US Olympics chief: Choosing Boston like Seahawks’ Super Bowl screw-up
If you get to the point that you’re comparing yourself to the Seattle Seahawks in the final seconds of Super Bowl XLIX, you’re sufficiently admitting you screwed up.
United States Olympic Committee CEO Scott Blackmun on Thursday likened the January decision to select Boston over Los Angeles as its 2024 Summer Games bid city to Seattle’s decision to throw on the one-yard line in the closing seconds of the Super Bowl, which resulted in the most famous interception in New England Patriots history and a fourth championship ring for quarterback Tom Brady.
“The question is, should we have taken the risk? In hindsight, the answer is no, just like it is for the Seattle Seahawks and their decision to throw at the goal line in the closing moments of the Super Bowl,’’ Blackmun said, according to a transcript of his remarks at the annual U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Assembly . “We made a bad call.’’
That much had been clear since well before the USOC reneged on Boston’s Olympic bid in July. Public support for the bid was never high in Boston, and it stayed low throughout repeated controversies and deep concerns about financial accountability.
And well-organized opposition keeping those issues at the forefront—the activists at the two local opposition groups, No Boston Olympics and No Boston 2024, share the role of Patriots defensive back Malcolm Butler in Blackmun’s analogy.
Unlike the Super Bowl’s cathartic moment (for Pats fans, anyway), Boston 2024’s demise was a slow drip, and it was of little surprise when the USOC finally cut bait.
The USOC has since moved on to a new 2024 Summer Games bid with Los Angeles. Blackmun’s remarks serve as a public acknowledgment that the committee should have just gone to SoCal in the first place. It has said polls there show 80 percent of voters support the games—more than double some of the figures that came out of Boston.
“[T]he Boston bid failed because, from the beginning, it was not a bid supported by the people of Boston,’’ Blackmun said. “We believed that Boston would ultimately embrace the Olympic Games because we believed, in our hearts and minds, that the Olympic Games would be transformational for the city of Boston and for the Olympic Movement.’’
In its final days, documents released due to public pressure showed Olympic bidding group Boston 2024 had told the USOC opposition was not formidable, and that it could avoid a referendum determining the fate of the bid. The group was proven very wrong on both fronts.
Blackmun’s comments suggest the USOC felt public opinion in Boston was either misrepresented or misunderstood.
“We were assured, and we believed, that the Boston bid leaders could rally the citizens of Boston,’’ Blackmun said. “That did not happen for a number of reasons which I will not belabor here today.’’
What a Boston Olympics would have looked like:
[bdc-gallery id=”115186″]
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com