Related: Boston Wins Olympics Bid
Now the selling begins:
Walsh, officials vow cost-effective Olympics
"Industry leaders sought Games to build local legacy" by Jon Chesto, Globe Staff January 10, 2015
They filed in quietly, one by one, some of the brightest and busiest in their respective fields — a cast of the city’s industry titans who came together to pull off what many people in Boston once thought was impossible.
The show of force over the last year made an impression on the US Olympic Committee....
The sport of war! Or the war of sport! Whatever.
There are many reasons why Boston’s business leaders came to the table. The fortunes of their companies and institutions and those of the city are inextricably linked — a successful Olympics could promote the Boston brand like nothing else. Some see potential profits down the line. Some, however, have made their money — now they’re looking to solidify their legacies, to make their lasting mark on the city they love.
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Dan O’Connell, the president of the Boston 2024 Partnership, said, “It’s sport as a language of peace, a language of diplomacy.”
Wanna tell that to the Boston Globe pinhead, 'er, reporter, please? If you don't mind showing some force.
To understand how the business community rallied together, you have to go back to the fall of 2012 when two strangers met for drinks at the Omni Parker House. Eric Reddy had just turned 30 and was working for a now-closed startup that distributed corporate tickets for sporting events. Corey Dinopoulos was a 27-year-old digital designer for Fidelity Investments.
Great. The whole idea was hatched in a bar! Those usually don't work out to good.
They were young and not particularly well-known in the city. But they had a shared vision: It’s time to bring the Summer Games back to the United States, and, more importantly, to Boston. So then-Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s tourism director suggested they talk.
Reddy and Dinopoulos created a nonprofit to help investigate an Olympic bid.
Related:
"nonprofits provide new ways for corporations and individuals to influence"
As if they didn't have enough already, and now I know why nonprofits dominate articles regarding sourcing and/or expert advice.
But few took this effort seriously — until O’Connell, then the president of the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, and Suffolk Construction chief executive John Fish came along.
After Dinopoulos persuaded state Senator Eileen Donoghue to file a bill at the State House that would create a commission to study a Boston Olympics, Donoghue drew O’Connell into the discussion to gauge the business community’s potential support.
O’Connell took the idea to the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership, a group of executives that meets regularly to tackle civic issues. Fish, the group’s then-chairman, had initially been a skeptic but began to see the Olympics as a way to leave a larger legacy for the region than anything his company could create. More importantly, he saw a way to pull it off: by reaching out to his vast network within Boston’s business elite....
The first to join Fish in the crusade were colleagues on the Partnership board, people like Patriots owner Bob Kraft and Putnam Investments chief executive Bob Reynolds; they launched a new nonprofit to bid for the 2024 Summer Games.
Kraft gets a new soccer stadium out of the deal.
Reddy and Dinopoulos let the newcomers lead the way, overjoyed to watch their idea get hijacked by some of the city’s wealthiest business leaders. Eventually, the Partnership let O’Connell spend much of his paid time on the Boston Olympics bid.
What is with the inflammatory word choices meant to evoke certain imagery?
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They branched out to include the colleges and universities, where most of the 2024 events would take place. The Summer Games would depend heavily on billions of dollars of already planned public transportation investments but also on major capital projects by the schools.
Bentley University president Gloria Larson, already a familiar face in Boston’s business community, would take a lead in bringing the universities together. The Olympics, local organizers say, would be a prime opportunity to attract donations and draw students to the participating schools, building their international profiles.
Related:
"Some have questioned whether the money colleges would spend on Olympic events or infrastructure could mean fewer dollars for academic programs and scholarships. But Larson called that notion “a red herring,” and said hosting the games would have a positive effect, creating new bonds between schools and helping to raise their international profiles. “We haven’t had to twist any arms,’’ Gloria Larson, president of Bentley University and co-chair of the Boston 2024 campaign’s institutional engagement committee, said Friday."
The last US city to host a Summer Olympics — Atlanta in 1996. How did that go?
The circle kept getting wider. More executives wanted in on the action, including those such as State Street’s Jay Hooley and Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ Jeffrey Leiden whose companies don’t appear to have a potential gain from an Olympics effort.
Others offered their services directly to Boston 2024 for free or at discounted rates, O’Connell said. Popeo, for example, has worked pro bono, and his law firm, Mintz Levin, contributed more than 1,000 hours of what would otherwise be billable time. Ad agency Hill Holliday is behind much of the marketing work and has only accepted payment for work done by outside contractors. David Manfredi’s architectural firm, Elkus Manfredi, provided reduced rates on planning, with Manfredi himself working for free, O’Connell said.
O’Connell downplays the money-making opportunities when asked what’s motivating these executives to come to the table. Instead, he points to the international profile that the city and its leaders would get from playing on a world stage, and the feel-good enthusiasm that would come from bringing together disparate countries for a common goal.
