Sports digest: Boston Olympic bid underestimated costs

While the Brattle Report confirmed numerous risks and opportunities that were identified in Bid 2.0, we were surprised that the report failed to thoroughly and accurately account for important cost differences between Boston’s bid and other Olympic Games.

– The Brattle Group states that it was not provided with incremental costs associated with venues outside of Boston and suggested that those costs would impact potential revenue upside.

“There was no effort to critique our venue by venue construction budgets which we provided, down to very specific costs of steel, concrete, plumbing, electrical and HVAC on a square foot basis”, Boston 2024’s response added.

“The Brattle Group report is comprehensive – spanning some 192 pages – and vets a slew of topics included in Boston 2024’s formal bid documents for the Games”.

The decision to end Boston’s first run for the Olympics came after Baker declined to grant his support until after the Brattle Group completed its analysis and Boston Mayor Marty Walsh refused to sign a guarantee committing taxpayer dollars to cover any overages.

Political leaders at the time, including Gov. Charlie Baker, were withholding their support for the bid until they could read the analysis being prepared by the Cambridge-based Brattle Group. “The bid is over, but the Olympic saga must be a wakeup call for voters”.

The independent report, released on Tuesday by the Baker administration, also found that necessary infrastructure improvement expenses, including power and signal upgrades on the MBTA and a new bus facility, may have been underestimated in Boston 2024’s projections for the games.

But the report also outlines significant risk of going over budget, saying if the massive project didn’t achieve projected cost savings, it could have cost taxpayers $750 million.

On Tuesday, Baker told reporters that the word “skeptical” wasn’t the correct one for his stance as the bid played out. The USOC has since been working with leaders in Los Angeles on a new bid. The United States Olympic Committee has to choose a host by mid-September and the worldwide Olympic Committee is scheduled to select a city in 2017.