According to a new poll taken since the Boston 2024 Organizing Committee released its revised bid, 53 per cent of Boston voters do not want to bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics. The WBUR/MassINC poll shows that only 40 per cent in Boston support the plan. The survey was conducted between July 6 and 8 among about 500 registered voters.
The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) has said it would like majority support “relatively soon”. A decision is to be made by mid September whether to submit Boston’s bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Last week USOC leadership said that they would be meeting with the Boston 2024 team “mid-July” to discuss further results.
“Statewide support is relatively similar to what we saw in June, perhaps a slight tightening,” Steve Koczela from The MassINC Polling Group said.
A previous poll Thursday commissioned by the nonprofit arm of the Massachusetts Citizens for Jobs revealed that nearly 2 in 3 voters don’t believe Boston 2024’s claims that the Games would turn a profit rather than produce a deficit, and less than a quarter of respondents thought the event would be profitable.
Half of the respondents said they opposed the use of public funds to draw the Olympics to Boston, even if that spending were limited to roadway, transportation, and infrastructure improvements. Forty-three per cent supported that arrangement.
Pollster Doug Kaplan said, “it appears the taxpayers don’t want to fund the Olympics. If the government would do a better job and show that it’s able to improve the highways and some infrastructure, that could be the ticket for people to support it”.
A Boston 2024 statement released Friday in response to the polls said “Boston 2024 is working hard to ensure that the people of Boston and the commonwealth have accurate information about the proposal to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as ample opportunities to voice their opinions and participate in the process.”
“We are confident the numbers will continue to trend upward as more residents take a closer look at our plans to bring the Games back to the United States”.
Boston is planning a binding referendum in November 2016 and bid rival Hamburg will have a referendum later this year. Paris, Rome and Budapest are also in the race with Baku, and possibly Toronto considering entering the competition before the September 15 deadline.
The IOC will elect a host in 2017.
