Revised Boston 2024 Olympics bid to be revealed Monday ahead of critical USOC meeting
Organizers for Boston's bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics will release updated plans on Monday for how the city would pay for and stage the games.
A spokesman for the private Boston 2024 group confirmed Friday that the much-anticipated rollout of "version 2.0" of the plan, which was first unveiled in January, will come during a 10 a.m. event at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center.
The release comes a day before a June 30 meeting of the U.S. Olympic Committee's board of directors in San Francisco, where Boston organizers are expected to discuss their updated plans.
Speaking at a special City Council hearing earlier Friday, Boston 2024 CEO Richard Davey declined to offer any hints about what the plan might say, other than the Olympic marathon would end at what he called "it's rightful home": the iconic finish line for the Boston Marathon on Boylston Street near Copley Square.
The finish was the site of the 2013 bombings that killed three people and injured hundreds more. Organizers had initially proposed ending the 26.2-mile race on Charles Street near the Boston Common.
The actual route of the proposed Olympics marathon, however, has yet to be determined.
"We're in the final throes of completing our financing plan literally as I speak," Davey said. "We're briefing our board of directors today and over the weekend to make sure they have seen and approve of the various financing plans, and we expect to release those by Tuesday of next week, likely Monday of next week."
Council members expressed frustration at the lack of new information at an inquiry ostensibly focused on the proposal's finances.
Some sternly reminded Davey that any commitment of taxpayer dollars requires council approval of a specific dollar value. Others asked Davey to publicly commit to not seeking taxpayer dollars, a request he declined.
"I'm pretty disappointed," Councilor Josh Zakim said. "The hearing was billed as finances and venues. We had a very nice presentation on the venues, but not much new on the finances. I appreciate that that information will be forthcoming. But it's frustrating."
A few councilors voiced support for some of the new sites proposed for Olympic events. Organizers have revealed those venues piecemeal in recent weeks.
Among them: sailing competitions off the southeastern Massachusetts city of New Bedford, tennis matches at a park in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood, beach volleyball on the waterfront in the nearby city of Quincy and shooting events at a gun range in Billerica, a town about 25 miles northwest of Boston.