Boston 2024 Olympic Bid Pulled

By Rory Sheil 7/27/2015

Boston 2024

It is over. Boston will not be hosting the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

The U.S. Olympic Committee has formally withdrawn Boston’s bid to sponsor the Olympic and Paralympic Games.The decision came hours after Mayor Marty Walsh announced he could not support the city’s bid because it could have left taxpayers to cover any Olympic financial shortfalls.

“I strongly believe that bringing the Olympic Games back to the United States would be good for our country and would have brought long-term benefits to Boston,” said Walsh. “However, no benefit is so great that it is worth handing over the financial future of our City and our citizens were rightly hesitant to be supportive as a result.”

Hours later, USOC CEO Scott Blackmun and Boston 2024 Partnership chairman Steve Pagliuca announced the joint decision to withdraw Boston’s bid. Recent WBUR polling showed over half Massachusetts residents do not support sponsoring the Games.

“We have not been able to get a majority of the citizens of Boston to support hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games,” said Blackmun. “Therefore, the USOC does not think that the level of support enjoyed by Boston’s bid would allow it to prevail over great bids from Paris, Rome, Hamburg, Budapest or Toronto.”

In January the USOC chose Boston over Washington D.C., Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Later this week, the International Olympic Committee will meet in Malaysia. Meanwhile, the USOC is expected to turn to Los Angeles as its new bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics.