Boston 2024 to Release More Olympics Information Wednesday
Further details on Boston’s Olympic plans are expected this week, as bidding group Boston 2024 holds its first “Citizens Advisory Group’’ meeting Wednesday night.
Boston 2024 said it will release the presentation it made to the United States Olympic Committee in December, as well as bidding documents submitted to the USOC, which in part led the USOC to choose Boston as the nation’s representative bid to host the 2024 Summer Games.
Members of the press will receive the bidding documents at noon Wednesday. Boston 2024 said the information will be released to the public online, though it has not yet said at what time. (We’ve asked, and will update this story when that information is available.) The 6 p.m. meeting at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center will include a “detailed presentation’’ of the plan, according to a press release.
Boston 2024 has faced calls from critics, led by competing nonprofit No Boston Olympics, for the release of these plans since before the bid was submitted to the USOC on December 1. Boston 2024 has stressed that the pitch to the USOC is a first iteration of the bid, and is subject to change over the next couple of years. The International Olympic Committee will ultimately decide on whether Boston or another city from around the world will host the 2024 Games, and there will be a couple rounds of bidding before the IOC does so in 2017.
Last Tuesday, Boston 2024 announced it would share details of the bid with the public at the meeting, and allow press to peruse the documents either before or after the meeting. The next day, the group changed course and said it will release the documents publicly.
Some information will be held back, though.
“There is a limited amount of proprietary information that the USOC has asked us not to release because they believe it will put Boston and the United States at a competitive disadvantage,’’ Boston 2024 Executive Vice President Erin Murphy Rafferty said last week. “All supporting documents with the exception of that proprietary information will be released to the media and the public.’’
Those redactions aren’t sitting well with the bid’s opponents.
“Boston 2024’s boosters have said they want to bid on Boston’s terms, but their actions show they genuflect to the USOC,’’ No Boston Olympics said in a statement. “We believe the full documents submitted to the USOC on December 1 are a public record and should be released. Releasing only some of the documents doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that the full bid is good for Greater Boston.’’
Boston 2024 has already given a few details on its plans for the Games to this point, which include a temporary Olympic Stadium in South Boston, an Olympic Village at UMass Boston, and the use of college venues and other existing structures like TD Garden and Gillette Stadium for a variety of events. It has also talked some about its plans for financing the Games, using private money to finance its operating budget and public funds for infrastructure upgrades that Boston 2024 says would align with the region’s transit goals.
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