Boston 2024 Outlines Second Phase of Bid

(ATR) Leaders of the Boston 2024 organizing committee say their latest bid plan will allow a privately funded Olympics to operate at a surplus budget in an effort to revive public opinion.

Bid leader Steve Pagliuca detailed the budget analysis at the Boston Convention Exhibition Center, potential host for boxing, volleyball and table tennis for Boston 2024. The bid committee vetted the proposed budget with members of the Massachusetts and Boston governments, opponents of the bid and multiple financial analysts working with the bid team.

According to their estimates, the Olympics in Boston would cost approximately $4.5 billion to host. Compare that to their projected revenues of $4.8 billion using conservative estimates, Pagliuca believes this ambitious goal can be accomplished.

The conservative estimates stem primarily from projected ticket revenues using 2016 prices and the number of sessions used at London 2012. Pagliuca believes standard ticketing inflation as well as utilizing Boston know-how on hosting professional sporting events would lead to increased revenues.

Pagliuca says using conservative estimates in the revenues help reduce the risk of the Games going over budget and operating at a deficit.

"A lot would have to go wrong for us to go over our budget," Pagliuca said during the conference.

Not included in the budget are two capital projects that would benefit the Games as well as the state and city of Boston. The projects are called Widett Circle and Columbia Point and require a private capital investment of $4 billion. Pagliuca says these are the biggest economic development projects Boston has ever seen.

Widett Circle would be the location of the temporary stadium Boston would build for the opening and closing ceremonies for the Games, capable of seating 69,000 people. After the Games have ended, the area will be returned into a multi-use development surrounding a green space containing the footprint of the temporary stadium.

Columbia Point would be home to the athletes village for the Games, revamping an area on the waterfront and creating more pathways and sight lines to it. Overall, these two projects would provide 8,000 units of housing to be used after the Olympics and would complete the "emerald necklace" of green space in Boston.

Along with providing more housing for residents, these long-lasting construction projects will bring more jobs to the state as well. Pagliuca estimates over 60,000 jobs will be created throughout preparations for the Games and continuing development after the Olympics have finished.

Over the last few weeks, the bid team has announced location changes for many of its proposed venues in the original plan, receiving backlash for many of the venues being located outside of the city.

However, David Manfredi, chief architect for Boston 2024, gave an updated venue presentation at the conference, detailing how all but 11 events will be located inside of the city. Manfredi puts emphasis on Boston being a "compact Games" with 32 events occurring within Boston.

Since getting the nod from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to be the United States’ contender to host the Olympics, Boston has suffered from low public support to host the Games and speculation the bid committee was trying to hide details from the public.

This bid plan should quiet murmurs about further obfuscation, as it is the most detailed bid plan released by any of the contenders to host the 2024 Games, including Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest.

The detailed Bid 2.0 proposal will be reviewed with scrutiny by the USOC board of directors in San Francisco on Tuesday, June 30.

Written by Kevin Nutley

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