Here’s how I see it and tell me if I’m wrong.
A private organization is interested in conducting a number of events here in July of 2024. They wish to have some of the events held in private places such as Fenway Park and others on public spaces such as the Boston Common.
No different than the Andleman Brothers having their BBQ festival on City Hall Plaza every summer or the Democratic National Convention coming to town.
The event organizer is a private group called the International Olympic Committee. Another private entity headed by John Fish has set-up shop here to plan and advocate for Boston to be chosen then run it if we are.
So, like the Andleman Brothers and the people who run the Swan Boats (not free) and the ice skating in the Common (again not free) Fish’s group will negotiate with the appropriate public entities down to the number of trash barrels the IOC will provide and a deal will be made for each.
(BTW in 2018 before signing the bid the mayor and the governor should be as knowledgeable as anyone on the deals affecting city and state property respectively. At a joint press conference announcing final bid, the Charlie should know all the specifics of the deals with the state and same for Marty re: city. The real nitty-gritty. It will pay off for them if they spend the time and learn more than expected.)
They also will negotiate with the Boston Garden, Fenway Park, Boston College, UMass Boston, hotels, landowners, caterers, transportation carries and a slew of other private entities needed to pull it off.
The local private group is putting it together one piece at a time. Each venue and accommodation is a piece of the huge puzzle. Do we have the venues needed? If not are the ones in the pipe-line from private sector.
The answer is yes. This just pushes them. Deadlines make this world run.
So we get Bob Kraft to pay the city and the other businesses around Frontage Road market value and re-location costs for the land, he builds the soccer stadium, the Olympic people then pay him rent and money to build and tear-down a temp Olympic Stadium.
Actually this is our sweet spot. Thanks to Tom Finneran Massachusetts doesn’t pay for sports stadiums. We will give you roads and sidewalks to get there but that’s all. We have a precedent and reputation and we are sticking with it. (Maybe we”re wrong about the way we go about it. Teams need public financing to win and stay competitive right? That’s what everyone says. I wonder what the Duck Boat people think of that? More conventional wisdom we blew apart)
So if the 2018 contract says a velodrome will be built at Assembly Square in Somerville by some private folks and come close to 2024 the thing’s not built for what ever reason and they come to the tax payers for money guess what? We don’t care. Tough shit IOC and John Fish.
The Olympics need us. We don’t need them. The Summer Olympics are turning into a competition among despots who rape from their economy and build unneeded sports venues and Olympic Villages from government funds.
Boston and MA won’t look bad if we demand they stick to the agreement and we never provide another cent. Who cares? Screw them. Who do they think we are? Some push-over like Putin?
If the Olympics don’t come here it will be because we didn’t want them not the other way around.
Patients will still come from around the world to see our doctors. Super-smart people will still come to our schools, and we can still be MassHoles.
(Like China had a campaign encouraging its people not to spit during the Olympics, I can see Jack Connors getting the nod for “The Don’t Be a Mass-Hole During the Olympics” ad campaign.)
If Boston can pull of a successful Summer Olympics in 2024 it will be known in those circles as the “City that Changed the Olympics”.
On the other hand I can see the mayor not signing a 2018 agreement because it just ain’t worth it. ‘We can never have anything nice in this house because of you kids. All this fighting ruins everything. That’s it. No trip to Disneyland. You’re staying with your grandmother and your father and I are going someplace nice by ourselves.’
Or
‘The stuff they (OIC) want us to do for their shitty little games is too much. Screw them. We thought we were doing them the favor. Rome can have them.’
Now if the contract says the taxpayers will provide a pre-agreed upon public infrastructure then we have to follow through on it.
If anyone is going to get ripped off let it be John Fish and not us. Then we have a deal.
Right now Marty Walsh is the gate-keeper and he’s given us no reason not to trust him on this.
