Poll: 55 percent of MA residents surveyed support Boston Olympic bid
An independent poll conducted by Sage Consulting found that more than 55 percent of Massachusetts residents surveyed support Boston's bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Of the 1,604 people polled, 34.9 percent indicated that they "strongly support" the bid, while 20.4 percent indicated they "somewhat support" it. More than 12 percent of respondents indicated they "somewhat oppose" the bid, while over 27 percent indicated they "strongly oppose" it. Five percent of respondents were undecided.
According to the Boston Globe, the survey was conducted on Monday and the margin of error is 2.45 percentage points. Thirty percent of those polled are Boston residents.
• Still runnings: Jamaican bobsledders eye 2018 Winter Olympics
The United States Olympic Committee announced last week that it selected Boston as the U.S. applicant for the 2024 Olympics.
There has been grassroots opposition to Boston hosting the games, primarily from a group called "No Boston Olympics." According to Boston.com, the group's co-chairs wrote a letter to the USOC in October stating their opposition in hopes of dissuading the committee from selecting the city as it's U.S. applicant. The group feels that hosting the Olympics would "threaten the Commonwealth's ability to make much-needed improvements in health care, education and core transportation structure."
Asked how likely it is that Olympic expenditures such as infrastructure and site construction will produce a "lasting economic benefit for the city of Boston," 19.8 percent of those surveyed said "very likely," 25.7 percent said "somewhat likely," 20 percent said "somewhat unlikely," and 28.4 percent said "very unlikely.
Complete results of the poll can be found here.
Molly Geary
