Boston 2024 Responds to Reports of Internal Shake-up
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Organizers of the Boston 2024 Olympics bid are proposing to restructure its leadership after a shaky start, replacing current chairman John Fish with Bain Capital executive, Boston Celtics co-owner, and 2024 vice chairman, Steve Pagliuca, per a Globe report.
Fish would voluntarily step down and remain part of the bid as a vice chairman. Red Sox president Larry Lucchino, who had been rumored to be joining the bid in a leadership role, would walk on as a “strategic adviser,” as would Boston businessman Jack Connors. Northeastern University athletic director Peter Roby would also become a vice chairman.
“This is only a plan at this point. It requires further discussion with the USOC and the Boston 2024 board,” Lucchino told the Globe. “Until all of that happens this is simply a restructuring plan and nothing more.”
Fish, who has been a driving force behind the Olympic effort since 2013, has withdrawn from the public eye in recent months, as the bid hopes to push the Brahmins of Boston sports into the forefront in place of the Suffolk Construction chief executive. In a memo to the Boston 2024 board Saturday night, provided to Boston, CEO Rich Davey addressed the Globe report:
As a rule, we don’t believe it is appropriate to comment on rumor and speculation. What I can tell you is that our focus as an organization and through our governance process is to ensure we leverage the deep expertise from a diverse group of individuals to strengthen our bid. We continue to identify ways to complement your impressive insights and experiences with those from other equally accomplished professionals. As our bid process evolves, so too will our approach to expanding our Board and council of advisors…all with one clear objective in mind: to bring the Olympics to the U.S., right here in Boston.
The Globe itself was the subject of a Commonwealth Magazine report Friday, regarding Boston 2024’s abandoned plans for an I-93 on-and-off-ramp near its proposed Athletes Village, which would have encroached on the paper’s property on Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester.
