Boston's Olympics bid depends on residents

A Boston bid for the 2024 Olympics will depend on whether Massachusetts residents back the plan.

Organisers of Boston's effort to land the 2024 Olympics say they will not submit a final bid to the IOC unless a majority of Massachusetts residents are supportive.

The bid committee ran a full-page ad in The Boston Globe and the Boston Herald on Monday, laying out what the privately-funded group said were the 10 principles that form the basis of the city's bid.

Among them were using the Olympics as a catalyst to improve public transportation, create tens of thousands of jobs and spur development of affordable housing.

Other tenets included a multi-layered insurance plan to "protect the city and state from financial risk".

One recent poll conducted for WBUR-FM of more than 500 Boston-area residents showed only 36 per cent supported the Olympic bid, while 52 per cent were opposed and the rest undecided.

"We believe the 2024 Games fit into the long-term planning goals of the city, and will create jobs, economic development and affordable housing," Richard Davey, the organisation's chief executive, said in a statement on Monday.

"We also want to be clear that we are only in this if we have a majority of the people in Massachusetts behind us prior to submitting our final bid to the International Olympic Committee."

The US Olympic Committee selected Boston as the country's bid candidate over Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC.

The deadline for submission of bids to the IOC is September 15.

Rome and Hamburg, Germany, have also announced bids, and Paris is expected to do so next month.

Other potential contenders include Budapest, Hungary; Istanbul, Turkey; Baku, Azerbaijan; and Doha, Qatar.

The IOC will select the host city in 2017.


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Source: AAP


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