Of the two Boston Olympic meetings that transpired on Monday, the major story was found not at the City Council hearing in the morning, but at the No Boston Olympics event during the evening. Angela Ruggiero’s utterly reasonable (SHOCKING!) assertion that maybe, just maybe, the USOC won’t go forward with a Boston bid if support doesn’t grow made for a nice headline (one we readily wrote, below), but its longterm implications amount to less than those generated by No Boston Olympics’ “surprise guest.”

Introduced as the finale to the Olympic opposition group’s second meeting, Boston City Councilor At-Large Ayanna Pressley received a strongly positive reaction from the packed crowd when she questioned Boston 2024.

“This has never been ‘can Boston host,'” Pressley declared to the audience. “The question continues to be ‘should we?'”

Her remarks were prefaced by an introduction from No Boston Olympics co-chair Chris Dempsey, who stressed that Pressley remains in “listen and learn mode,” and is officially still undecided on the question of Boston 2024.

That said, despite making obligatory nods to the bid’s sweeping goals in affirming her ability to be “ambitious” and to “think big,” Pressley seemed far more against Boston 2024 than for it.

“Before we talk about wrapping our arms around the international community,” Pressley said, “I’d like to see us wrap our arms around the people already here.” And while she adamantly expressed her approval of the “transformative power of sports,” the Boston City Councilor confined that vision (at least for the moment) to her proposed expansion of sports funding in Boston Public Schools.

Taken as a whole, her speech is an ominous indication for the Olympic bid, and is only a sign of things to come.

With Boston 2024 bid officials promising a “2.0 Olympic plan” by an undefined date in June, the time for politicians to be in “listen and learn mode” is coming to an end.

After Ruggiero informed City Councilors that an Olympic bid is, to an extent, a “leap of faith,” Pressley summed up the feelings of her colleagues as she spoke to the No Boston Olympics crowd.

“I want to see a plan,” she said flatly, stating emphatically that City Council has a duty to provide oversight of any Olympic bid that carries Boston’s name.

And Pressley, along with her fellow Councillors, are far from the only political forces in motion on the issue of Boston 2024. Governor Charlie Baker has been the highest profile skeptic in the discussion, though he is also still in wait-and-see mode like Pressley and a majority of local leaders. Despite that, his patience is wearing thin.

“If you need time to vet it with all of the various interested parties, which I think is appropriate, then that backs you up to probably late May or early June to have something that people can chew on,” Baker told the Boston Globe last week.

And just like that, Boston 2024 has suddenly lost control of the Olympic conversation’s tempo.

Instead of rolling out their plan in the fall, as was originally stated during community meetings, the bid is now being rushed to roll out a new (perfected) plan in a matter of weeks. That doesn’t bode well for a group that’s only just installed an “Office of Olympic Planning.” Hammering out measurable improvements in the bid will be a serious difficulty in such a short span of time, yet failing to deliver for the governor and other politicians will trigger a backlash.

As Pressley discovered at the No Boston Olympics meeting, opposing Boston 2024 is potentially fertile ground, politically speaking. Baker, who has never been directly tied to the bid (he inherited it from his predecessor) is equally aware of the possible opportunity in publicly opposing a flawed bid.

Boston 2024 has so far been able to weather the storm of faltering public support, but it would not survive very long if the neutrality of many influential Boston and Massachusetts politicians suddenly turned into open opposition.

Pressley’s appearance on Monday night, despite her rhetoric, remained merely a benign test of the waters. Still, that could change sooner than expected, and it’s doubtful she would be the only one.

The time for politicians to be in "listen and learn mode" is coming to an end.
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