No Boston Olympics joins call for Rome 2024 bid referendum

Rome 2024 Olympic bid committee chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo adjusts his tie as he arrives for a press conference at the foreign press association in Rome, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016. The chairman of Rome's bid for the 2024 Olympics doesn't see the "necessity" for a public referendum on the candidacy. Luca Cordero di Montezemolo points out that Rome's city council voted "nearly unanimously" in support of the bid last year, "and the government has expressed maximum support, so we don't see the necessity." (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)

By Associated Press January 14, 2016 1 min read

ROME (AP) – The group that helped bring down Boston’s Olympic bid is lending its support to the left-wing movement Radicali Italiani’s call for a referendum on Rome’s 2024 candidacy.

No Boston Olympics co-chair Chris Dempsey says, “The citizens of Rome deserve the opportunity to have the same sort of debate, and a referendum – as suggested by Radicali Italiani – is the best way to ensure that happens”.

Rome bid leader Luca Cordero di Montezemolo said this week that he didn’t see the “necessity” for a referendum since the city council voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bid last year.

Boston’s bid was dropped after Mayor Marty Walsh refused to cover cost overruns, and the USOC nominated Los Angeles as a replacement.

Hamburg’s 2024 bid was defeated in a referendum in November.