Boston planners are "counting on the deep pockets of corporate America to cover almost one-third the private cost of the 2024 Olympics, anticipating more money from domestic sponsorships than any previous Summer Games," according to a front-page piece by Mark Arsenault of the BOSTON GLOBE. Some critics said that the estimated $1.52B in revenue "could be too ambitious -- with no way to insure against shortfalls." Former John Hancock Financial Services CEO David D'Alessandro said, "It will be tough and certainly not the slam-dunk they portray. Everything has to go right, including no recession at the wrong time." But USOC execs say that they are "supremely confident in the number." George Washington Univ. professor Lisa Delpy Neirotti thinks that Boston 2024’s projection "may in fact be too low." Arsenault notes Boston 2024 "projects that the sponsorships they would sell cooperatively with the USOC would provide" about 31% of the $4.8B, a forecast that is more than three times the $426M raised by Atlanta organizers for the last U.S. Summer Games in '96. The IOC said that the '08 Beijing Games "raised about" $1.3B in sponsorships, in inflation-corrected dollars, and the '12 London Games about $1.2B. If Boston were to win the IOC vote in '17, the local organizing committee and the USOC "would sign a partnership to develop a joint marketing team to sell sponsorships" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/7).