(LOL Good bye Greenline extension to Medford. Those poor Somerville yuppies will have to take one of the many convenient and short bus trips to Davis Square, Wellington Station, Sullivan Square, Alewife, and Harvard Square. Or take a bus straight in town direct. Oh and don’t forget the commuter rail line there too. (Really, these fucking yuppies do believe the world revolves around them.)
Note to Boston Olympic Committee and other advocates.
STOP SAYING BOSTON IS GREAT SPORTS CITY SO OLYMPIC’S A NATURAL. WE’RE NOT. AND WE LIKE IT THIS WAY.
We are not. We are a local sports city. The Beanpot? SUCKS (unless alumni) The Marathon? SUCKS (unless running it or you go to Wellesley College.) The Head of the Charles? SUCKS. Like the mararthon you can’t even drink there anymore. Only thing that made them tolerable WTF) The Revolution? Baahaaahaaa
We hate sports here. And we don’t consider the Olympics sports.
We only have four sports here. Red Sox baseball, Patriots football, Celtic basketball, and Bruins hockey. Candlepin bowling too but that isn’t on TV anymore. In the weekly sports TV ratings candlepin bowling was always at the top with the local games. National games other than Monday Night Football that didn’t have a Boston team had 4 people watching, plus the gamblers. Check the local ratings during the upcoming NBA and NHL playoffs. We hate sports.
Jesus Christ our local college hockey scene makes Chapel Hill look like they have good junior high basketball teams. We are putting kids in the NHL like Steve Wynn puts Everett big shots on his pay-roll. And guess what? We don’t care.
So don’t keep insulting us with this talking point. Lose it. Go ahead and tell the IOC it belongs here because we are sports fans. We will pretend it’s true to help you out. But don’t try to tell us this. Okay?
One more thing. Why do we need the two incompetent giddly school girls known as state reps Michael Moran and Aaron Michiewits being players in this thing? These are the same two Bozos who ran to the Globe two years ago proclaiming they were the kingmakers and go-to-guys for Charlotte Golar Richie’s mayoral efforts. One of the most bizarre politcal stories I ever read.
There guys are so incompetent. It’s a shame. Bobby Deleo has little to work with up there. Anyway the ticket scapers from the North End are already calling Michiewitz about getting boat loads of ducats for the women’s gymnastic finals. Make the Yiddish Sal feel important when they call. He lives for it.
All these two want is to be important but they are clueless about what it means.
judy-meredith says
Yet.
ryepower12 says
and the nice old lady who didn’t want the Boston Commons to be closed off for a year, destroying the park and its Revolutionary War era trees for a Volleyball stadium, is a whiny snob who needs to shut up?
These aren’t your best posts, Ernie. Not at all.
And while you’re sticking with the silly notion that Boston will be Super Tough in facing the IOC and won’t be building or paying for anything that isn’t absolutely, 100% needed, in the most efficient manner possible — please remember that everyone and their mother is already lining up lining up to get bridges that cost tens of millions more than needed so they can have rowing on their river, volleyball stadiums built in Pittsfield, and god knows what else.
If Massachusetts gets this, it’s going to be the most bloated, warped mess of a games since… well, the last one, and the one before, and the one before that. Because that’s how they all work. Even freaking London’s games cost 3x the estimated cost — and that was a “cheap” games because they had infrastructure we could only dream of.
There is nothing unique or tough or particularly amazing about our pols. They will fold like all the rest do to get the games, because glitz is the political version of crack — and as we all know, crack is whack, so it’s our job to say no.
paulsimmons says
…among a whole slew of others, but this should suffice for the nonce.
