Organizers for Boston’s 2024 Summer Olympic Games bid said Monday they won’t make a final bid to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unless a majority of Massachusetts residents support it.
The bid took out full-page ads Monday in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald, days after a poll showed that a majority of Boston-area residents opposed the idea. Many were concerned that city tax payers would be left to cover some of the estimated $9.5 billion costs of hosting the Summer Games.
In the ads the committee said, “there are legitimate concerns and potential risks associated with this effort that must be addressed in a thoughtful and transparent manner for the Games to work for Massachusetts”.
In a radio interview Boston 2024 CEO Richard Davey said, “our bid’s only going to be successful of we have that support”.
Davey said Boston 2024 wants a “measurable way” to show majority support for the Olympics, and there’s talk of a possible voter referendum.
The group did not specify how a majority support would be measured, whether through a ballot initiative or by polling. National Olympic Committees have until September 15 to finalize nominations.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is expected to select a host city for the 2024 Summer Olympics in 2017. Boston would be competing with Hamburg and Rome, and possibly Paris, Doha, Baku or Istanbul.
