The leaders of the U.S. Olympic Committee were set to talk to the governor of Massachusetts on Monday. What comes out of that conversation could well dictate the future of Boston’s bid for the 2024 Olympics.
The USOC wants to know whether Gov. Charlie Baker, notably noncommittal on the issue, supports the bid.
He was to talk to the board members in a conference call Monday morning. But the governor is waiting to see the full report from a consultant group he commissioned to analyze the bid. That report isn’t expected until next month. At a news conference Friday, Baker said he wouldn’t have any answer for the USOC when he calls.
“This is a 10-year decision and I wouldn’t be doing the taxpayers … or the city of Boston or the Olympics or anybody else any favors if we made this decision with anything less than the full report,” Baker said Friday.
If he sticks to that stance, it could give the 16-member board the excuse it needs to ditch the Boston bid – a bold step it has refused so far, despite bad polling numbers, a much-changed bid plan and a growingly acrimonious debate between bid supporters and those who don’t want the games in Boston.
Last week, the release of Boston’s unredacted original plan caused some embarrassment, in part because it downplayed the possibility of a referendum that would allow voters to weigh in on their approval or disapproval of the Olympics. Bid organizers call the document nothing more than a “proof of concept” that has since been supplanted by an updated plan. But since the USOC picked Boston based on that original document, the referendum has become all but a certainty and organizers have vowed to stop their bid if voters don’t approve the Olympics.
Meanwhile, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh has promised to support the bid, but the governor has yet to take a stance. The USOC has made it clear that support of city and state leaders is critical to a successful bid.
The board meeting comes the same week as a key meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The IOC will choose the host of the 2022 Winter Olympics, either Beijing or Almaty, Kazakhstan, though certainly the flux of the Boston bid will be a popular topic.
It also takes place seven weeks before the Sept. 15 deadline to submit bids to the IOC. There could still be time to come up with another city, presumably Los Angeles, by cutting ties with Boston now. Too much longer a wait, however, and the USOC will lose the choice of a substitute city if it eventually decides Boston will not work.
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AP reporter Bob Salsberg contributed to this report from Boston.