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Bid Documents: '24 Boston Games Would Cost $9-10B Without Transit Improvements

A '24 Boston Olympics would cost $9-10B to "build, operate, and keep safe," according to an analysis of bid documents by Mark Arsenault of the BOSTON GLOBE. However, public-transit improvements, which the organizing committee says "would help the Games run more smoothly but are not required," are "not in the budget." The documents state that money to pay for the Games "would come primarily from private sources, with the chief exception being security costs," which instead "would be picked up by the federal government and US taxpayers" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/8). No Boston Olympics co-Chair Chris Dempsey said that his Friday meeting with Boston Mayor Marty Walsh was a "'friendly conversation' that he expects will be 'the first of many.'" Dempsey: "It was a good preliminary discussion. We’ve got a lot of common ground with the mayor in terms of our goals of protecting taxpayers and improving transparency in the process. At the same time we have some real concerns about the bid." Dempsey said Friday's meeting did not "get into the details or the nitty-gritty." But Dempsey said that he "was encouraged by the progress." In Boston, Owen Boss noted Walsh also "hailed the meeting as a step in the right direction" (BOSTON HERALD, 2/8). Dempsey said that Walsh was "receptive to opponents' concerns." He added of Walsh, "He is someone who thinks that a watchdog is important" (AP, 2/6).

DELICATE POSITION: In Boston, Joan Vennochi writes Walsh "is in an interesting political place right now," as a recent WBUR-FM poll shows that he "has an impressive" 74% approval rating. In that same poll, 50% of respondents said that they "support the Games," versus 33% who oppose them. With 48% saying they are “excited” by the Games, that "leaves a lot of room for the unexcited to get even less excited." Meanwhile, 75% said that they "want a referendum on the issue, which Walsh opposes." Recent Olympic news coverage "has not been a winner for the mayor," who "was criticized for going forward with a Super Bowl victory parade while residents were still digging out" from a recent blizzard (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/9).

SIZING UP THE COMPETITION: In Boston, John Powers wrote if the IOC is "serious about the existing-temporary-demountable approach that worked wonderfully" for the '84 L.A. Games, that "should help Boston’s quest." All but a "couple of the Hub’s proposed venues fit that category and most of them are in place, needing only what’s called an 'overlay.'" But if the past "indeed is prologue, the IOC could well go for Doha, the capital of oil-drenched Qatar that missed the cut for 2016 and 2020 but since has branded itself as a mecca for global sporting events." IOC members "have a history of bypassing what appear to be obvious selections in favor of exotic or unknown locales" (BOSTON GLOBE, 2/8).

RUSSIAN WASTELAND: In Toronto, Bruce Arthur on the one-year anniversary of the Sochi Games wrote the event "felt like a scam from the start," but at least "it was pretty." It is "accepted that Russia’s hyper-rich invested in Sochi as part of an essentially rigged economy, as a quid pro quo with Vladimir Putin, as part of the cost of doing business." Sochi "was not only the pinnacle of waste and irrelevance," it "was the most expensive, the most ridiculous, the most absurd, and everybody saw it coming" (TORONTO STAR, 2/7).

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