News Article: OT: WSJ - USOC may take away Boston's Olympics bid

[Fenway]

The Wall St Journal is reporting that the USOC is fed up with the circus the Boston Olympic bid has become.

In talking with my coworkers and friends, when they announced that the former governor would be paid $7,500 a day that is when support vanished.



Lack of Public Support May Doom Boston’s Bid for 2024 Olympics
U.S. Olympic officials could drop city’s bid due to local opposition, sources say

The U.S. Olympic Committee may drop Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Games if local support doesn’t improve soon, people familiar with the organization’s plans said Tuesday.

USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said his group will conduct independent polling in the next few months to monitor public sentiment. “Local support is critical to the success of any bid,” Mr. Blackmun said. Enthusiasm for the proposal has cratered among Boston-area residents, and people familiar with the USOC’s thinking said the group is unlikely to move forward with the plan if residents continue to reject it.

Olympic officials also had talks as recently as last week with Los Angeles and San Francisco about the feasibility of reviving bids from those cities if the USOC abandons Boston, two people close to those discussions said. But Mr. Blackmun said his organization isn’t considering replacing Boston and he isn't discussing the possibility with other cities.

“We believe in this bid,” he said.

Olympics officials tell the Globe that isn't true


USOC denies report it will drop Boston bid due to weak support

The United States Olympic Committee on Tuesday adamantly denied a published report that suggested that the committee would drop Boston’s bid for the 2024 Summer Games if its poll numbers do not improve soon.

“We believe that Boston can and should lead America’s bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and we are absolutely committed to our partnership with Boston 2024 and their innovative concept for hosting the Games,” USOC spokesman Patrick Sandusky said in a statement. “Any suggestion that we are considering alternatives is simply not true.”

Sandusky released the statement after the Wall Street Journal published a story online, citing people familiar with the organization’s plans, that the committee would consider dropping Boston if there weren’t a rapid upswing in support.

Boston 2024 chief executive Rich Davey also dismissed the report as false, calling it “unattributed and unfortunate.”

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[OldScool]

Excellent. Its hilarious that the people hired to promote the Olympics for Boston will be the ones that caused its elimination from contention. Its about the only positive thing Deval has done for this state.

 

[mislysBB]

Good. That's all I'm really going to say.

 

[NinthSpoke06]

Good please do.

Take it to a city that is much bigger and more prepared to host an event like that.

I'd love to have the Olympics back in the USA, I'd like to be able to attend one without having to travel around the world. But I don't want it where I live and work.

 

[Dellstrom]

It would be cool to have the Olympics here in theory, but it would be an absolute disaster. This city could not handle it. There would be SO much work to do. And given some recent projects, I'm not so sure we could do all of that in so little time...

That's completely ignoring the money and traffic, too. The city is already a nightmare to drive in. I can't even imagine it.

 

[Patrice37]

Please God let this be true. Complete joke

 

[BostonCreamPaille]

Hopefully its NOT true. I see no way the T gets upgraded and infrastructure gets its update unless the olympics force it on them. No Olympics they will keep putting all the upgrades on the back burner. The Olympics would make Boston the forefront
I say go for it

 

[Gee Wally]

Good.

**** the money sucking Olympics.

 

[Thrive]

Hopefully its NOT true. I see no way the T gets upgraded and infrastructure gets its update unless the olympics force it on them. No Olympics they will keep putting all the upgrades on the back burner. The Olympics would make Boston the forefront
I say go for it

Hosting the Olympics just to fix the T is a terrible argument for hosting the games - it needs to be more than just for that purpose. There needs to be a legitimate reason.

Fixing the T via hosting the Olympics was pushed as a legitimate idea (because of the snow storms - never let a good crisis go to waste) by those who were in favor of having the Olympics here. While the T would be fixed if the city hosts, and a few areas might be upgraded (let's be honest - not too much of the city is going to be upgraded) the financial burden of the city and the state would be astronomical. Do you honestly believe that the total sum to host is going to be funded solely through private donations, the USOC, the IOC, and the federal government? Highly doubt it, and those who do believe that rhetoric are naïve.

You want a way to fix the T? How about raising the rates for those who use it, trimming the budget and cutting the fat of those who work for the organization? It's not like this problem arrived overnight, it happened because of years of mismanagement and a refusal to raise rates consistently. The funding should come from those who use the service and other avenues (a properly run government and organization, but that has proven to be too much to ask for in this state).

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

Good.

**** the money sucking Olympics.

Amen.

 

[WhalerTurnedBruin55]

Hosting the Olympics just to fix the T is a terrible argument for hosting the games - it needs to be more than just for that purpose. There needs to be a legitimate reason.

Fixing the T via hosting the Olympics was pushed as a legitimate idea (because of the snow storms - never let a good crisis go to waste) by those who were in favor of having the Olympics here. While the T would be fixed if the city hosts, and a few areas might be upgraded (let's be honest - not too much of the city is going to be upgraded) the financial burden of the city and the state would be astronomical. Do you honestly believe that the total sum to host is going to be funded solely through private donations, the USOC, the IOC, and the federal government? Highly doubt it, and those who do believe that rhetoric are naïve.

You want a way to fix the T? How about raising the rates for those who use it, trimming the budget and cutting the fat of those who work for the organization? It's not like this problem arrived overnight, it happened because of years of mismanagement and a refusal to raise rates consistently. The funding should come from those who use the service and other avenues (a properly run government and organization, but that has proven to be too much to ask for in this state).

