President Barack Obama has now confirmed the rumors that he will deliver a farewell address to the nation in Chicago on January 10.

Obama will say farewell to his political career in the same town in which it began with a speech at Chicago’s McCormick Place convention center, according to The Chicago Tribune.

“I’m just beginning to write my remarks,” Obama informed the paper via email. “But I’m thinking about them as a chance to say thank you for this amazing journey, to celebrate the ways you’ve changed this country for the better these past eight years, and to offer some thoughts on where we all go from here.”

Tickets will be free and will be handed out starting January 7 at the convention center box office.

The McCormick Place convention center may be a fitting place for a man who ran up some of the highest deficits in U.S. history. The convention center was controversial in its day for going at least $30 million over budget before completion and for legislation passed to float an even larger $60 million bailout of the project in 1985.

Today, the glut of tax dollars going for giant construction projects on the near south side has changed little, as costs are already soaring for the proposed McCormick Place sports and entertainment arena, with the price tag rising 17 percent to a new estimate of $164 million before the first shovelful of dirt is dug.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com.