tklalmighty, a problem with relying on private colleges and universities for so many of the venues is that these institutions have their own athletic programs, and for fall sports, practice begins in August. If Harvard were to give up the stadium for field hockey, where does the football team practice? Which is probably one reason why you see this drift of venues from those owned by private universities to public sector venues.
I believe most/all the venues that I have seen for Paris are owned by the state (at some level) or are owned by a sports federation. So one is not negotiating with an owner with competing priorities.
That may be a reason for the shifts, but the last two summer games in the US may actually suggest that colleges should be able to adapt to it. Georgia Tech actually compressed its academic calendar in 1996 to support the Atlanta games. Its campus was used for housing, aquatics and boxing. Sanford Stadium and Stegeman Coliseum were used for the duration of the games. USC and UCLA both offered up venues and housing in 1984. One would imagine those four programs alone would each have more reason to be concerned about their football programs being ready for the season than Harvard, but somehow it worked.
That said, you would definitely have to question the sports that were shifted around if that were really a motive. The initial fencing proposal utilized Bright and Gordon. Bright normally serves as the home of Harvard hockey, and Gordon the home for indoor track. Neither is a fall sport. Tennis is (officially, anyway) a spring sport, although they would regain use of the soccer field. With the field hockey relocation you theoretically regain Jordan Field for Harvard field hockey, but bringing in Archery results in a net of "only" about a week's worth of Harvard Stadium use regained by the university. Nickerson would potentially be needed for BU's soccer teams, but it doesn't have a varsity football program (and probably won't in 2024) that would require the space in July and August.
This also assumes that the fields will be outside the security zone while events are taking place nearby, which I find unlikely. If any of the colleges' venues are used during the games, count on just about all adjacent venues being necessarily off limits to the college for the duration. I can't imagine BC football will be able to use
Ultimately, my argument is that Boston's wealth of colleges is its greatest asset toward an Olympic bid, and that if there is any creative and feasible way to incorporate them and maximize their involvement in the bid, I believe they should. At its bare essentials, I view it as a trade of time for potentially upgraded facilities for the colleges. For instance, if aquatics stay put at Harvard, a downsized Olympic pool facility could end up being left for the university as a legacy of the games. Not that Harvard is in dire need of new sports facilities, but it would not be an insignificant incentive.
D'oh! You're right. Thank you for the Athens correction.
Is field Hockey that big of a draw that you think any of those would be a nightmare?
Not as much by itself. I'm referring more to the principle of casting events outside the city. On the flip side, I do think the concept of a walkable games can apply to Boston's plan, even the venues outside the city, so long as there are several sports and venues clustered together.
So thinking about it a little more, Brockton does have the potential to serve an entire mini-cluster of venues if it wished. Marciano Stadium could be used for an event like field hockey, Campanelli as either a secondary venue for field hockey or a primary venue for some other sport (archery, perhaps, though the field orientation would be unnatural). The fair grounds could more than support the back-of-house facilities as well as a temporary venue (read: beach volleyball or velodrome).
Lowell is probably next among the satellite cities in terms of its ability to offer a "walkable" cluster of venues, however the proposed rowing venue really isn't that walkable from Tsongas. Similarly, the DCU center isn't close to Worcester's only other plausible Olympic venue site at Fitton.