Mike Moran is not about to file a bill upon which the Speaker’s countenance does not shine. Below is the list of sponsors, as of this time:
Byron Rushing, Michael J. Moran, Aaron Michlewitz, Bruce J. Ayers, Christine P. Barber, F. Jay Barrows, Jennifer E. Benson, Michael D. Brady, Paul Brodeur, William N. Brownsberger, Linda Dean Campbell, James M. Cantwell, Gailanne M. Cariddi, Evandro C. Carvalho, Leah Cole, Edward F. Coppinger, Brendan P. Crighton, Claire D. Cronin, Mark J. Cusack, Josh S. Cutler, Michael S. Day, Marjorie C. Decker, Angelo L. D’Emilia, Marcos A. Devers, Diana DiZoglio, Daniel M. Donahue, Shawn Dooley, James J. Dwyer, Carolyn C. Dykema, Lori A. Ehrlich, Tricia Farley-Bouvier, John V. Fernandes, Ann-Margaret Ferrante, Michael J. Finn, Carole A. Fiola, Linda Dorcena Forry, Gloria L. Fox, Paul K. Frost, William C. Galvin, Denise C. Garlick, Carmine L. Gentile, Susan Williams Gifford, Carlos Gonzalez, Kenneth I. Gordon, Danielle W. Gregoire, Patricia A. Haddad, Jonathan Hecht, Paul R. Heroux, Patricia D. Jehlen, Bradley H. Jones, Jr., Louis L. Kafka, Mary S. Keefe, Kay Khan, Peter V. Kocot, Stephen Kulik, John J. Lawn, Jr., Jason M. Lewis, Jay D. Livingstone, Joan B. Lovely, Timothy R. Madden, John J. Mahoney, Elizabeth A. Malia, Brian R. Mannal, Paul W. Mark, Joseph W. McGonagle, Jr., Joseph D. McKenna, Paul McMurtry, Leonard Mirra, Rady Mom, Mark C. Montigny, Michael O. Moore, Frank A. Moran, David K. Muradian, Jr., James J. O’Day, Keiko M. Orrall, Jerald A. Parisella, Alice Hanlon Peisch, Thomas M. Petrolati, William Smitty Pignatelli, Denise Provost, David M. Rogers, Richard J. Ross, Jeffrey N. Roy, Jeffrey Sánchez, Paul A. Schmid, III, Frank I. Smizik, Todd M. Smola, Timothy J. Toomey, Jr., Paul Tucker, Aaron Vega, John C. Velis, RoseLee Vincent, Timothy R. Whelan, Donald H. Wong, Jonathan D. Zlotnik
You’ll note that the list includes the bulk of State House players.
Insofar as the Charlotte Richie campaign is concerned, there were wheels within wheels. Suffice it to say that Richie was played like a fiddle.
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
But let’s not make Moran and Aaron the point people. Seems more like they want to cause problems for Marty Walsh than work together.
Plus we need Senate input. Joint committee. Sen. Dorcena Forry or Petrucelli perhaps with anyone but those two chairing the House side. And don’t forget the the reps and sens outside of Boston, oustide of 128, outside 495, past Worcester, and past Springfield too
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
n/t
paulsimmons says
I think that’s an indication of major player support – on and off the sponsor list – and not coincidentally where the Speaker is on this. Sen. Forry and Rep. Coppinger on the list indicates a hemorrhaging of player support in the only sections of Boston that count politically.
Senators Brownsberger and Montigny, although less precise an indication than the House supporters, indicate a level of scepticism Senate-side, in my opinion.
At present, this is purely inside ball (neither side has competent grassroots ops), but it doesn’t look good for the pro-Olympics crowd, which is croaking itself due to it’s inability to transcend its political narcissism.
SomervilleTom says
I found EBIII much more entertaining during the Bulger rants.
Maybe the Globe or Herald will find another even more salacious scandal soon, and EBIII will hit his or her groove again.
kirth says
instead of the three of this one I’m seeing now.
Not that I liked even one, but three? WTF?
eb3-fka-ernie-boch-iii says
🙂
SomervilleTom says
Even EBIII doesn’t generally desire three copies of the very same diary.
This is surely a technical issue with the BMG server.
Christopher says
…he wrote 5 or 6 different diaries about Market Basket.
kirth says
That was a real Ritz cracker day.