With Boston out, Olympic leaders immediately search for new U.S. host city
With its low public favorability and tepid political support, there have been rumblings that the U.S. Olympic Committee would drop Boston from bidding for the 2024 Olympics. So why did that decision come today?
The timing suggests that the USOC plans to have another city pitch to host the Olympics. Just not Boston.
“The USOC would very much like to see an American city host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2024,’’ USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement. “We will immediately begin to explore whether we can do so on a basis consistent with our guiding principles, to which we remain firmly committed.’’
Boston originally beat out Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. in January for the USOC’s choice to bid for the Games. But with local support for Boston 2024 mired around 40 percent, reports suggested the bid could be moved to LA, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Boston 2024 chairman Steve Pagliuca similarly left open the possibility of another U.S. city pitching for the 2024 Olympics.
“[W]e have jointly decided to withdraw Boston’s bid in order to give the Olympic movement in the United States the best chance to bring the Games back to our country in 2024,’’ Pagliuca said. “In doing so, Boston 2024 Partnership will offer our support and the extensive knowledge we have gained in developing our Bid 2.0 to any American city that may choose to participate in the 2024 bidding process going forward.’’
Both Pagliuca and Blackmun cited “timing’’ in their reasoning. The USOC had set this September as its deadline to find and finalize a city to bid for the Olympics. By dropping Boston’s bid in late July, the USOC now has a couple months to get its ducks in a row if they do decide to pitch LA or San Francisco as host of the Games.
USOC and Boston 2024 said they were confident they could change the minds of Bostonians. The problem, they suggested, was that they simply didn’t have enough time.
“Boston 2024 has expressed confidence that, with more time, they could generate the public support necessary to win the bid and deliver a great Games,’’ Blackmun said. “They also recognize, however, that we are out of time if the USOC is going to be able to consider a bid from another city.’’
Gov. Charlie Baker similarly said he thought the bid was dropped because of this “timing issue’’ in a press conference Monday afternoon.
Baker had refrained from coming out for or against Boston 2024’s bid until he saw the results of a Brattle Group analysis of the Games, which was due in August. The USOC said that date was too late, according to Baker.
“Nobody said that was a problem until about a week ago,’’ Baker said.
Gallery: Here’s what Boston 2024 wanted Boston to look like before, during and after the Olympics.
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