USOC drops Boston 2024 bid

The Facts

Today, Monday July 27, 2015 marked a watershed day in the Boston 2024 bid. First, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh held a press conference saying that he couldn't sign the financial taxpayer guarantee today to the IOC as the USOC requested. Mayor Walsh said he would give up the Boston bid because he could not mortgage the city's future. Mayor Walsh wanted more time to study the insurance and to see how Massachusetts taxpayers were going to be protected from cost overruns. The USOC wanted to get the support of the Boston Mayor and the Massachusetts governor Charlie Baker. Governor Baker said he couldn't say he would support the games until a $250,000 feasibility study done by the Brattle Group comes back in mid August. Boston 2024 said they were confident poll numbers were moving in the right direction and they just needed more time.

The bid was still alive at that point but in early afternoon there were discussions between Boston 2024 and the USOC. Boston Mayor Walsh said he could not support the bid if the taxpayer guarantee had to be signed today. The USOC said they could not support the bid without Boston Mayor Walsh and Massachusetts governor Baker. The USOC also could not support the bid because of low poll numbers and support. July polls put support in the low 40's with opposition about 50%. The numbers did not move much in the past three months. A joint decision was made between Boston 2024 and the USOC to end Boston's 2024 Olympics bid. The USOC said they were under a strict timeline and couldn't give the bid any more time. IOC president Thomas Bach blamed Boston 2024 for not keeping promises to the USOC while Boston 2024 blamed the USOC for pressuring them to sign the bid contract.

The USOC has expressed interest in finding another US city to host the games. Speculation is on Los Angeles but the USOC did not pick a city today, instead the USOC will make an announcement when they have negotiated a bid with the selected US city. The deadline for the USOC to submit a bid to the IOC is September 15, 2015. The IOC will pick the 2024 Olympics host city in 2017. Host cities bidding on the 2024 summer games are Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest, Toronto and Los Angeles are likely bid cities as well.

My take

Clearly, the USOC made a mistake in picking Boston. I wanted the USA to get the 2024 games so I backed Boston's bid because the USOC selected Boston as our bid city. There was a few periods of time in May 2015 where I thought Boston 2024 made some big mistakes and my bid support wavered but had to keep quiet. The biggest mistake was not being transparent enough on bid 1.0 so the Boston media released the bid while some of Boston 2024 were overseas meeting with the IOC. The other major mistake at that time in May 2015 was major shoutdowns by Boston 2024 supporters to opposition groups. I tweeted then later deleted the tweets saying I was no longer in favor of the bid. Later I noticed No Boston groups were disrespecting Boston 2024 staff, supporters and USOC employees so I started supporting the bid again.

I was also trying to get employed with Boston 2024 so I blogged the Boston 2024 from a neutral stance. I presented both sides. In late March I contacted Boston 2024 and was about to send them my resume but rumors that the USOC might pull Boston's bid surfaced so I waited until June 30. June 30 was the day Boston 2024 released bid 2.0. On that day the USOC showed support for Boston's bid. I submitted my resume in early July and within two weeks I was told they weren't hiring. In March and April 2015 Boston hired several community relations positions at $42,000 a year. That was the position I was trying to get but by early July 2015 those community positions disappeared from the Boston 2024 website. Those were 3 month positions. Good thing I didn't relocate to the Boston area as I was considering doing.

Ultimately, I was supporting a USA 2024 Olympic games. If Boston didn't work out I would support a Los Angeles 2024 bid. I was thinking the longer the USOC waited on Boston 2024 poll numbers to turn around the harder it would be for the USOC to pick another city. The USOC pulled Boston's bid at the right time. Any later I didn't see the USOC having enough time to find another city and to finalize another bid by the September 15, 2015 IOC deadline.

It turns out that Los Angeles and San Francisco may be working together on a joint bid. The USOC will officially announce the US bid city later in August.