No Boston Olympics by Chris Dempsey

Author:Chris Dempsey [Dempsey, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of New England
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Another key part of the Olympic-booster playbook is associating popular sports figures with the bid, hoping to convince the public that the Games are a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience athletic greatness in their own backyard. On April 22, Boston 2024 made what the Boston Globe called a “star-studded” set of additions to its board of directors. The new members included some of the best-known names in Boston sports, including Celtics legend Larry Bird, Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, and Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi.7 Although these figures were broadly loved by Massachusetts residents, the announcement may have been counterproductive. By April, No Boston Olympics, No Boston 2024, and other bid opponents had helped persuade many Bostonians that Boston 2024 was much more than a sporting event—it was a public policy matter worthy of thoughtful analysis. David Ortiz and Larry Bird weren’t going to help with that.

Rather than more sports stars, Boston 2024 needed new political and managerial leadership. No Boston Olympics’ leaders were haunted by the notion that Boston 2024 might bring in a new chairman, chief executive, or management team that could instantly reset the public’s perception of the bid. The leading candidate was perhaps former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, who was still seen by Bay State voters as a competent manager, even if many disagreed with positions he had taken as a presidential candidate in 2008 and 2012. Romney was credited by some with “rescuing” the Salt Lake City’s 2002 Winter Olympics after a bribery scandal and budget overruns had threatened to permanently tarnish the Games and their host city. Romney had rescued Salt Lake City’s Olympic bid (with the help of $1.5 billion of taxpayer support);8 he might be able to do the same for Boston 2024. Although it was never reported, it is probable that the USOC’s Probst and Blackmun reached out to Romney to test his interest in returning to Massachusetts to lead Boston’s bid. But the former governor had many reasons to turn down these overtures. Romney had taken control of the Salt Lake organizing committee less than two years before the opening ceremonies. The Salt Lake Games were happening one way or another—and Romney knew if he got the bid on track, he could bask in the glow of seventeen days of fawning Olympic coverage.

Boston 2024 was still more than two years away from the IOC auction’s final gavel—so the bid could still end in an embarrassing defeat to rival cities such as Paris or Rome. And even if Boston were selected, it would be another seven years of risky construction and execution before the opening ceremonies. Whereas leading Salt Lake City 2002 had been a political launching pad, leading Boston 2024 had the potential to be an awkward bookend to Romney’s career. A second Olympic act just didn’t hold much appeal to the grandfather of twenty-three, especially given the risks to his reputation. It wasn’t that Romney didn’t have the energy or ambition for the job—just months before, in January, Romney had

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