IOC: Boston failed to deliver on 'promises' to U.S. Olympic Committee
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach placed the blame on the city of Boston for its failed bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, saying officials failed to make good on promises when the city was selected as the American nominee for the games.
Boston beat out other U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., for the right to bid on the Games.
Boston promised the U.S. Olympic Committee that it would not built venues that would eventually becoming abandoned, saying it would upgrade the public transportation system and take advantage of the nearly 100 universities in the area that would be used for housing and to hold events.
But on Monday, Boston mayor Marty Walsh refused to sign a contract for the city’s bid on the games, after months of local opposition and concern that taxpayers would be responsible for funding the Olympics.
“From the outside, I gave up following (the bid's troubles)," Bach said, according to the Associated Press. "It was pretty confusing. Every day there was a new project coming from Boston or new people and new ideas. I really gave up following it in detail. But what we could see in a nutshell what happened there is that Boston did not deliver on promises they made to the USOC when they were selected."
Bach did not comment on the U.S. selecting a new city from a bid, but Los Angeles, which hosted the 1932 and 1984 Olympics, could enter the bid.
• IOC wants another U.S. bid city for 2024 Games after Boston drops out
Baku (Azerbaijan), Istanbul (Turkey) and Doha (Qatar) have previously expressed interest in hosting the games, while Budapest, Hamburg, Germany, Paris, Toronto, and Rome have already announced their intentions to bid on the Games.
The deadline for candidates to officially submit a bid is Sept. 15, with the final decision being made by the IOC during a congress in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 15, 2017.
Bach says it’s an “internal issue” for the USOC to determine the most appropriate city after Boston dropped out of the running.
"For us the situation has not changed," Bach said. "We had a commitment from USOC for an Olympic candidature for 2024. We have this commitment. We're sure that USOC will deliver on this commitment, and that we will have on the 15th of September, a bid from the United States."
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