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Boston '24 Games Would Likely Include Events Outside Of Mass., As Plans Start To Leak Out

Boston’s plans for the '24 Games "probably will include staging some events outside Massachusetts, an approach that could mean early-round Olympic baseball at Yankee Stadium, basketball at Madison Square Garden, tennis on the courts where the U.S. Open is played, and sailing off Newport, R.I.," according to Shira Springer of the BOSTON GLOBE. N.Y. and DC "both made unsuccessful pursuits for their own Games in recent years" and "are considered candidates for such a role." The '24 Games "would be the first Olympics to follow new IOC guidelines, approved in December, that allow bid cities to stage 'preliminary competitions outside the host city ... notably for reasons of sustainability.'" A source said that the heart of the Games "would remain in Boston with a single athletes’ village, 28 of 33 planned venues within a 10-kilometer radius and final rounds of the basketball, baseball, and soccer competitions at TD Garden, Fenway Park, and Gillette Stadium, respectively." Expanding the reach of the Games to different cities "probably would generate more ticket and sponsorship revenue." Boston '24 "would probably not surpass" the U.S. Open site "in terms of venue quality." With sustainability in mind, the possibility of holding an entire sports competition in another major city "also exists under Agenda 2020." If Boston '24 "took place in August, the Olympic tennis tournament could conflict with preparations for that year’s U.S. Open." Other venues with MLB, MLS or WNBA teams as summer tenants "could possibly have scheduling conflicts, too." RFK Stadium "presents a possibility for the early rounds of the men’s and women’s Olympic soccer tournament." The stadium hosted games during the '94 FIFA World Cup and '96 Atlanta Games." MSG Sports VP/Communications Carmine Tiso said that MSG execs "had no comment about hosting early round basketball games" at MSG (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/18).

METHOD BEHIND THE REMOVING: Broadstone Group Managing Dir Doug Arnot, who is an adviser to the USOC working with the local organizing committee, said that Boston’s Olympic stadium, "intended to be a removable venue seating roughly 60,000 people at Widett Circle in South Boston, would be a function-first facility designed to provide good sight lines for sports fans and to look good on billions of television screens around the world." He added that the stadium "would cost organizers" between $350-550M." In Boston, Mark Arsenault noted no press box "is needed ... because the media will sit in an open air section of the stadium." There "would be some green rooms, where athletes or artistic performers could wait before events or shows." Arnot said that organizers "would build a complete warm-up track and practice field outside the stadium and within walking distance." He added that although the structure "would be designed to be removed after the games, it would look much like a permanent stadium, built of steel and concrete, not bleachers on scaffolding." It "may be built as a single bowl, like the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena, but without upper decks that are expensive to add" (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/18). Meanwhile, CBS’ Jim Nantz during last night's AFC Championship game noted the Kraft family is "getting involved" with Boston's bid. The family is "offering up" Gillette Stadium for the Opening and Closing ceremonies "should Boston get it in the international vote” (“Patriots-Colts,” CBS, 1/18).

INT'L FENCE MENDING: In Boston, John Powers wrote there has been "nearly half a century of squabbling" between the IOC and USOC. But now, sources say that the organizations "finally are on the same page." The sources added that USOC Chair Larry Probst and CEO Scott Blackmun’s "understated diplomacy has done much to make that happen." In the wake of a "dysfunctional decade that was marked by the Salt Lake bidding scandal, embarrassing infighting at the USOC’s top-most level, and IOC resentment at what it considered grabby American greediness, Probst and Blackmun dedicated themselves to international fence-mending." They have since "turned up regularly wherever the Olympic family gathers, at meetings of the national committees and international federations, at Pan American hemispheric conclaves, and at world championships in various sports." The Americans, whose networks and corporations "long have filled the IOC’s coffers, traditionally have been seen as the obnoxious rich kid who is tolerated because he picks up the tab." While the USOC "has come under fire for everything from politics to protocol, its squabbling with the IOC usually has been about money." Until recently, the U.S.' clout within the IOC "wasn’t proportional to its financial weight." The USOC’s standing with the IOC "wasn’t helped by its subsequent farcical leadership follies with the committee going through six chairmen/presidents and seven executive directors in a decade." The breakthrough came in May '12, when the USOC "agreed to reduce its TV share" to 7% and sponsorship cut to 10% starting in '20. That "opened the door for an American bid that has been well-received" at IOC HQ (BOSTON GLOBE, 1/18).

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