Since then, the BOC has grown from the original group of six to an organization of 200 trained volunteers and two employeers. It is run by a board of directors and a board of advisors drawn mostly from Boston community leaders.

The committee's stated goals were to evaluate local facilities, identify costs and revenues, assess the broad impact of the planned Games and analyze the cost of the bidding process.

Funded by private donations, committee members have met with community leaders, including Cambridge Mayor Kenneth E. Reeves '72, and toured possible Olympic event sites, including Harvard.

The resulting feasibility report, which contains the plans for the Games, was 71 pages with about 50 more pages of appendices, graphs and historical background. It took a year to prepare. On October 12, the plans were discussed in the committee's first public forum.

The event was hosted by Senator John Kerry, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Boston Chamber of Commerce Chair Fletcher Wiley and Hamill.

Lillehammer Olympic Committee and International Olympic Committee member Gerhard Heiberg and Charles Brattle, an organizer of the Atlanta 1996 games, were guests, as were Rowe and Harvard athletes and administrators.

"There was a good cross representation from across the University," Rowe says. "Everyone from faculty to student athletes were at the lunch."

Effects

Those pushing for the Olympics say the benefits for Boston and Cambridge will definitely outweigh any costs.

The events would bring billions of dollars in revenue, media attention and even a rebuilding of Boston's technological and international economic base, the feasibility report says.

The events would be "an incredible opportunity which would showcase a wonderful part of the world," says Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism Abbie R. Goodman. "It would be great exposure, you can't buy that kind of advertising."

Cambridge city officials say the Olympics would benefit the city.

"For a limited period of time, the community will be in the spotlight," says former Mayor Alice K. Wolf. "It would enhance civic pride."

City Counsel member William H. Walsh agrees.

"It would be wonderful if the Olympics were coming," he says. "It would be wonderful for the people, for the travel industry. It would mean a tremendous economic boost for Boston, and we all know how much Boston needs that."