Getting in on the swing at Sportsman’s Tennis Center.
Organizers behind Boston’s bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics announced last week that Dorchester’s Harambee Park would be a tennis venue for the Games should they come to Massachusetts, a switch from earlier plans that sited the venue at Harvard University.
The venue would include a permanent 2,500-seat stadium that will be left behind after the Games, as well as temporary structures that would bring the facility ‘s capacity to 20,000 seats, according to those with knowledge of the plan. The venue would host five events over nine competition days during the Olympic Games and six events over nine competition days for the Paralympic Games.
It would also utilize the existing six courts belonging to the Sportsmen’s Tennis and Enrichment Center that is located in the park, according to the center’s executive director, Toni Wiley.
“I just think this is phenomenal. It’s a beautiful space and underutilized, and it is close to the Fairmount Line,” Wiley told the Reporter.
The Harambee Park site is a piece of the puzzle for Boston 2024’s gradual roll-out of an updated bid document, known as Bid 2.0, to the public by the end of the month. Wiley said that 2024 approached her and the association in April to talk about the location. Negotiations were finalized last week, she said.
“This would be a way to have a real lasting impact on the community that could use this kind of investment,” said Wiley, who has been executive director of the center since 2008. She has lived on a street adjacent to the park for her entire life.
Wiley and State Rep. Russell Holmes attended a press conference last week to signal their support for the proposal. Both told the Reporter that they support efforts to bring the Olympics to Boston. “I think that we’re seeing a reorientation to neighborhoods, particularly neighborhoods here that need more services, and it’s the important way to do it. It’s an important message,” Holmes said.
Holmes added that Boston 2024 had reached out to him two months ago but he urged organizers to work through Wiley before doing anything with him. Once Wiley indicated she and the organization were on board, Holmes began circulating the idea around the neighborhood and with residents at the nearby Franklin Field Family public housing development over the last three weeks.
“There are some folks who have been reluctant because there’s just not enough information out there,” Holmes told the Reporter. “After we’ve had longer discussions, folks have been much more receptive, particularly when I have them bring up what they would need space-wise after the Olympics have left.”
Holmes said he is also working with the city and Boston 2024 to create and fund a new Main Street business district in the Blue Hill and Talbot avenues area. “One of the things I’ve been saying is that the neighborhood isn’t ready for something this big when it comes to stores and vendors on Blue Hill Avenue and Talbot Avenue. If they do leave behind a stadium, how do we encourage those businesses in the area in advance to see that we’ll see more business and encourage them to invest in their businesses.”
Transportation to and from the area is another significant consideration, Holmes said, with current plans to bring people to and from Harambee Park using private buses along a so-called Olympic Lane and using the nearby Fairmount Line commuter rail system.
Willie Hicks, owner of Hicks Auto Body on Talbot Avenue— across the street from the proposed Olympics venue—said he would support the idea. “It’s a good thing if it happens,” he said. “It would be a big boost in the arm if, when they are done, it leaves a substantial imprint that reflects a coordinated effort in the community.”
The next step, Holmes said, will be an extensive community process about what will happen to the park after the Olympics wrap.
