Chicago: The Best Sports City in the Country

Over the years there has been a running debate on which is the best sports city in the country. Candidates have included New York, with its many teams, huge population and great affluence. Los Angeles, whose fans jump on and off bandwagons faster than any other. Boston, whose sports landscape is one of great passion and history. Philadelphia, whose fans behavior has turned the slogan "City of Brotherly Love" into an oxymoron.

These are all great cities with incredible legacies of sports heroics, disappointments and passionate fans. But the best sports city in the country, above all others, is our own gem along the lake: Chicago.

Chicago is well known for having the most knowledgeable, passionate and loyal sports fans in the country. Win or lose, Chicago citizens and business flock to sports events in the city. Last year alone more than 10,000,000 people attended major sports events in the Chicago area.

Sports in Chicago are an indelible part of the fabric of our daily lives. This city is home of the most storied franchise in football, the Bears. The only nationally loved baseball team, the Cubs. The most world-renowned team athlete in the history of the planet: Michael Jordan and the 6-time World Champion Bulls. And now, it is the home of the World Series Champion White Sox, a team that has captured the hearts of Chicagoans because it embodies the soul of our city—team players working together for a common goal and, collectively, being the best in the world.

But Chicago is so much more than that. Chicago has a great history of supporting many other types of athletics including college sports, horse racing, auto racing, tennis, golf—the list goes on and on. In many ways Chicago is the crossroads of college athletics—combining the passions of a college town with a population and corporate base that supports not just those universities near it, but also many others whose alumni live in Chicago. Go to any bar in Chicago on a crisp fall Saturday afternoon and you will see people wearing their old school colors, whether the maize and blue of Michigan, the green of the Fighting Irish, the maroon of USC, and, of course, the purple and white of Northwestern. In fact, college football hit the big time right here at the University of Chicago.

Chicago sports is also an economic engine that employs tens of thousands of people, brings hundreds of millions of dollars annually into the city and state coffers, and draws visitors from around the country—indeed the world—to our city. Events such as the Big Ten Basketball Championships, the Arlington Million, and, as with this year, the World Series, generate hundreds of millions of dollars in economic impact and provide jobs and business opportunities throughout the region.

Sports businesses have grown up here in Chicago. From the advent of sports cable television to being home of Levy Restaurants, the leader in sports facility food services, Chicago has started and nurtured sports related businesses that have expanded internationally.

Sports in Chicago also offers international and local businesses unique opportunities to market and present themselves, their products and people, to the nation and the world. Top international brands such as McDonald's, Motorola, Wrigley and Allstate are both based in Chicago and actively use sports to promote themselves to the world.

Here in Chicago we take our sports seriously—but not too seriously. When the Cubs are winning we love it. But we also enjoy a wonderful summer day at Wrigley when the home team isn't doing so well on the field. We live with the Bears 12 months a year. We take a special pride seeing pictures of people from Tibet to Tanzania wearing the familiar #23 jersey of the Bulls. We remember milestones in our lives by the sports events that took place at the same time. And now we have the World Champion White Sox to talk about for generations to come.

There isn't a city in the world that supports sports quite like Chicago. It is the Chicago Way!

--Marc S. Ganis, President
Sportscorp Ltd.

America's Biggest Steel Company to HQ Downtown

Mittal Steel, the world's largest and most global steel company, with shipments of 42.1 million tons and revenues of over $22 billion in 2004, recently announced its plans to make Chicago home to its U.S. headquarters.

Mittal will move 212 management workers into 1 S. Dearborn St., a new 40-story office tower. The employees had been based in Ohio and other cities in the Midwest.

The company chose Chicago in part due to its law and audit firms and its proximity to two airports, important because of Mittal Steel's international headquarters and operations throughout the U.S. and the world. Based in the Netherlands, Mittal Steel owns steel-making facilities in 14 countries and sales and marketing offices in a further 11.

``Chicago is ideally located for a global company like this,'' said Mayor Daley, who cited advantages to being in Chicago including the area's well-educated work force, nationally-ranked business schools, business services and community, diversity, quality of life and proximity to airports.

Chicago is the only dual "dual-hub" airport system in North America --handling over 3,600 flights per day, as well as being a nonstop global gateway to 46 international business capitals.

``The kind of support services you need to effectively run a corporate headquarters are really here,'' said Louis Schorsch, CEO of Mittal Steel U.S.A.

Mittal Steel is a significant addition to Chicago's business community. Besides the legal and accounting work that will come to Chicago companies as a result of the move, various businesses such as hotels and restaurants will benefit because of the steady stream of clients and company officials from all over the world who will be visiting.

In addition, Mittal Steel announced it has named Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University as its North American management education partner, providing an initial commitment of $3 million to the school to develop the Kellogg Mittal Scholars Program.

