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Boston 2024 bid requires more public funding: report – Metro US

Boston 2024 bid requires more public funding: report

Boston 2024 bid requires more public funding: report
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It turns out the Boston 2024 Olympic Committee will need public funding after all. Initially, the organization promised that they would not need public funding in order to secure the bid for the 2024 Summer Games.

According to a report from WCVB Channel 5 and the Boston Business Journal, contradictions in the Bid Book show that Boston 2024 would need more public funding than their initial pitch, which said that tax money would be to provide security. An excerpt from the Bid Book shows that the organization would need a public authority to “fund land acquisition and infrastructure costs.”

The stadium would cost anywhere between $521 and $658 million dollars, two thirds of which would be paid for by issued bonds.

Boston 2024 chief operating officer Erin Murphy Rafferty told the Boston Globe, “We stand by our commitment that the operations of the Games and the building of venues will be privately funded.”

The No Boston Olympics opposition group called this finding “the smoking gun,” stating that the documents in the Bid Book prove that Boston 2024 are telling the public and the International Olympic Committee two different stories.

No Boston Olympics issued a statement to WCVB Channel 5, saying, “These documents make clear that Boston 2024 has one message when it meets privately with the IOC and USOC, and an entirely different message when it speaks to the Massachusetts public about who will bear the costs of the Games.”

The bid for the games also includes a $1 billion expansion of the Boston Convention and Exposition Center in the South Boston waterfront. Governor Charlie Baker said that Massachusetts cannot afford that plan.