Chris Dempsey and Andrew Zimbalist

discuss

No Boston Olympics:
How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch

This event includes a book signing

Date

Apr
28
Friday
April 28, 2017
7:00 PM ET

Location

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

Tickets

This event is free; no tickets are required.

Harvard Book Store welcomes one of the cofounders and leaders of No Boston Olympics CHRIS DEMPSEY and Professor of Economics at Smith College ANDREW ZIMBALIST for a discussion of their book No Boston Olympics: How and Why Smart Cities Are Passing on the Torch.

About No Boston Olympics

In 2013 and 2014, some of Massachusetts’ wealthiest and most powerful individuals hatched an audacious plan to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to Boston. Like their counterparts in cities around the world, Boston’s Olympic boosters promised political leaders, taxpayers, and the media that the Games would deliver incalculable benefits and require little financial support from the public. Yet these advocates refused to share the details of their bid and only grudgingly admitted, when pressed, that their plan called for billions of dollars in construction of unneeded venues. To win the bid, the public would have to guarantee taxpayer funds to cover cost overruns, which have plagued all modern Olympic Games. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) chose Boston 2024’s bid over that of other American cities in January 2015—and for a time it seemed inevitable that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would award the Games to Boston 2024.

No Boston Olympics is the story of how an ad hoc, underfunded group of diverse and engaged citizens joined together to challenge and ultimately derail Boston’s boosters, the USOC, and the IOC. Chris Dempsey was cochair of No Boston Olympics, the group that first voiced skepticism, demanded accountability, and catalyzed dissent. Andrew Zimbalist is a world expert on the economics of sports, and the leading researcher on the hidden costs of hosting mega-events such as the Olympics and the World Cup. Together, they tell Boston’s story, while providing a blueprint for citizens who seek to challenge costly, wasteful, disruptive, and risky Olympic bids in their own cities.

Praise

"A comprehensive chronicling of Boston’s aborted bid for the Games―and a cautionary tale for other cities with five-ring fantasies." —John Powers, Boston Globe correspondent

Andrew Zimbalist
Andrew Zimbalist

Andrew Zimbalist

Andrew Zimbalist is the Robert A. Woods Professor of Economics at Smith College. He is the author of many books, including Circus Maximus: The Economic Gamble behind Hosting the Olympics and World Cup and May the Best Team Win: Baseball Economics and Public Policy, and coauthor of The Sabermetric Revolution: Assessing the Growth of Analytics in Baseball.

Photo credit: Dick Fish

Chris Dempsey
Chris Dempsey

Chris Dempsey

Chris Dempsey is a former Bain & Co. consultant and former Massachusetts assistant secretary of transportation, and was a cofounder and leader of No Boston Olympics.

Photo credit: Andy Laub

Harvard Book Store
1256 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02138

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