A week after Boston 2024 released its 2.0 bid, a new poll was released. The poll was conducted July 6-8 by WBUR/Mass Inc. Polling group. 500 Registered voters were polled.
In the state of Massachusetts, 42% approved of bid while 50% opposed it, that is a 3 point improvement from June.
In the Boston area, 40% approved of bid while 53% opposed it. That's virtually unchanged from June numbers.
In this 2.0 bid that was released on June 30, 28 of 34 venues were accounted for, while 6 venues location has not been figured out yet. Yet to find a location are the Media Center, Aquatic Center, Velodrome and 3 others. Some of these venues have to be built from scratch. The Olympic Stadium will be a temporary stadium and seat 69,000.
Boston 2024 will purchase 128 million dollars of Insurance to safeguard the games against cost overruns from construction delays to extra construction costs. The 2.0 bid has a 4.8 billion dollar budget and 4.595 billion in expenses. Boston 2024 says there will be a 210 million dollar surplus. Opposition groups are still skeptical.
On July 23, 2015 there was a televised Olympics debate between Boston 2024 Chairman Steve Pagliuca/USOC Board Member Daniel Doctoroff and No Boston Olympics head Chris Dempsey/Smith College Economist Andrew Zimbalist. They sparred over cost overruns, financial guarantees, traffic, the Olympic budget, surpluses, ticket prices and tax breaks. I watched the debate online and I'm hoping that because Boston 2024 had the majority of the speaking time that the poll numbers will move more in Boston 2024's favor.
Boston 2024 has released the entire 1.0 bid on July 24. There were two chapters that were not released to the public because Boston 2024 said it was private information that only the USOC should see. Bid 1.0 was scheduled to operate at a 500 million dollar deficit, at taxpayer expense. The 1.0 bid did not count on any major opposition. The rest of the 1.0 bid was released ahead of a subpoena threat from Massachusetts legislators.
On Monday, July 27 the USOC will meet with Boston 2024 to determine the fate of the bid. USOC officials wanted Massachusetts governor Baker's decision to endorse or not endorse the bid on Friday July 24, which he did not do. The USOC also wanted Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to say he was going to sign the financial guarantee that the IOC requires for a city to host the games. Mayor Walsh has not promised to sign the guarantee. The IOC General Assembly Meets in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia this coming week. The USOC may pick Los Angeles as the USA 2024 bid city. Stay Tuned.
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