Massachusetts lawmakers are creating a commission to study a possible 2024 summer Olympic bid. The senate last week passed a resolution to create a nine-member commission to review logistics like where over 16,000 athletes would stay and how they’d get around. Eric Reddy leads Boston 2024, a private group that jump-started the Olympic planning process earlier this year. He imagines Boston would be the face of the games but the whole region would act as host.
“You know, if this didn’t fill heads and beds from Provincetown to Pittsfield, it would be very surprising,” says Reddy.
Director of Athletics at Holyoke Community College, Thomas Stewart, says if Massachsetts got the games, the venues for some events would be no-brainers. Rowing would be assigned to the Charles River and basketball to the TD Banknorth Garden. But he says there’s a chance volleyball could draw spectators out west near its birthplace of Holyoke.
“They get a lot of people to watch the volleyball competition. Certainly you could seat 9-10,000 people in the Mullins center,” says Reddy. “It maybe could go to Mass Mutual Center. Unless they’re looking for a piece of real estate out here to build the Olympic stadium in.”
The legislative resolution calls on the commission to hold its first meeting no later than September 30th of this year, but it still needs approval from the state house.