“It’s what the Olympics could mean for our city,” O’Connell said. “There’s nothing like it. I know of no other event, sporting or otherwise, that comes close to pulling at people the way the Games do.”
After all, each of these business executives share something with Dinopoulos and Reddy, the guys who got this whole thing started. At some point, they were all young visionaries, wondering how they could make their mark.
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The guys on the sports show also remarked regarding all the graft in Boston, as well as the traffic:
"Olympics in Boston would require unprecedented security" by Bryan Bender, Globe Staff January 10, 2015
WASHINGTON — Hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics in an age of terrorism would require a security effort unprecedented in Boston’s history, requiring the efforts of tens of thousands of police officers, soldiers, spies, and private security firms.
Some of the city’s neighborhoods would be transformed into something approaching armed camps with security personnel carrying automatic weapons — and possibly even anti-aircraft batteries, according to security specialists familiar with security precautions at recent Olympic games in London and Sochi, Russia.
While Boston has successfully hosted its share of high-profile events in the past — including the 2004 Democratic National Convention — it hasn’t had to organize anything of this magnitude, said Representative William Keating, the Bourne Democrat and member of the Homeland Security Committee.
“The scope of the Olympics brings it entirely to a new level,” Keating, who was part of a US delegation that assessed security at the Winter Olympics in Sochi last year, said in an interview. “The security will have to be extraordinary.”
And extraordinarily costly — although precise estimates are difficult to come by.
When preparations began for the last summer Olympics, held in London in 2012, officials estimated security would cost $361 million. In the end, the price tag came in at more than four times that, or $1.6 billion.
And when the London opening ceremonies began, there were barely enough guards and other personnel available to protect the athletes and screen millions of spectators. British soldiers were summoned to duty to help.
The demands in Boston are unknown, nearly a decade before the event. But the security costs would likely be paid for with federal tax dollars.
“We don’t know what the threat will be years from now, and we don’t know what the technology will be like nine or 10 years from now that may make it easier,” said Juliette Kayyem, a former federal and state homeland security official who is now advising the Boston bid team on security matters.
But she said planning is already underway and that officials envision three different tiers of government security.
There would be the role of state and local agencies like the Boston Police, Massport, the National Guard, and university security forces. The next layer would be comprised of federal agencies, such as the Secret Service, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Transportation Security Administration and the US Coast Guard. Finally, international intelligence and security personnel would be required to assess potential threats and coordinate arrangements for the Olympic teams from individual countries.
The terrorist shootings in France this week brought yet another reminder of the threats in today’s society.
I started my day with that.
Those events follow other tragedies, including the Boston Marathon bombing of 2013 and a history of security disasters at past Olympics.
Related: The Two Biggest Trials in Boston
Eleven Israeli athletes were murdered by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 games in Munich, Germany. In 1992, Basque separatists threatened to attack the games in Barcelona but failed to succeed, while a right-wing domestic terrorist set off a pipe bomb at the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta, killing one and injuring 11 others.
And the FBI and ma$$ media blamed the guard who found it.
The enhanced focus on security was underscored by the so-called “steel ring” that the Russians placed around last year’s Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, which was within driving distance of several centers of Islamic militancy in the Caucasus region of Central Asia.
See: Filipoving Up My Olympics Coverage
Lurk around a few of the links if you like.
In the wake of the Sochi games, the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service credited the help of intelligence agencies in the United States, Austria, France, Germany, and the Republic of Georgia in helping to thwart terrorists attacks aimed at the Olympics.
Security preparation have long dogged the games. Failure to screen employees working at the Summer Olympics held in Los Angeles in 1984 enable convicted felons to hold security posts — without any major incidents. The verdict following the Atlantic Games in 1996 — where a bombing killed two — was that public safety preparations were wholly inadequate.
When former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney oversaw the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, Utah, the 9/11 attacks that took place just four months earlier loomed large.
“Among the steps we took were double-fencing, cameras, motion detectors, bio-hazard detectors, food testing, mail testing, and screening people and goods twice before letting them in, and an inner, even more secure location that only the athletes could access,” Romney recalled in his 2004 book “Turnaround,” which detailed his experience overseeing the 2002 games.
Ultimately the federal government spent an estimated $1.5 billion for security in Salt Lake City.
Boston also would be seeking federal help, according to several officials.
The US Department of Homeland Security would be expected to designate the Olympics a National Special Security Event, which would place the US Secret Service in charge of security and also prompt Congress to authorize federal funds....
Meaning taxpayer money would be used no matter what local officials say! (Btw, I RESENT the fact that my fellow citizens from the rest of the country have to pay for this elite party).
And do you really think the SECRET SERVICE should be left in charge?
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Security preparations included establishing a dedicated intelligence center, while new facilities built for the competitions were constructed with security in mind.
