The Boston 2024 Olympic bid is gaining momentum, if the recent news is any indicator. Boston’s Mayor and other local lawmakers recently met with Dan O’Connell (President of the Boston 2024 Partnership) and other representatives of the hopeful bid in the first formal briefing about the process. State representative Nick Collins, who chairs the Boston Delegation in the Massachusetts State Legislature said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the prospect of brining the Summer Games to Boston, though he noted it still has a long way to go.
The first budget estimate was revealed, as well as the first pieces in the plan to get the 2024 Summer Games. The next step will come in December, when the United States Olympic Committee hears the bids from Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. They will decide in January on an official U.S. bid. The International Olympic Committee will then start considering bids in 2015, making a final decision at some point in 2017.
Here are some initial details about the bid, bearing in mind that O’Connell stressed the plan is still very fluid at this point, since they still have many hurdles to clear:
Initial estimated budget: $4.5 billion
- This includes all costs that pertain only to the Games itself. It does not include infrastructure upgrades to public transportation and other city improvements that were already being planned.
- Of the 45,000 3-5 star hotel rooms need, O’Connell said that Boston actually already has that number, but that they estimate 5,000 more will be added in the next few years.
- To pay for the Games budget, O’Connell noted that $1.2 billion will come from broadcast revenue (he singled out NBC in particular) that is allotted to the host city.
- Other revenues put towards the budget will be derived from international and local sponsors. O’Connell specified pharmaceutical companies as a unique area that Boston could utilize, given the strength of the region’s healthcare industry.
- Ticket sales would be the third area of revenue.
- In direct terms, O’Connell stated that if any gap existed between revenues and budget costs for the Games, the City of Boston would not pay a single dollar to it.
- One last critical note: All security costs would fall under the jurisdiction of the Secret Service, and would therefore be paid for by the federal government.
Desired venue sties and details: O’Connell went through several prospective sites for venues. However, he stressed that all of the plans right now are still in the very early stages, and that nothing was in anyway concrete yet.
- The Athlete’s Village would potentially go near UMass Boston/Bayside Expo. After the games, the university would take over much of the housing.
- The Olympic Stadium would only need to seat 60,000, instead of 80,000 (recently altered by the International Olympic Committee). Initial plans have it being built in Widett Circle in South Boston. Gillette Stadium can’t be used because it isn’t possible to install an Olympic track inside. The constructed stadium would be “temporary,” and pieces of it would be sold after the Games, like London 2012.
- Boston Convention and Exhibition Center would hold tae kwon do, table tennis, judo, and handball. This is an area that O’Connell cited as part of the “walkable Games” concept.
- MIT’s Killian Court would be used for archery.
- MIT also be the location for fencing, as the school would keep a newly built facility for its own usage.
- The Olympic marathon would not follow the Boston Marathon’s course, since it’s too undulating. The finish line would be on Charles Street near Boston Common.
- Beach volleyball would also take place on the Common.
- Sailing could potentially take place in Boston Harbor, but special rules would have to be worked out to allow helicopters (necessary for event coverage) to be allowed to fly so close to Logan Airport.
- Equestrian competitions would be held in Franklin Park.
- White Stadium would be rebuilt to host the pentathlon.
- Rowing would not be held along the Head of the Charles course, due to the narrowness imposed by the abutments on the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge. As a result, rowing would be held on the Merrimack in Lowell.
- Gillette Stadium would be one of the sites for soccer.
Compact Games & university participation
Stressing a “compact Games,” O’Connell noted that there would be no private parking used at any venue. Public transportation would be heavily utilized, while athletes would be shuttled using buses.
No bid would be made without working out a close partnership with the universities located in Boston. O’Connell said that “existing facilities” at universities would be used (such as dorm rooms at Boston University and Northeastern to house, among other people, some of the 16,000 international journalists). Also, university land would be used for temporary venues and structures. Citing that 50 percent of the 2002 Salt Lake City Games used temporary venues, O’Connell emphasized that as a model for Boston.
Unique Paralympics plan
Normally, the Paralympics, which are held adjacent to the Olympics, are scheduled for two weeks afterward, due to alterations that have to be made to venues. However, O’Connell posited that a unique feature of the Boston bid would be to hold the Paralympics immediately after the Olympics ended, hopefully giving a more equal amount of media coverage to both events.
Conclusion
The fluidity of these plans is obviously predicated on the fact that Boston hasn’t even been selected by the USOC yet, let alone the IOC. As a result, much of these initial proposals (which is all that the plans are, currently) could change. Critics will obviously point to this as a typical Olympic planning development, where costs eventually balloon well beyond the estimates.
However, O’Connell emphasized in no uncertain terms that the financial fiasco of the Sochi Games (which costed more than $50 billion) was an “embarrassment” that he would simply not allow. Much remains to be seen with Boston bid, but the early terms appear to be very close in the competition against other U.S. cities.
