Quaker2001 Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 Not sure if this has been posted, or if anyone has seen it, but here's the link to DC's site. http://dc2024.org Not much of a site. Looks like that probably took all of about 2 hours to design. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boston_2024 Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 Boston Olympics bid fuels visions on Massachusetts future http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_24965711/boston-olympics-bid-fuels-visions-mass-future?source=rss_viewed "We have roads that need repair, and those repairs could enhance economic development in a substantial way -- not just hosting the 2024 Olympics, but more importantly, we could change the face of the commonwealth of Massachusetts for half a century, if not more," said Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish, the commission's chairman. Former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis: "Boston better equipped to handle a major global event like the Olympics than other cities in the United States, he reiterated that a Sochi-like scenario for Boston is unthinkable." http://www.masslive.com/news/boston/index.ssf/2014/01/boston_vs_sochi.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quaker2001 Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 Boston Olympics bid fuels visions on Massachusetts future http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_24965711/boston-olympics-bid-fuels-visions-mass-future?source=rss_viewed "We have roads that need repair, and those repairs could enhance economic development in a substantial way -- not just hosting the 2024 Olympics, but more importantly, we could change the face of the commonwealth of Massachusetts for half a century, if not more," said Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish, the commission's chairman. You know what.. I have to give some credit to Boston here. Impossible to tell at this point just how much support they'll have at this point, but it sounds like they are driven. That's only half the battle, but it's important half that we're not seeing from some of the other cities. The only thing to it is that at some point, they'd probably be well-intentioned to change their message from "the Olympics could help us fix some of our problems" to "this is what Boston offers to the Olympic movement." If they can successfully do that, maybe they have something there. until people on our bid committee say things like: "I wouldnt let my family go to the Sochi Winter Olympics" http://bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/01/ex_bpd_commish_attack_on_sochi_olympics_almost_impossible_to Yeesh. Seriously, that's not a comment he should be offering up for public consumption. And with all due respect to Ed Davis, maybe a former police commissioner of Boston shouldn't be the person talking about a terrorist attack that's "almost impossible to stop." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zekekelso Posted January 22, 2014 Report Share Posted January 22, 2014 We have roads that need repair, Um, is that really the best way to start off your pitch for the games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breathesgelatin Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Um, is that really the best way to start off your pitch for the games? Agree, I don't think roads are a very compelling legacy argument. I'm also not in love with the USA's proclivity to invest in roads over transit, but whatever. What does Suffolk Construction do? Build roads? LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boston_2024 Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Listen here—cities don't just bid for an Olympics just to throw an expensive party. Maybe that's the case for Sochi, Beijing, Athens and other bid cities with no attention paid to a LEGACY. That won't happen if the Greater Boston Region & Commonwealth of MA host an Olympics. Things need to be fixed in any city, some more than others. If you can marry an Olympic bid with civic improvements to infrastructure while telling a good narative—that is a winning bid for Boston. They are following through all of the necessary steps and with good direction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zekekelso Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Fixing roads can be a nice bonus from hosting the games.... but that can't be the lede from your pitch. Revitalization in East London was clearly a part of London's bid.... but their main story was to inspire a generation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quaker2001 Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 Listen here—cities don't just bid for an Olympics just to throw an expensive party. Maybe that's the case for Sochi, Beijing, Athens and other bid cities with no attention paid to a LEGACY. That won't happen if the Greater Boston Region & Commonwealth of MA host an Olympics. Things need to be fixed in any city, some more than others. If you can marry an Olympic bid with civic improvements to infrastructure while telling a good narative—that is a winning bid for Boston. They are following through all of the necessary steps and with good direction. Okay.. so what's their narrative? I'm not expecting you to be able to answer that and maybe the organizing committee hasn't figured that one