The program, which will provide 20 scholarships for Kellogg School MBA students, was designed to reflect Mittal Steel's strong business profile in emerging markets. Qualifying students must be from, or have a stated interest in, emerging economic regions including Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe or South America. Mittal Steel will also offer the scholars the chance of an internship during their time at Kellogg.

"Emerging market economies are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. We have all witnessed the extraordinary growth from China over the past couple of years, but there are many other countries with good growth prospects," said Mr. Lakshmi N. Mittal, Chairman and CEO, Mittal Steel Company.

"The Mittal Scholars Program provides a foundation for Kellogg students specifically interested in the emerging markets, and will ultimately help to prepare them for management in an environment that is rich with opportunity," said Dipak C. Jain, Dean of the Kellogg School of Management.

In conjunction with the program, Mittal Steel has dedicated funds for development of its own management through the Kellogg School's world renowned Executive Education Programs.

In assisting Mittal Steel in its decision to choose Chicago for its U.S. headquarters, World Business Chicago provided comparative statistical data of the company's three most likely headquarter cities. WBC also organized meetings between the state, city, building owners and realtors and assisted the company with accurately assessing costs and taxes, as well as miscellaneous introductions to service providers.

And finally we developed a quality of life introduction to Chicago for Mittal's relocating executives and their families.

Mittal Steel received $7.5 million from the state in tax credits for job training and infrastructure costs, and another $2 million from the City for bondable costs.

The Canada-Chicago Business Relationship

Business ties between Chicago and Canada are considerable, of course, but not everyone knows the full story. Just for starters, the Bank of Montreal, parent of Harris Bank, is one of the largest foreign-based employers in the area. There are some 200 Canadian companies with on-the-ground operations in Chicago, at more than 600 locations. Other large employers include Quebecor, CN (Illinois Central), Fairfax Financial, PCS, Fairmont Hotels, and Alcan (Pechiney) among others. Canadian companies employ well more than 25,000 people locally, and continue to invest in the area.

A significant example is Bombardier's new distribution hub in Des Plaines—just outside O'Hare International Airport. The 238,000 square foot center was officially opened in September and will employ up to 200 people. O'Hare's unparalleled access to the continent and the globe was cited as a major factor in this location decision. The major merger of Moore Wallace with Chicago-based R.R. Donnelley & Sons in 2004 is just one more case of the constant interaction across the border.

The Canadian presence in Chicago includes the Canadian Consulate-General, with associated trade and investment offices; the Quebec trade and investment office; and a sister city relationship with Toronto since 1991. Mayor Richard M. Daley's Toronto visit and meetings with Toronto Mayor David Miller in May of this year served to underscore the importance of this relationship. The Canadian Club of Chicago has been fostering goodwill through its business, social, entertainment and cultural networking forum since 1942.

The investment is not all one way—there are more than 100 Chicago-based companies with operations in Canada. Lured by opportunities offered by a diverse economy fully half the size of their home country, companies from Canada's Atlantic Provinces visited Chicago on large, well-organized business missions twice this year.

Transportation is a theme that binds our region to Canada and Ontario in particular. Both areas have a large presence in transportation equipment, and Chicago's position as a North American hub is underlined by the flow of goods both ways across the border. In fact, air connections alone are impressive—Chicago has an amazing 51 daily nonstops to Canada—including 18 nonstops to Toronto and 12 to Montreal.

Illinois-Canada trade was estimated at more than US $28 billion last year.

Regionally, a careful analysis of trade relationships shows that the province of Ontario and the state of Illinois, with six other US states*, are highly integrated. This concentrated mid-continent region has an overall GDP of US $2.7 trillion, the fourth largest global economy after the US, Japan and Germany. The region has 67.1 million people and an employment base of 33.4 million, and 49 of the Fortune Global 500 companies (11 in the Chicago area). Nearly a third of combined US/Canadian manufacturing is in our shared region, including almost half of all transportation equipment production.

On October 25, 2005, World Business Chicago joined the Illinois Office of Trade and Investment and Unicity Integrated Logistics, Inc. in presenting in Toronto to the annual conference of the Canadian Association of Importers and Exporters on the advantages of Illinois and Chicago as the choice logistical, distribution and transportation gateway to the US marketplace. The presentations featured new data on the regional economic integration between Ontario and the central US, and Chicago's advantages in the context of the current logistics environment in North America. The presentations were well attended and followed by a large reception (complete with Eli's Cheesecake) for conference attendees. The State's Toronto office coordinated the on-site events.

*Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin.

--Tom Bartkoski, Director of International Business Development
World Business Chicago

Chicago by the Numbers

World Business Chicago
177 N. State Street, Suite 500
Chicago, Illinois 60601

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