Organizers: New, temporary venues for Chicago's 2016 Olympics bid to cost about $900 million

CHICAGO (AP) -New and temporary venues for the city's 2016 Olympic Games bid will cost an estimated $900 million.

Organizers released the estimate Tuesday after Chicago officials sent answers to a detailed questionnaire about the games to the International Olympic Committee. And Chicago's price tag likely will grow if history is any guide. The cost of staging the 2012 London Olympics tops $19 billion, more than more triple original estimates.

The questionnaire covered everything from competition venues and financing to security and transportation.

Chicago is one of seven cities bidding for the games. Besides Chicago and Tokyo, the other bid cities are Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Baku, Azerbaijan; Doha, Qatar; Madrid, Spain; and Prague, Czech Republic.

Details also have emerged about the other cities' plans, including Tokyo, which said 95 percent of its competition venues would be within five miles of downtown.

In releasing its bid documents, Madrid organizers said the eastern edge of the city will be the focus for the Olympics. There will be 15 competition venues there, and all but five of the 30 venues will be about seven miles from the city center.

Madrid leader Mercedes Coghen called Chicago's bid "a little general.''

"I think it's the little things that (the IOC) really wants spelled out,'' she said.