of the last World Cup, Gerhard Seibert, general manager of the Chicago Hilton & Towers, happened to be on vacation, driving with his wife to Rochester, N.Y., on a Sunday morning.
Seibert, who grew up in Wurzburg in southern Germany, is a ”soccer enthusiast.”
”We stopped four or five times at gas stations and hotels to find out who might have that cable station,” he said. ”We were told there was a restaurant and bar in one of the suburbs. When we got there it was closed, but there were people inside working. We convinced the manager-at least I assume it was the manager-to open the restaurant for us an hour early. Germany was playing Argentina. Germany won.”
