The idea was to keep the track and field to host smaller city scale events. Then, if a major event came to town, they could always add the bleachers again to reach up to a 20,000 seat capacity. Overall I thought it was a great solution at the time, and still do. In fact, I believe the city should still go ahead and build the permanent part of the stadium to expand sporting facilities in the South side.
Now the temporary aquatics center was the weak idea in my opinion. The original domestic bid was centered around a new $50 million aquatics center at UIC. The university would have issued a bond for this. A much better option, in my opinion, than the final temporary aquatics center in Washington Park.