AP, Boston :
The group trying to bring the 2024 Olympics to Boston released the most detailed look yet at its bid for the Summer Games on Monday, unveiling a $4.6 billion plan it says would create thousands of jobs and housing units, expand the city’s tax base and leave behind a vastly-improved regional transit system – all with a $210 million surplus.
The announcement was designed to answer critics who say the privately funded Boston 2024 has withheld details of the bid to prevent the public from assessing whether the games could be staged, as promised, without the need for taxpayer money.
The so-called “Bid 2.0” comes as Boston 2024 organizers head to San Francisco for a critical meeting before the U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors Tuesday.
“We’ve now done the ‘little-picture’ thinking,” said bid chairman Steve Pagliuca, a co-owner of the Boston Celtics. “We think we’ve made the major leaps.”
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker, who was among the state leaders pressing Olympics planners to produce more detailed plans by the end of the month, said the state would need to look more carefully into the bid’s assumptions, especially around infrastructure improvements.
The update contains “far more information and far more detail than anything we’ve seen before,” he said after a lengthy private meeting with Pagliuca and Democratic legislative leaders Monday. “The big question… is making sure we really understand what is expected of the Commonwealth and the taxpayers.”
