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Boston '24 Facing Intensified Demands From Local Officials Awaiting Revised Bid Plans

Intense demands are "piling up" on Boston '24 as it "attempts to reestablish credibility and community support by revising its venue plan and filling in crucial details" about its nearly $10B budget for the Olympic Games, according to Michael Levenson of the BOSTON GLOBE. The rollout "began last week," and is "expected to continue over the next three weeks as the local bid committee seeks to boost support" ahead of a USOC meeting at the end of the month. Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker "sounds like an impatient investor demanding a better business plan before he buys in" as he has been "firing off ... questions about fund-raising, construction costs, and the burden on taxpayers." Baker: "Where are the venues going to be? Who are the joint venture partners? Literally, where is every single element of the Games going to take place? And what is the time frame on all that?" Levenson writes the challenges "are logistical (finding a new location for beach volleyball), financial (building an Olympic stadium without tax dollars), and quasi-metaphysical (ensuring the Olympics won’t distract from other priorities, such as better schools)." The Boston Foundation President & CEO Paul Grogan said that there is a "major challenge" finding "viable venues in a 'dense, old city' like Boston, where there are competing claims on nearly every patch of land." Levenson writes perhaps the "most vexing venue is the 60,000-seat temporary Olympic stadium in South Boston." Paying for the $550M stadium is a "significant hurdle." College of Holy Cross economics professor Victor Matheson said that Boston's initial bid, with an estimated $1B for security to be paid for by the federal government, is about $500M "too low and should include additional costs for local and state law enforcement agencies" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/11).

MORE VENUES CHANGES COMING: Boston '24 this afternoon will announce its second venue change in as many weeks, as the Sportsmen’s Tennis & Enrichment Center in suburban Dorchester’s Harambee Park will replace Harvard Univ. as the prospective tennis venue, a source close to the committee confirmed. Sportsmen’s Exec Dir Toni Wiley and Boston '24 CEO Richard Davey will make the announcement today at 2:30pm ET. Bid officials originally planned a geographically compact games, with most venues in downtown Boston or nearby college campuses, but they have abandoned that vision amid intense local criticism in favor of a more disperse footprint. Officials last week shifted the sailing venue from Boston Harbor to Buzzards Bay, 60 miles south. Dorchester is about eight miles south of Harvard. Boston '24 is expected to release further venue changes this month (Ben Fischer, Staff Writer). Meanwhile, in Boston, Chesto & Leung report bid organizers are "eyeing a 28-acre site on the outskirts of the teeming Seaport District for the seafood distributors and meat packers that could be displaced by a proposed stadium." Boston Mayor Martin Walsh is "floating the idea of expanding the wholesalers’ new home to include a public food market" similar to Pike's Place Market in Seattle. Finding another location for the businesses "has become one of the biggest challenges" for Boston '24. Its plans "call for a temporary, 60,000-seat stadium at the wholesalers’ current site in Widett Circle, an industrial loop sandwiched between South Boston and the Southeast Expressway." The proposed relocation to the Boston Marine Industrial Park "is still just an early concept, with many unanswered questions" (BOSTON GLOBE, 6/11).

AN ALL-TIME LOW
: Boston-based NPR station WBUR-FM this week released a poll showing "meager support across Massachusetts for the idea of hosting" the '24 Summer Games within the Boston region. WBUR's Curt Nickisch notes the poll "shows the lowest support level of any statewide poll published thus far," with 49% of those surveyed in opposition to Boston hosting the Olympics, and 39% in favor. This was the first statewide Olympics survey conducted by the station (WBUR.org, 6/10). In Chicago, Philip Hersh writes the time has come for the USOC to "pull the plug" on Boston’s '24 Olympic bid. Also, there is "no good reason" for the USOC to turn to L.A. as a backup, because it "can't win, either, not as the hand-me-down candidate." The Boston '24 bid "has been a public relations disaster since its rollout." There is "no reason now to suspect that will change, with every snafu making the USOC look bad -- and it already bears responsibility for failure of due diligence." Boston’s baggage "is so heavy that not even USOC partner United would try to carry it to Lima" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/11).

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