Boston out as possible host for 2024 Summer Olympics; Los Angeles up next?
Boston’s bid to serve as the host of the 2024 Olympics was undercut by its own mayor, a skeptical public and, finally, leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee, who were tired of the city’s ever-changing blueprint.
Next, it might be time to see if there’s more Olympic love in Los Angeles.
After the USOC and Boston cut ties Monday, CEO Scott Blackmun said the federation still wants to try to have the 2024 Games. The USOC has until Sept. 15 to officially name its candidate.
Several Olympic leaders quietly have been pushing Los Angeles — the city that invented the modernday template for the Olympics when it played host in 1984 — as the best possible substitute.
Approval ratings that couldn’t sneak out of the 40s were the first sign of trouble for Boston, and it
became clear the bid was doomed in the 72-hour period before the USOC board met with bid leaders Monday. They jointly decided to pull the plug.
Friday, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker stuck to his previous position: That he would need a full report from a consulting group before he would throw his weight behind the bid.
Monday morning, mayor Marty Walsh slapped together a news conference to announce he wouldn’t be pressured into signing the host city contract that essentially sticks the city and state with the burden of any cost overruns. No governor. No mayor. No bid. “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.”
The Boston bid started souring within days of its beginning in January, beset by poor communication and an active opposition group that kept public support low.
At his news conference, Walsh said the opposition to the Olympics amounted to about “10 people on Twitter.” He miscalculated, and the Internet struck back. The hashtag # 10peopleonTwitter started trending. The leaders of No Boston Olympics immediately planned a celebration at a Boston pub.
“We need to move forward as a city, and today’s decision allows us to do that on our own terms, not the terms of the USOC or the IOC,” they said in a statement.
“We’re better off for having passed on Boston 2024.”
Boston 2024 chairman Steve Pagliuca said the move was made “in order to give the Olympic movement in the United States the best chance to bring the Games back to our country in 2024.”
The United States hasn’t had a Summer Olympics since the Atlanta Games in 1996, or any Olympics since the Salt Lake City Winter Games in 2002. Bids for 2012 (New York) and 2016 (Chicago) ended in fourth-place embarrassments.
The USOC spent nearly two years on a mostly secret domestic selection process for 2024 that began with letters to almost three-dozen cities gauging interest in playing host the games.
The thought was that the long gap between Olympics, combined with the USOC’s vastly improved relationship with international leaders, would make this America’s race to lose. Instead, the federation ran into trouble before getting to the starting line.
There’s still time to save face if Blackmun and chairman Larry Probst make quick phone calls to leaders in Los Angeles, including mayor Eric Garcetti and agent/power broker Casey Wasserman.
Garcetti released a statement saying he had had no contact with the USOC, but was willing to talk.
Los Angeles, a finalist in the domestic bid process along with San Francisco and Washington, has played host to the 1932 and 1984 Olympics.
The 1984 Games, with former USOC chairman Peter Ueberroth helping call the shots, came in the wake of the 1980 Moscow boycott and a bidding process in which only one other city — Tehran — expressed serious interest. Los Angeles reinvigorated the struggling Olympic brand.
Some of the venues, including Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, are already in place and could be spruced up for the 2024 Games.
Still, when the USOC was going through its vetting process, some in the International Olympic Committee chafed at a possible return to a sprawling, traffic-choked city that the Olympics had been to twice. But, as the Boston bid tanked, Los Angeles started looking better.
Probst will get a first-hand feel for it all later this week at an IOC meeting in Malaysia..