On Wednesday night at First Church Boston, the anti-Boston Olympic bid group known as “No Boston Olympics” met for a public forum for the first time since the bid was endorsed by the United States Olympic Committee. NBO co-chair Chris Dempsey, who has been calmly pushing the opposition to a Boston Olympic bid for months, spoke to the crowd (which eventually totaled more than 100 people), and was preceded by Smith College professor, Andrew Zimbalist.

Zimbalist, who recently authored a book on the subject of Olympic (and World Cup) spending, titled Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble Behind Hosting an Olympics & World Cup, addressed the crowd about his views on what Boston would face if it hosted, in terms of financial problems.

Here are some of the major points made at the meeting, which comes only weeks ahead of the first community forum scheduled to discuss the Olympic bid.

Cost overruns will happen

As Zimbalist points out, he has spent more than a decade researching the financial struggles that host cities have encountered in hosting major sports events. While he thinks comparisons to Sochi are not applicable for Boston, the most realistic scenario is a comparison with London (who hosted the Summer Games in 2012).

Even in a democratic nation, London’s eventual cost tripled from the proposed budget.

“Think twice when you’re told that there won’t be any public money,” Zimbalist noted.

And Dempsey even gave a figure per-person. Based on the math of the London cost to taxpayers, who had to end up paying the difference in budget deficits, Massachusetts residents would end up paying about $2000 each. Granted, that’s a number that’s determined using figures which remain debatable, but the number wasn’t determined randomly either (far from it).

Olympics tourists are not normal tourists

While a general argument for hosting an Olympics seems to revolve (at least partly) around tourism, Zimbalist mentioned how this isn’t actually the case for “Olympics tourists,” as he called them.

This is because Olympics tourists aren’t typical, since they travel to the city for a temporary sporting event, not the timeless features and tourist destinations that regular Boston visitors seek. As a result, Boston loses one of its best tourist advertisements.

“The best advertising is word of mouth,” Zimbalist said, but that Olympic tourists aren’t as effective in doing that, since they’re only in the city for a finite sports event.

Boston 2024 would overlap with college move-in day

Technically, only the 2024 Paralympics would overlap with September 1st, but that’s a point worth making nonetheless, since it hasn’t really been addressed anywhere else. For anyone (ANYONE) who has ever moved, or merely tried to drive through Boston on that fateful day, they will realize that the Paralympics (though involving fewer athletes) will complicate an already chaotic situation.

Added to that, the Olympics heavy role in regards to the education community will undoubtedly impact the extensive summer programs that Boston’s colleges and universities undertake annually. This is clearly a point that will be raised at the first Olympic community meeting.

Comments, not questions (and what that says)

For anyone in attendance at the No Boston Olympics meeting, it became clear that most people who rose to speak during the “Q&A session” didn’t have a question to ask of either Zimbalist or Dempsey. Instead, they merely wanted a forum to speak their minds.

At first, this tendency could strike an observer as slightly annoying, yet it’s more revealing than anything else.

The people of Boston have so far had very few occasions to discuss their opinions about the Olympic bid, and therefore seem determined to express their thoughts in whatever relevant meeting they can.

The upcoming public forums are vital for everyone

The meeting of No Boston Olympics was only the beginning for 2015 Olympic forums. Boston residents will have the ability to attend a range of city-sponsored community forums in the coming months.

Here’s one definitive conclusion that all Bostonians should heed, regardless of what your opinion about the Olympic bid is: Go to the community meetings, because decisions, as a popular fictitious President once told us, are made by those who show up.

Bonus: No Boston Olympics offered free candy, and it was superb.

More on the Olympics: 

Image via @haydenhbird

You can read more stories on Boston startups, technology and innovation at https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/inno