Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish leads the committee exploring bringing the 2024 Summer Olympic Games to Boston. His reasons, however, are likely not what you expected.
Delivering remarks at the National Association of Corporate Directors/New England September 18th breakfast meeting, Fish emphasized that attempting to attract the Olympics was not just about the Olympics. Although I am sure that he would consider Olympics Games in Greater Boston to be a lot of fun (he never actually said as much), his foci were directed elsewhere.
First, he noted that the development of a robust infrastructure to support the movement, housing, feeding and care of an expanding workforce, regardless of whether the Olympics come to Boston, was a necessary component of robust economic growth. The Olympics could feed into the build-out of that infrastructure, by creating sustainable space which could be utilized as part of that future infrastructure. He sees the Olympics as getting a head start on future development.
Second, in developing Boston’s Olympics proposal, the committee convened many experts in data analysis. What events would be held in which venues and at what time? Where should the housing and support functions be located? What will be the impact on participants and the general population in different locations for pedestrians, drivers, workers, people seeking food or other services? The committee has developed a computerized model to analyze data for all locations relevant to the Olympic Games, and to do so hour by hour. For example [which I am suggesting, this was not made express at the meeting], let us assume there is a hockey game at the Harvard Hockey Arena on a Thursday. Should that be held at 10:00 in the morning, 2:00 in the afternoon or 8:00 at night? What will be most crowded, least crowded, most supported, least intrusive on the different constituencies and how do you address those issues by planning?
Fish cannot say whether Boston will receive the United States recommendation, and thereafter the International Olympic Committee approval, but he hopes that the information-based tools they have developed can be utilized in the future for planning infrastructure build-out.
A week or two ago, the Globe printed a map of Greater Boston with an indication of how the Olympics might fit into existing facilities, and into newly built facilities which could be repurposed after the Games concluded. I recall, at the time, not understanding the logic of how locations were being assigned; having heard Fish speak with respect to the data-driven methodology behind the plan, the logic of the proposal now becomes clear.