Boston 2024 Plans for "Most Insured Games in Olympic History"

(ATR)Steve Pagliuca, chairman of Boston 2024, says that "following extensive due diligence with insurance experts, Boston will have the most insured Games in Olympic history."

On Thursday, Boston 2024 released a risk management plan that includes a validated insurance package.Bid leaders say that if Boston is chosen to host the 2024 Olympics, the insurance will provide an "unprecedented level of financial protection for building venues and operating the Games."

In his statement on the plan, Pagliuca added, "Between insurance and the other safeguards we have put in place, we have set a new standard for protecting the best interests of taxpayers and ensuring that the Games operate entirely with private financing.

"In doing so, we are maximizing the many lasting benefits for our communities of hosting the Games and significantly minimizing risk."

Boston 2024 says that the risk management plan is to ensure that tax dollars would not be necessary for Games operations in the event of shortfalls in revenue or higher-than-expected costs.

Heidi Lawson, head of theCrisis, Risk Management and Executive Protection Practice at Mintz Levin, led the development of Boston 2024's insurance plan.

"This plan is the product of intensive consultation with the world's leading and most experienced insurance brokers who have spoken to various insurers and reinsurers, and we are confident that it provides robust coverage for the range of risks associated with major undertakings like hosting the Games," Lawson said.

During their unsuccessful bid for the 2016 Summer Olympics, Chicago leaders also touted an insurance policy meant to prevent taxpayers from having to make up for shortages in revenue for the Games.This marked Chicago's third failed bid for the Games, following attempts for the 1952 and 1956 Summer Olympics.

The U.S. Olympic Committee chose Boston to bid for the 2024 Games on Jan. 7.The USOC must submit a letter of intent to bid for the 2024 Olympics to the IOC by September 15.

Budapest, Hamburg, Paris and Rome are the other cities bidding for the 2024 Games.

Debate Over Boston Olympic Bid

Chris Dempsey, chair of No Boston Olympics, along with Olympic opponent Andrew Zimbalist, is set to appear live in a televised debate with Pagliuca and Boston 2024 board member Daniel Doctoroff on Thursday.Doctoroff also led New York City's failed bid for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

No Boston Olympics is one of the primary opposition groups against Boston 2024.

Zimbalist, an economist based in the United States, spoke with Around the Rings in Jan.shortly after Boston was chosen by the USOC to bid for the 2024 Games.At the time, he said that Boston leaders seemed to be channeling reforms set forth by Olympic Agenda 2020 in their bid plan for the Games.

ATR editorEd Hula caught up with Steve Pagliuca in Toronto during the lead-up to the 2015 Pan American Games.In speaking with Hula, Pagliuca said that Boston leadersheard only positive things about the bid from IOC members who were in Toronto for the Pan Am Games.

The debate on Boston's Olympic bid is set for 8:00 pm, and will be televised on Fox 25 Boston along with being streamed online atmyfoxboston.comandbostonglobe.com.

Written byNicole Bennett

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