The fusion centers not good enough?
A key decision if the games are to be held in Boston will be how much of the security umbrella to out-source to private firms.
Late last year an Israeli security firm, ISDS, was awarded a $2.2 billion contract to coordinate security at the Summer Olympics scheduled for next summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a venue that is seen as particularly challenging due to high levels of crime and drug trafficking.
Uh-oh! Beware the false flag at the Brazilian Olympics, for it was Israeli firms in charge of security at airports on 9/11 and for the underwear bomber -- as well as for the London Tube. In fact, wherever a terror attack is to be found there is usually an Israeli security company on duty.
But such private sector help also requires additional oversight.
Related: Craft Silent About Alleged Role in Boston Bombing
For example, the British company that helped manage security for the 2012 games failed to properly estimate the number of personnel needed. At one point Olympic organizers withheld payments to the firm, G4S, after it said it would be unable to meet its commitment to provide 10,400 security guards. In the end, more than double that number were actually needed.
“Security can’t be delegated and it can’t be ignored,” Kayyem said of the London experience. “It is a huge preparedness undertaking. Security and preparedness planning has to begin today.”
Keating, however, believes that if the Russians were able to secure Sochi that Boston is more than prepared to take on the task of securing the 2024 games, especially in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.
“People should be mindful how resilient our city was after the Marathon, which is an international event,” he said. “Boston is ahead of the curve in cooperation with federal agencies.”
UNREAL!
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How are they going to pay for it all?
"Revenue to dictate difficult choices on Olympic transit projects" by Michael Levenson and Nicole Dungca, Globe Staff January 10, 2015
Some observers say that, even with an Olympic push, the projects could require additional public money and thwart road and rail construction outside the Boston area. Many have been talked about for years and are still in the planning stages, with legal, environmental, and financial hurdles remaining. And at the very least, they will require Governor Charlie Baker to make them a top priority and speed their progress.
“It’s up to what the administration wants to do, and the governor is limited by the revenue that they have,” said Rafael Mares, an attorney with the Conservation Law Foundation. “The governor, as anyone in that position, will have to make serious choices because not everything can be done under the current revenue.”
See:
As Deval Leaves....
....Charlie Moves In
You got smoked, citizen.
To pull off the Games, backers want to build venues near existing public transit hubs. Their plans call for a removable 60,000-seat Olympic stadium near Interstate 93 in South Boston, a 16,000-person Olympic Village near the Bayside Expo Center in Dorchester, a 15,000-seat aquatics center near the Turnpike in Allston, and a removable 5,000-seat velodrome at Assembly Square in Somerville.
They say these venues will be paid for by corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, private donations, the licensing of Olympic merchandise, and broadcast fees.
But moving spectators to the venues will require upgrading or overhauling several transit lines at taxpayers’ expense — all of which Olympic planners say have already been authorized by the Legislature.
One of the biggest endeavors involves adding five to seven additional train platforms at South Station and moving the postal facility there to Fort Point Channel, at a cost of $866 million. That would allow spectators to take trains into South Station and walk to the Olympic Stadium in about 10 minutes. State officials have been trying to expand the station for a decade but have been stymied by the financially ailing Postal Service’s demand for more money for its land.
Another major public upgrade that Olympics backers want involves building a new commuter rail station, called West Station, in Allston, as part of a major $260 million project that includes straightening the Turnpike near the Allston tolls. Olympic backers plan to build a tennis pavilion and aquatics center near there using private money. Former governor Deval Patrick approved the West Station project shortly before he left office but said the state still needed one more private partner to fund the last third of the construction.
Still more projects on the Olympic to-do list involve making the JFK/UMass MBTA stop more pedestrian-friendly; running new trains — called “diesel-multiple units” — from hotels in the Back Bay to table tennis and fencing competitions at the South Boston Convention Center; building a bike path from the Olympic Village in Dorchester to the Olympic Stadium in South Boston; and redesigning Kosciuszko Circle, off Morrissey Boulevard, which funnels traffic from I-93 into Dorchester and South Boston and is notoriously nightmarish at rush hour.
Boston 2024 officials have said all the public projects were approved as part of a $13 billion bond bill that Patrick signed last April.
But that bill is more like a wish list from lawmakers, not a financing plan. It merely authorizes the state to borrow money to pay for a smorgasbord of rail, road, and bridge projects from the Berkshires to Cape Cod.
It is now up to Baker to decide which projects to undertake. Then the administration needs to borrow money to pay for the work and figure out how to cover the debt, all without breaking Baker’s pledge not to raise taxes.
“Bond bills are stuffed to the gills with wish lists and much of what’s in a bond bill doesn’t get funded,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank. “A lot of it will be based on what the state can pay for and what’s possible, and that’s not purely up to Charlie [Baker], but also about the economy.”
