So the organizing committee behind Boston's 2024 Olympic bid had its first public meeting a while back, and presented materials that were part of its presentation to the USOC. And while the documentation was described as a "proof of concept" rather than a finished plan, it does give a clearer idea of how the organizers are trying to make these a walkable Games.
Venues are planned within a "waterfront" cluster that centers on South Boston and Dorchester, and a "university" cluster which includes facilities at BU, MIT and Harvard. There is then a "midtown" location which would be the location for the main stadium. Lowell would host boxing and the Merrimack River would host various canoe/kayak events. Even so, there are a number of events that seem to fall outside of this arrangement. Here's how it looks sport by sport, and what I think might work better.
Archery - a temporary venue in Killian Court, which is the area in front of the main building at MIT. Great choice for atmosphere between the dome and city views over the Charles. It's only going to seat 1000, which seems small. The venue for London seated 6500. My personal choice here is Fenway Park, as it's a way to include an iconic sports venue at a minimal impact to the venue.
Athletics
- centered on the main stadium, which is located on the Widett Circle
parcel in South Boston. The committee says they want to acquire the land
from the food wholesale co-op that is currently there by sale rather
than eminent domain. We'll see how that goes. In any event, this is probably the best location that's available.
The
marathon will use a route centered on Boston Common. This appears to be
different from the route used in the past when Boston hosted Olympic
trials. Which makes sense, as it will finish at the stadium.
Aquatics- This will be a temporary venue at something called Allston Landing, which is part of Harvard's stake in that neighborhood. Seems doable, and at 18500 people the size is right. Not sure how well this will go with Allston residents still sore over Harvard's expansion into Allston. Note that this venue includes swimming, diving and synchronized swimming.,
There's also a marathon swim course in the Charles River,
with Magazine Beach being the focal point on land (this is closer to BU
than Harvard, but on the Cambridge side of the river). This is not the most accessible location, something farther down the river (maybe by the Hatch Shell) would work better and provide more options for getting there.
Badminton
- Agannis Arena at BU. The only event located at BU, which is a little
surprising but their other athletic facilities may not be big enough
(they all tend to seat under 5000, which looks like the minimum). The
Green Line runs right by it, which you think is helpful but it's notoriously slow. I do think that Agannis would be better suited for basketball prelims or handball, with badminton going to the BCEC or Hynes.
Basketball - the final is at TD Garden, but with gymnastics taking up most of the time here the prelims would need to be held elsewhere (Agannis and the Conte Forum would be reasonable local options, while the DCU Center and Dunkin Donuts Center are a little farther out but bigger). All of these venues have reasonable transit options, with Worcester and Providence allowing for more car use.
Boxing - Tsongas Center in Lowell. Lowell has some solid local
boxing history (thank Mickey Ward for this, I suppose), and it creates a
decent cluster with the various rowing events.
Canoe - temporary venue in Lowell using the Merrimack River. I'm assuming the slalom course will be built in the same area, but it's not mentioned in the plan.
Cycling - the road course is centered on the Boston Common. Track cycling would be in a velodrome crammed into one end of Assembly Square in Somerville. After the Games it would be repurposed into some sort of multi-use facility (the area is redeveloping as a shopping and entertainment district, so probably along those lines). I hate this site, as I think it will be hard to get to. There is a new Orange Line station close by, but it's tight quarters for surface traffic and relying on Route 93 to get anywhere is magical thinking.
Oh, and the BMX track is going to be in Assembly Square, too! Ugh.
A better option would be using either Suffolk Downs or Wonderland. Both have Blue Line and bus access already, and both are in more desperate need of redevelopment than the Assembly Square area.
Equestrian - the horses will take over the William Devine golf course in Franklin Park. Suffolk Downs is available, and you'd think the horse infrastructure there could be used. I'd go there instead, but at least the Franklin Park site is close to the Orange Line.
Fencing - temporary venue on the Alfred Gordon track site at Harvard. There are a lot of temporary venues at Harvard, it would be better to spread some of them around, especially as the area where they're going is not as transit friendly as the plan suggests.