Do you live in Boston proper (or a T accessible area)? Or do you drive in the area?

They've been doing that for years (it's 3x the price of when I first moved up here, and I'm not THAT old).

Keep raising the price, yet the service becomes worse, that stops a lot of people from using it in general, then the streets are filled with commuter cars (I'm sure everyone loves those hour long trips down Storrow drive when some sort of event is going on).

Something needs to be done, but just overcharging for an inferior product (compare this to other cities), people in Boston will just drive or uber instead of paying an already inflated T price. My job pays for half my pass, and choose not to use it sometimes because it's so terrible at times. I definitely wouldn't be using it if I were to have to pay full price for it.

As for the Olympics, good riddance.

 

[Gator Mike]

I'm in the same boat as I've been all along.

I'd like to hear the plan. If they can produce a workable plan to overcome the significant financial and logistical obstacles and can leave a positive, long-lasting impact, then I wouldn't mind being inconvenienced for two weeks nine years from now.

 

[PatriceBergeronFan]

Unless we have billionaires privately funding it, thank God.

 

[Odie]

I couldn't give less of a **** about the summer olympics.

 

[FribbleLine]

Good

 

[Alicat]

Good. As a city resident, I'd rather they spend my tax dollars on something less frivolous.

 

[BostonBruins92]

If anyone is looking for a good read, check out Circus Maximus by Andrew Zimbalist. He's an economist who discusses the empirical research about the impact of hosting the olympics / world cup. Essentially, there are very high costs and little short or long term benefits for hosts. Hosting the olympics is essentially a wealth transfer from the public to wealthy developers. Even if the local olympic committee claims to have 100% private funding, this is never the case and the public, as is required by the IOC, must foot the bill which is ALWAYS 4-5X higher than is promised by the the olympic committee. It is a terrible investment.

 

[KrejciMVP]

I couldn't give less of a **** about the summer olympics.

If it was the winter games in Boston I would be all for it, but the summer games are lame.

 

[4ORRBRUIN]

Good.

**** the money sucking Olympics.

This .. along with the money sucking leaches that are involved

 

[hoss75]

I'm in the same boat as I've been all along.

I'd like to hear the plan. If they can produce a workable plan to overcome the significant financial and logistical obstacles and can leave a positive, long-lasting impact, then I wouldn't mind being inconvenienced for two weeks nine years from now.

It's going to be years of construction leading up to it, then years of construction afterwards finishing everything that they didn't get to.

 

[mikelvl]

I would have the utmost respect for Marty Walsh if he told the USOC to go pound sand.

 

[bb_fan]

Hopefully its NOT true. I see no way the T gets upgraded and infrastructure gets its update unless the olympics force it on them. No Olympics they will keep putting all the upgrades on the back burner. The Olympics would make Boston the forefront
I say go for it

As long as you are paying for all those infrastructure upgrades they can't afford and not me...

 

[Thrive]

Do you live in Boston proper (or a T accessible area)? Or do you drive in the area?

They've been doing that for years (it's 3x the price of when I first moved up here, and I'm not THAT old).

Keep raising the price, yet the service becomes worse, that stops a lot of people from using it in general, then the streets are filled with commuter cars (I'm sure everyone loves those hour long trips down Storrow drive when some sort of event is going on).

Something needs to be done, but just overcharging for an inferior product (compare this to other cities), people in Boston will just drive or uber instead of paying an already inflated T price. My job pays for half my pass, and choose not to use it sometimes because it's so terrible at times. I definitely wouldn't be using it if I were to have to pay full price for it.

As for the Olympics, good riddance.

I do live in a T accessible area, use it every time I go into the city, and used it to get to class at BU. I drive into work (Waltham) as there are no T stops close to where I work that would make sense for me.

The point was that the organization should've started aggresively raising the price years ago - this "problem" didn't just creep up on them - thus they wouldn't necessarily be raising the prices for as terrible of a product (at the time). Now if they do it after this terrible winter, it looks really bad on them. It's not like the money to rebuild the T is going to come out of thin air, and those that use it shouldn't expect the entire state to fund their travel burden.

I highly doubt that those that use the T are just going to suddenly start driving their cars, en masse, because of a slight increase to their fare. The current every day traffic woes (all the way east from 495 and all the way north from New Hampshire to say Taunton) is enough to dissuade a lot of people from jumping in their cars every morning. Not to mention everything else that they would then have to pay for (short term and long term) when driving their cars - it just doesn't make sense for a lot of people.

If people want to start using Uber or using their own cars instead of taking the T because of slight increases to their travel expense (which I would argue would not be enough to justify using either of those two options rather than taking the T at a price increase), then that is the simple rule of supply and demand and highlights the massive leadership void at the T for letting their product get to it's current state.

 

[Gator Mike]

It's going to be years of construction leading up to it, then years of construction afterwards finishing everything that they didn't get to.

Sooo... pretty much status quo in Boston for as long as I've been alive, then?

As long as you are paying for all those infrastructure upgrades they can't afford and not me...

So, all those upgrades to the transportation infrastructure... don't those have to be done whether the Olympics happen or not? I mean, having the MBTA break down every time it snows is not something we can just live with, right?

 

[Donnie Shulzhoffer]

Sooo... pretty much status quo in Boston for as long as I've been alive, then?


So, all those upgrades to the transportation infrastructure... don't those have to be done whether the Olympics happen or not? I mean, having the MBTA break down every time it snows is not something we can just live with, right?

This winter has proven just how corrupt the MBTA is as well as IOC.