out yet, but that's a pretty big part of the bid. It's the JFK logic where the question is not "what can the Olympics do for your city," it has to be "what can your city do for the Olympics." Athens is absolutely the type of city can take talk about civic and infrastructure improvements and that was no small deal for Greece, but no US city is going to win that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FYI Posted January 23, 2014 Report Share Posted January 23, 2014 I believe London's East End re-"generation" is what swung it their way, in a tight race with Paris, than their message of "inspiring a generation". Just look at Sochi, the IOC was more wowed about the brand-spanking new Winter Olympic Park that Putin was proposing literally from scratch than anything else. Yeah, while building, or rebuilding, new roads ain't gonna cut it, something much bigger would. With all the talk of more & more Olympic landmarks disappearing in recent hosts such as Atlanta & Turin, surely having the potential of leaving a lasting legacy is what the IOC likes to look for when looking at potential hosts. And unless they're actually serious at looking for a different kind of approach, I don't see that changing anytime soon, unless they're forced to do so, when no one willing to break the bank shows up at the bidding table anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob2012 Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 I believe London's East End re-"generation" is what swung it their way, in a tight race with Paris, than their message of "inspiring a generation" London needed the regeneration message AND the inspire a generation presentation AND a new athletics stadium proposal to win. Remove any one of those aspects and I'm sure Paris would've won outright given how close it was. It was a three pronged attack and London lobbied hard on all three. I'm not sure you can unpick it and say any one of these things swung it our way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FYI Posted January 24, 2014 Report Share Posted January 24, 2014 London needed the regeneration message AND the inspire a generation presentation AND a new athletics stadium proposal to win. Remove any one of those aspects and I'm sure Paris would've won outright given how close it was. It was a three pronged attack and London lobbied hard on all three. I'm not sure you can unpick it and say any one of these things swung it our way. I'm not disputing any of that. What I meant to say is that London's regeneration of the East end was, I believe "moreso" what swung their way. I was disputing the poster that said that the 'inspire a generation' element was London's 2012 "main story", which even judging from your post, it really wasn't. I sometimes think part of the equation gets overblown on these boards at times. The IOC nowadays seems to be very egocentric. And I believe that the Games leaving a major footprint on a city that the Olympics were there, particularly one as global as London, is what primarily excites them. It certainly was the main driving force of Sochi's win, considering they had absolutely nothing there. Now the IOC can say, that they changed part of the landscape of these cities for many years to come. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Branden Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 I am a Bay Stater, and do not want this to happen. Why? This article basically sums it up. http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/2014/02/02/boston-should-stop-chasing-its-olympic-dreams/iVMbbRfIwUE6vcQxzGCknL/story.html Let’s start with the idea of a “cost-effective Olympic Games.” It is certainly imaginative. In proposals for the three 2020 Summer Olympics finalists, the estimated costs were $1.9 billion for recession-plagued Madrid, $22 billion for Istanbul, and $4.5 billion for eventual winner Tokyo. All dizzying numbers and maybe only “cost-effective” in Romney’s world. Plus, once a city commits to hosting the Olympics, costs can be tough to control. London paid $15 billion for its Summer Games, up from the original estimate of $4 billion. Montreal finally paid off its $1.5 billion debt for its 1976 Summer Games in 2006. In the intervening three decades, the city’s Olympic Stadium became known as the “Big Owe.” That brings us to the physical realities a Boston bid must confront. An already dense cityscape works against the Hub, leaving little room to create a walkable Olympic Park similar to what Beijing and London built. London had the impoverished, neglected East End as a virtual blank slate. The Summer Olympics spurred development that turned polluted waterways, scrap yards, and abandoned factories into roughly 1 square mile filled with nine venues neighboring the Olympic Village. (Note to potential Boston 2024 organizers: College dorm rooms do not an athletes’ village make for 16,500.) Where would Boston put an 80,000-seat Olympic stadium? For perspective, Gillette Stadium sets its capacity at 68,756. Then, what about an aquatics center and velodrome nearby? Never mind about 45,000 hotel rooms when Greater Boston now only has about 35,000. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisValentine Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 45,000 hotel rooms needed. Presently, greater Boston is building 2300 rooms worth of hotels, that are scheduled to be open by March of 2016, so really roughly, about 1,000 per year. Presuming that Boston were to bid for the Olympics, that pace could be kept up or accelerated, and the goal reached. Further, I feel that article is disingenuous. It draws comparisons to Montreal, widely considered, even by people who know little about the Olympics, as an utter failure financially, even by Olympic standards, and Sochi, which is an extreme outlier on costs and shows how much things can be inflated when the Russian mob is in charge of getting everything built (yes, thats hyperbolic, I know). The whole thing is really just a list of the risks associated with hosting the Olympics. Almost nothing specific about Boston, other than the fact that the Big Dig was mismanaged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeamRik Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 Greater Boston has 51,000 Hotel Rooms actually, as well as 30,000 Dorm Rooms and Ample Docking Space for Cruise Ships all of which are approved, accepted and used at the Olympic Games. And this just out!... "Panel calls Olympics in city feasible but says space for venues uncertain" Boston has enough hotel rooms, security expertise, and cultural cachet to host the 2024 Summer Olympics but would face a challenge finding space for an 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium and a 100-acre Olympic Village, according to a special commission’s draft report.http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/02/26/draft-report-olympics-feasible-but-obstacle-are-significant/pLocVzwREMhaaAgois2hZL/story.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted February 26, 2014 Report Share Posted February 26, 2014 MiGod, we've said that all along that Boston proper is too small to host a 21st century SOGs. And they weren't even planning to use Harvard and/or Boston U as their Village? Hmmmm....very ambitious that it might just doom the whole plan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisValentine Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 So, basically, the people in this thread (and other discussions in other forums) were pretty much spot on when we were focused on the Village, Stadium, Aquatics, and (ugh) Velodrome. At the very least, we know that almost every potential competitor would have to build a Velodrome, so Boston has that going for them (well, relatively speaking). I doubt very much that anyone would really rely on the college housing stock to relieve hotel stress to any significant proportion. However, I would not be surprised at all if the various universities decided to take advantage of the opportunity presented to utilize their unused dorms in such a fashion. The idea of utilizing cruise ships in the harbor might be workable, though that presumes that it makes economic sense for the cruise lines. At ports of departure, a cruise ship is rarely there for more than one day, so, during vacation times such as summer, its possible to run a ship a day out of that terminal (a quick google shows 6 different ships using the terminal at this moment, so thats not too far off). You can't, however, dock 6 ships there permanently, and even one docked there for the olympics screws up the other 5 (or however many are running in the summer). Still, its good to know other options, and it worth noting that the Boston area is full of harbors that might be able to serve similar purposes, not that I think thats even remotely necessary, if the city is expected to have 11,000 more real hotel rooms than necessary for the games. As for the venues, nothing to say that hasn't already been said. The stadium is anyone's guess, the velodrome would have to be a temporary thing (what are the dimensions of an olympic velodrome/would it be possible to repurpose one of the pre-existing arenas in the city for that?), and the aquatic center would be best developed with one of the local universities. Many of the schools' pools will be getting pretty old by 2024... Also, why am I not surprised that a polemic against the Olympics (the previous article cited in the thread) got its numbers wrong? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quaker2001 Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 So, basically, the people in this thread (and other discussions in other forums) were pretty much spot on when we were focused on the Village, Stadium, Aquatics, and (ugh) Velodrome. At the very least, we know that almost every potential competitor would have to build a Velodrome, so Boston has that going for them (well, relatively speaking). I doubt very much that anyone would really rely on the college housing stock to relieve hotel stress to any significant proportion. However, I would not be surprised at all if the various universities decided to take advantage of the opportunity presented to utilize their unused dorms in such a fashion. The idea of utilizing cruise ships in the harbor might be workable, though that presumes that it makes economic sense for the cruise lines. At ports of departure, a cruise ship is rarely there for more than one day, so, during vacation times such as summer, its possible to run a ship a day out of that terminal (a quick google shows 6 different ships using the terminal at this moment, so thats not too far off). You can't, however, dock 6 ships there permanently, and even one docked there for the olympics screws up the other 5 (or however many are running in the summer). Still, its good to know other options, and it worth noting that the Boston area is full of harbors that might be able to serve similar purposes, not that I think thats even remotely necessary, if the city is expected to have 11,000 more real hotel rooms than necessary for the games. As for the venues, nothing to say that hasn't already been said. The stadium is anyone's guess, the velodrome would have to be a temporary thing (what are the dimensions of an olympic velodrome/would it be possible to repurpose one of the pre-existing arenas in the city for that?), and the aquatic center would be best developed with one of the local universities. Many of the schools' pools will be getting pretty old by 2024... Also, why am I not surprised that a polemic against the Olympics (the previous article cited in the thread) got its numbers wrong? Who would have thought that folks in an Olympic bidding forum would know what is required of an Olympics. It bears repeating.. it takes more than ambition and drive to produce a serious Olympics bid. Someone has to come forward with a plan that makes sense for both the city and for the USOC. There are about a hundred bits and pieces to make that happen, and obviously it's some of the bigger pieces that are going to pose a problem. And it may be too big a problem for a city like Boston to overcome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisValentine Posted February 27, 2014 Report Share Posted February 27, 2014 Who would have thought that folks in an Olympic bidding forum would know what is required of an Olympics. It bears repeating.. it takes more than ambition and drive to produce a serious Olympics bid. Someone has to come forward with a plan that makes sense for both the city and for the USOC. There are about a hundred bits and pieces to make that happen, and obviously it's some of the bigger pieces that are going to pose a problem. And it may be too big a problem for a city like Boston to overcome. A valid point, but even a neophyte such as myself had no trouble focusing on those 4 issues as the major ones to solve, since Boston has an abundance of hotels, an abundance of sporting venues, and a shortage of Olympic Villages, Velodromes, and Olympic stadiums. As to the second point, well, what, specifically, about Boston makes it less suitable to host an Olympic games/less likely to overcome the hurdles to do so? Is it the relatively compact nature of the city? Is it the aging infrastructure? Is it the political processes? Or is it simply that they have yet to produce a coherent plan that has caught anyone's imagination? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChrisValentine Posted March 4, 2014 Report Share Posted March 4, 2014 I believe this is the report alluded to in the previous few posts: http://www.scribd.com/doc/209833623/Boston-Olympic-Commission-Report Reading it now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
breathesgelatin Posted March 5, 2014 Report Share Posted March 5, 2014 A satiric anti-Olympic editorial from the Boston Globe: https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/03/05/how-boston-can-win-olympics/zVGL3kJs6QfHe54f4TnCFP/story.html?s_campaign=sm_tw Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cslopes54 Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Render of a Boston Olympic stadium. Appears to be in the water . Like or dislike ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr.bernham Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Wow! That's beautiful, I really like it. But an even greater April Fools Joke. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nacre Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 It's certainly beautiful and building off the shore solves the space issue. But I am pretty sure building a stadium in the water would make it harder (read: more expensive) to rebuild it for football afterwards. There's also the environmental and transportation issues. I think this is the only feasible way of building an Olympic stadium in Boston proper, though, and Tokyo has successfully completed a ton of projects like this. So it can certainly be done if you can find the money. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baron-pierreIV Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Uhmmm...IOC will not be too crazy about that. It totally limits access and egress of 80,000+ people arriving and departing at the same time. Also, where is the warm-up track? Plus an auxiliary stadium or two for the Opening Ceremony? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nacre Posted April 2, 2014 Report Share Posted April 2, 2014 Uhmmm...IOC will not be too crazy about that. It totally limits access and egress of 80,000+ people arriving and departing at the same time. Also, where is the warm-up track? Plus an auxiliary stadium or two for the Opening Ceremony? This would have to be the ceremony stadium. They would have to build a new subway line (or two) to the stadium, which is one of many reasons why this would be tremendously expensive ala Montreal's Expo 67. It IS doable, though, if you have several billion dollars you want to throw away on such a project. I suspect Bostonians won't want to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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