During the 2010 Winter Olympics I tossed around the idea of Boston hosting a summer or winter games. My point then remains that the same: Boston is ideal because the local universities could already supply many of the venues. The big obstacle would always be the main stadium for Track & Field and the opening and closing ceremonies. Nearly every city that hosts is left with a White Elephant that costs hundreds of millions of dollars. But London may provide a solution. They built their Olympic Stadium as a temporary venue. It looked great on TV, holds enough for the games and can be shrunk as soon as it all wraps up. Londoners haven't decided what they will do with the space. There are a few different bidders looking to take over the remains of the stadium. Boston would probably have similar suitors depending on the location. I would guess that UMasss Boston would want a small stadium or maybe the Revolution would want to convert it to a soccer only facility. The possibilities are endless.
I would still love to see Boston host the games and wish our partner Fenway Sports Group would get behind it. I am practical too. This wouldn't just be a vanity project for BC. It would be a backdoor way to get the IOC to fix the air conditioning in Conte!
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Boston's infrastructure could use the boost too.
Actually, a very good idea!
Happy birthday Gary Marangi.
http://blogs.buffalonews.com/sports_ink/2012/07/this-birthday-in-buffalo-sports-history-gary-marangi.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fbuffalonews%2Fsports_ink+%28Sports%2C+Ink%29
Boston would be completely incapable of handling a project as big and time-sensitive as the Olympics. Just look at the disaster known as the Big Dig, a project that took 20 years with numerous cost over-runs, bribes and shoddy work. Boston would be the absolute last place you would want to award the Olympics.
Whoa, Scoop! Gary Marangi... a blast from the past! He was quarterback during my years at BC. Hadn't heard his name in decades.
I believe Olympic Stadium is actually going to be taken over by one of the soccer team. There were actually some legal battles over who would get it. One of the main sticking points is that the city wants to preserve the track.
I'm not sure that even if the stadium was shrunk a little that we could find a good use for a 25,000 person stadium in the city.
Having said that, I still like the idea.
All Fenway Sports Group does is ruin stadia with too many ads. They did it to Fenway and, while BC has been charging people money to look at and hear ads (anyone remember the constant in between play "we'd like to thank Starter for being a corporate partner of Boston College athletics") it has only gotten worse with FSG.
There's a couple of problems with Boston hosting any Olympics. Number 1, the relative area size of the city is tiny. Number 2, there are no nearby mountains for any skiing events. Number 3, the weather in the summer is terribly humid. Number 4, there is no realistic place to put an Olympic village. The list goes on and on.
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