Olympics Coming to Ely!

OLYMPIC SPIRIT SOARS FOR ELY 2016:
LAST-MINUTE OLYMPIC BID BY MINNESOTA CITY ANNOUNCED TODAY

ELY, MINNESOTA — April 1, 2009 — Ely, Minn., the gateway to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, has today announced it is offering a late-entry bid to host the summer Olympic Games in 2016. Watch the press conference at www. ely.org or http://www.ely2016.com/.

Though Chicago is formally nominated as the United States Candidate City for the 2016 Games, Ely plans to submit its paperwork immediately to the International Olympic Committee, finalizing its bid for the 2016 Olympics.

“We missed the first deadline for the bid by a couple of years, but we are optimistic,” says Roger Skraba, Ely’s mayor. “Our 1.3 million acres of untouched wilderness is beyond compare, so there’s plenty of room for Ely to host thousands of athletes and more than a million visitors, and we have lots of space for the facilities.”

Plans are already moving forward for Ely 2016. “We’re draining Miners Lake to create the first in-ground Olympic Stadium, carving seats into the rock,” says Mayor Skraba. “Olympic Village? Yep. Aquatic facility? Absolutely. Rhythmic gymnastics? Badminton? Judo? No problem.”

“We won’t have any trouble pulling this event together,” adds the mayor. “Peter Ueberroth says the time is right for the Games to come back to America in 2016, well, why not Ely?”

The International Olympic Committee has so far offered no comment to Ely’s announcement. “We look forward to working with those guys,” adds Mayor Skraba. “And we’ll extend a hand of friendship to Chicago too so they don’t feel too bad about losing. Ely would be more than happy to let the Windy City host an event or two, if they feel up for it. But they’ve got political problems of their own now, they might just be relieved to hand things over to us.”

For more information, and to book a trip to Ely before the Olympic crush of 2016, please visit ely.org or call 1-800-777-7281.