President Brown Endorses Boston's Olympic Bid

When Boston won the United States' bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games last week, naysayers couldn’t get past visions of traffic jams and major disruption, or the behemoth pricetag they’re sure taxpayers will have to foot.

But supporters are celebrating the idea of the opportunity, citing the opposite: potential economic benefits and infrastructure improvements. They also say it would be a chance to shine a spotlight on city’s points of pride such as its reputation for innovation and its stronghold in academia, medicine, and technology.

Berklee President Roger H. Brown is among the most vocal supporters.

“I am excited that Boston is a candidate to host the 2024 Olympics,” he said. “The Olympic Games are perhaps our most globally significant event—using athletics to bring together almost all of the countries of the world. At Berklee, with students from 105 countries, we aspire to be the equivalent in the musical realm, and we are eager to help imagine new ways to connect across national and cultural boundaries.”

In fact, Brown joined other city leaders and visionaries in making a pitch for the Games to come here in a promotional video produced by Boston 2024. Brown was joined by Israel Ruiz, MIT’s executive vice president and treasurer; Cheri Blauwet, a physician and Paralympic medalist; Tommy Amaker, head coach of Harvard University’s men’s basketball team; and Joi Ito, director of MIT’s Media Lab.

Watch the video featuring Brown and others.

Among Boston’s draws, Brown championed the novelty of having such a large number of college students concentrated in such a small area, as well as its cultural significance. “Music and the culture and the arts are thriving here. Hipsters of all stripes have decided this is a good place to be,” he said.

Brown posed this question: “If we get our scientists and our artists together and say, let’s do this is in a way that’s better than it’s ever been done before, what city on Earth would be better at doing that than Boston?”

Boston beat out proposals from San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. to be an American host city for the 2024 summer Olympic Games. The International Olympic Committee will make a final selection in summer 2017. If Boston is selected, this will mark the first time since the Atlanta games in 1996 that America hosted the Olympics.