Mares said the state will inevitably need more money to cover the debt incurred for the transportation projects, especially after voters in November repealed a state law that would have increased the gas tax based on changes in inflation. That law would have raised about $1 billion during the next 10 years, Mares said.
“There just isn’t enough revenue to support issuing bonds for all of these projects,” he said.
Tim Buckley, a Baker spokesman, did not directly address how the projects could be financed. He said the governor is excited to work with Mayor Martin J. Walsh and Boston 2024 “to explore important infrastructure projects as well as other issues surrounding the Games such as keeping costs down and continuing to press forward on pledges of private funding.”
Stergios said it was ultimately impossible to assess how to pay for transit upgrades since Boston 2024 has refused to make available to the public the bid it submitted to the US Olympic Committee....
What are they hiding?
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"Across Mass., the cheering and carping gets underway" by Brian MacQuarrie, Globe Staff January 10, 2015
Some worry about terrorism. Others image.
That first one is me. It dominates my thoughts from the moment I get up to the moment I fall asleep.
The possible downside -- that the Olympics could become a money-hemorrhaging clone of the Big Dig -- did not concern Kevin O’Hara, an author and retired nurse from Pittsfield.
Yeah, don't worry about the billions and billions of cost overruns due to corruption, or the billions upon billions we are paying in debt interest.
Others believe that the Games, like many of its predecessors, will shatter budget projections and leave little behind except short-term euphoria.
“It’s usually overblown,” artist Jim Murphy, a longtime runner from Ashfield, said of the Olympics effect. “It’s kind of [promoted] like that trickle-down thing you always hear about, or a rising tide raises all boats.”
Still, Murphy said he would travel from his home in the foothills of the Berkshires to watch the Games.
Barbara Snider hopes the Boston Olympics is a never-in-a-lifetime thing. A resident of the Cape Cod town of Eastham, Snider is wary of claims from Boston organizers that the Games would not use any new public money. Add to that, she said, the risk of terrorism for a region still recovering from the Marathon bombings in 2013.
“Boston needs to be under the radar for a while,” she said.
Finally, Snider said, there is traffic from Olympics visitors who would spill onto the Cape during the bumper-to-bumper summer season.
“If the people had to vote for this,“ Snider said of the Games, “they wouldn’t vote this in at all.”
The same points the sports guys made yesterday morning when I went and got my Globe.
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Related: Neighborhoods see Olympic bid as both boom, bust
"Opposed to Olympics, grassroots groups aim to erect hurdles" by Nestor Ramos, Globe Staff January 10, 2015
Gold-medal horror stories from bygone Olympic games are easy to find: Beijing’s abandoned edifices; Sochi’s slaughter of stray dogs.
But opponents of Boston’s Olympic bid say three weeks of parties and prestige are not worth risking the opportunity to improve the city for the people who will live here long after the five-ring circus leaves town. And as groups aligned against the bid rush to galvanize and grow in the wake of Thursday’s announcement, their organizers say they are more concerned about what won’t happen in the decade before the torch ignites.
“We’re now going to be talking about the Olympics for the next year and a half or two years -- not focused on health care, education and infrastructure,” said Christopher Dempsey, one of co-chairs of No Boston Olympics, a volunteer organization formed to oppose the city’s bid for the 2024 Games.
The amount of pre$$ given to it by the Globe today proves his point.
Other groups opposing the games have formed in recent months. But No Boston Olympics, which Dempsey said has hundreds of volunteers but no full-time employees, has become the most visible face of the pushback against Boston’s games.
“We have day jobs,” said Dempsey, 32, a management consultant and former state assistant secretary of transportation. “When we started it was kind of a twitter account and a website ... This hasn’t been a 24/7 effort, but it may need to be now.”
Dempsey said his time in state government taught him how scarce resources for important public projects can be.
“We were so often forced to make really tough decisions about how to fund projects and which projects to fund,” he said, that he cannot support “putting taxpayer dollars at risk to fund stadiums.”
I'm opposed to that, and don't care if the team leaves.
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Co-chair Liam Kerr said the discussion surrounding the Olympics so far has been erroneously focused on the idea that “it’s Olympics or nothing.”
In fact, he said, the question before Bostonians is whether “a generation of philanthropic and political leadership should be focused on the Olympics” instead of on building a better city for those who live here.
In addition to the opportunity cost — the notion that attention and energy expended on the Olympics is necessarily taken from other projects — the more tangible costs have proven considerable in other cities.
Even setting aside the astronomical expense of games in countries whose political systems make comparisons tricky, the price of hosting the Olympics can get out of hand. London’s initial budget of less than $5 billion skyrocketed to nearly $15 billion in costs....
Same point made by the sports guys -- all for an “international corporate spectacle.”
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Yeah, forget about the school shortfall.
Well, I'm going to go get ready for the game myself.
