Last December, Prince William and Kate flew into chilly Boston for a flop-tastic mini-tour. The whole idea was that William would cozy up to the Kennedys and blow through millions of donor money to throw himself an Earthshot party. The Boston Flop Tour kept getting “overshadowed” though – first, the Susan Hussey story broke as William and Kate were in the air, and William tossed his racist godmother right under the bus in the name of Earthshot efficiency. Then Netflix released the first trailer for the Harry and Meghan docuseries, after which William was shrieking down the phone to his most loyal royal rota goons, crying about how Harry and Meghan are “like the Kardashians.” After all of that, William and Kate attended the Earthshot ceremony and boozed it up with celebrities, and very few people mentioned the fact that William didn’t invite any of the Earthshot finalists or winners to attend the ceremony in person. Tone deaf, thy name is Peg. Well, funny story – the taxpayers of Boston had to pick up a chunk of the cost for William and Kate’s dumb flop tour.

Prince William’s and Princess Kate’s three-day visit to the Hub in November and December cost the city a total bill of $170,407.52, which largely went to police overtime, according to data from the city. Their Nibs were in town to hold their Earthshot Prize event for environmental innovation; they also spent a few days schmoozing and drinking tea with local electeds, taking a remarkably long walk at a very cold seaside park and chatting with President Biden, who swung through Boston during one of the same days.

Of the total amount, $105,267.57 went to policing the whole Nov. 30 through Dec. 2 affair, according to data released Monday by the city in response to records requests. The description for that cop line is “see backup,” apparently referring to a further document that city Public Records Chief Shawn Williams’ office didn’t attach.

The other sizable line is $58,772.95 for the office of tourism, for “Staging, tents, flowers, lights, etc.” In addition to that, $5,000 went to property management for “Mostly Custodial and Security overtime,” and the rest was for EMS staffing.

The data notes that “staff time for exempt employees time” including salaried people from the mayor’s office, the city’s intergovernmental affairs office and the advance team are not included in this number.

The prince and princess of Wales stayed in the Four Seasons Hotel on Boylston Street and each day ventured out with a cavalcade of their attendants to see the sites around Boston.

[From Boston Herald]

That’s not as much as I thought it would be, but it’s also clear that the true cost has been buried under various other city budgets. I think the number for policing seems especially low – while Will and Kate weren’t given a rock star reception (lol), they did have local police on hand for crowd control wherever they went. It’s just that there weren’t that many crowds. Even the Earthshot event seemed pretty sparsely attended. Still, a huge waste of time and money, all for William’s incandescent ego trip.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Cover Images.