How Would A Boston 2024 Olympics Bid Impact Boston College?

The movement for a Boston 2024 olympiad has been all over the local media lately, but here’s the question we want answered: how would it affect Boston College?

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The city, led by Boston College alumnus mayor Marty Walsh, submitted its official bid about two weeks ago. Whichever city gets it will not know for about another two and a half years, and the games themselves are about ten years away. There is a lot of room for proposed venues to change, or for the Boston 2024 games to not happen at all.

There is no question that it would impact us if here, as it would also impact everyone and everything within about a 25-mile radius of the city. One cannot add that much stress to infrastructure and that many people into the Boston area and not expect things to change, at least for a little while.

Here is what we can gather about a possible Boston 2024 bid and what has been proposed relative to Boston College:

• The 2024 Summer Olympics would almost certainly take place while the school is in summer break. The timing sometimes varies — for example, the Brazil games in 2016 will be within the month of August, while Sydney’s were in September 2000. Expect Boston’s to probably be in July, when it is actually summer here and there would only be summer students and orientation-goers in Chestnut Hill.

• Boston College might be a proposed venue. The detailed venue map available on Google names Conte Forum as a spot for volleyball and basketball, with Alumni Stadium possibly being used for soccer. Now, whether someone on the Boston 2024 committee made this, or just some guy in sweatpants in his basement, we may never know.

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Yet, even though Eagles fans sometimes bemoan the size of Alumni Stadium relative to the rest of the ACC, at 44,500 seats it is the biggest sports venue within the city proper. It also happens to be the second-biggest stadium in the state behind Gillette. That would make it an attractive venue for organizers, but the school would have to agree and if the Neighborhood Association barely tolerates brief tailgates, imagine how they would feel about the Olympics.

Who knows if Boston is a legitimate contender for 2024, or what it really takes to convince the IOC. If it does happen, organizers are going to seek to include Boston College in the proceedings. On one hand, it may seem like a headache for the locals and whatever students are present, but it could also present an opportunity for international exposure for the school.

We have just shy of three years before we’ll need to start to think about it.

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