Football
- final will be at Gillette, which is a pain in the ass to get to (poor road access and limited rail access), but it is the home to the New England Revolution. No talk about preliminary sites, but I expect
they'll be scattered around the northeast (my guess would be using NFL
stadiums with temporary turf as needed, though both the Yale Bowl and Rentschler Field are big enough to host as well).
Golf
- The Country Club in Brookline. Still think TPC Norton is better
choice logistically. Getting there for the Ryder Cup in 1999 was a pain.
It'll all be shuttle buses and satellite parking.
Gymnastics - artistic at TD Garden, rhythmic at the Boston Convention and Expo Center (BCEC). Artistic includes trampoline, for which TD Garden seems like overkill. The BCEC gets quite a workout in this plan, which is concerning given how hard it is currently to get out of the Seaport district. There are plans to improve transport (including a rail line running from the BCEC into Back Bay station), though recent events may push money towards fixing existing service.
Handball - There's nothing about handball in the documentation. which is weird. I don't know how your plan can ignore an entire sport. I'm guessing handball will use some of the same venues as basketball, though maybe some of the smaller arenas (like Matthews Arena or the Bright Center) could be used as well.
Hockey - Harvard Stadium, putting more pressure on that part of Cambridge and Allston. London had two areas for hockey, perhaps Nickerson Field or Alumni Stadium could host this as well.
Judo - BCEC, whose use is pretty clearly modeled on how the ExCeL Center was used in London.
Modern Pentathlon - White Stadium in Franklin Park and the aquatics center for the swimming part.
Rowing - also in Lowell on the Merrimack.
Rugby - Gillette Stadium,which I assume can host the entire tournament given that it's modeled after Rugby Sevens, whose events only take a weekend.
Sailing - off of Castle Island in the Boston Harbor. I understand why that's desirable, but getting to and from there is going to be murder. The closest thing to public transit is "anticipated" Silver Line service. It's all surface transport, so this may wind up being a walkable venue by necessity.
Shooting - OK, this is a weird one. A temporary venue seating 7000 will be constructed on Long Island, with access by shuttle bus over the one bridge connecting the island to the mainland (which will be restricted to Olympic traffic) and ferry. I thought 7000 was way too high for shooting, but the London venue was 7500, so maybe it's fine. There's also spectator areas to watch sailing, which is good as this is probably still easier to get to than Castle Island.
Table Tennis - BCEC
Taekwondo - BCEC
Tennis - temporary venue at Harvard on their playing fields. Planned capacity is at 20000, which I assume is mostly center court. So with the planned swimming capacity, you could have almost 40000 people in a fairly small section of Allston if the events aren't timed right. Forget walkable, that would be crawlable at best.
Triathlon - swimming at Magazine Beach, with cycling and running legs in Cambridge (hopefully away from everything else going on at Harvard). I'd move this closer to downtown as with the marathon swim, and the cycling and running can use parts of the courses for the road race and marathon.
Volleyball - beach is on Boston Common, in an attempt to recreate the atmosphere of Horse Guards Parade. I don't think it'll work, and while I don't think it's the worst location it drew most of the criticism at the first open forum. There probably isn't a great downtown location for this.
Indoor volleyball is at the BCEC, I'm assuming in the part of the facility that's proposed for expansion (Olympics or not).
Water Polo - also at Harvard (Allston Landing) in a 5000 seat venue.While it makes sense to have this a the same location as the other aquatic events, but I do think Harvard is overloaded. Not sure where else this could go, though.
Weightlifting- at the Blue Hills Bank Pavilion (ne Bank of
America Pavilion and Harborlights), good harbor views but it's open to
the elements (the stage and most seating is covered). I'm pretty
familiar with the venue (my employer holds a graduation ceremony there
every summer), and it looks like they're going to build something out
into the harbor for athletes to use for warm up, locker rooms, etc. At
least I don't recall there being anything there now. Also, another
transit issue as the Silver Line is your best non-car option.
Wrestling - BCEC
As a proof of concept I suppose the original plan works, but if there's any hope of actually landing the Games there's work to be done. The waterfront cluster has significant transit issues, while the university cluster is too focused on the least accessible part of Harvard's campus.
11 February 2015
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