If you’re one of the Boston Olympics skeptics, organizers are hoping the new presentation will make you a believer.
Boston 2024 Olympic bid organizers Monday presented a gleaming, newly revised plan for hosting the Summer Games —including building out two Boston neighborhoods.
"With regional events we can use other venues that are larger than they had in London," said Steve Pagliuca, chairman of Boston 2024, at a press conference.
In an elaborate power point production designed to evoke Boston pride and visions of the future, he and his colleagues laid out specific finance and venue information they say will make it all happen.
“Baseball, basketball and football across the northeast corridor, and that creates another 1.4 million tickets, which is great and also gives more accessibility to the Olympic Games for the entire region,” Pagliuca said.
From those ticket sales to broadcast fees, licensing and sponsorships, organizers came up with an estimated $4.8 billion in revenue. The presentation played to the history of Boston, promising to preen and marry the neighborhoods of Widett Circle, where they would build a temporary stadium, and Columbia Point, where they would build an athlete’s village that would turn into permanent housing. Boston 2024 architect David Manfredi says the new construction would increase tax revenue from those areas tenfold.
"Both the stadium and the village represent enormous legacy opportunities," Manfredi said. "For housing, for open space, for connection and access to the water, for connectivity and accessibility for everyone.”
The whole midtown concept which would connect the neighborhoods includes new affordable housing and new hotels. Plus, a 15-acre city park would sit in the footprint of the stadium after it’s taken down. City tax breaks would be applied to those projects. But it’s not the “walkable” plan originally proposed in December. Now venues will be as far as the Deerfield River for kayaking and canoeing, Billerica for shooting, and New Bedford for sailing. But Boston 2024 says they still share the International Olympic Committee’s vision for more sustainable games — with emphasis on public transportation. Pagliuca says he’s still on the hunt for an aquatics center location.
“There is a temporary aquatics center which will cost $70 million," he said. "We’re looking for reusability for a permanent home for that."
Overall, Boston 2024 estimates a $210 million surplus from sponsorships, broadcasting fees and ticket sales. Opponents like Chris Dempsey, head of No Boston Olympics, are still skeptical.
“How are you going to protect taxpayers if there are cost overruns or revenue shortfalls?" Dempsey asked. "We heard discussion of an insurance plan today, but we saw no details at all about what that policy would cover.”
Dempsey’s referring to Boston 2024’s plan to require cost overrun insurance from site developers and to provide an $128 million policy on the entire project. He’s also skeptical of the plan for the city to select a so-called “master developer” who would fund building projects, and in return, have the right to build about 8 million square feet of new construction.
“We’re a thriving city, we’ve got a bright future," Dempsey said. "Let’s make the core investments that we need in our commonwealth to move forward without the games."
Transportation improvements would also be taxpayer-financed. But those are scheduled regardless of the Olympics. Overall, the plan had more detail and dramatic impact than the earlier layout in December. But it’s still a plan very much under revision. Boston 2024 leaders will present the bid Tuesday in San Francisco to the U.S. Olympic Committee, which has been keeping a close eye on the city’s efforts to sway public opinion.
