Boston is still under the consideration of the United States Olympic Committee, which will meet at MIT Tuesday in order to narrow down its list of host city candidates for a potential 2024 Summer Olympic bid.
The Boston Business Journal reports, the USOC’s 15-member board of directors will hunker down at the Cambridge college, where it is expected to trim a list of six cities to two or three.
“At least three” members of USOC board, the BBJ reports, have “local ties,” including John Hancock Life Insurance CEO James Benson, Candlewick Press licensing director Mary McCagg and Bain Capital associate Whitney Ping.
A USOC spokesperson told the BBJ the location of Tuesday’s meeting should not be seen as a potential sign of things to come.
NBC Sports reports, the USOC isn’t expected to go public with the names of the host city candidates that make the final cut; Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego and Washington D.C. enter Tuesday as the six cities the USOC still considers candidates for a 2024 Olympic bid.
Boston, according to NBC Sports, is considered “the top non-California candidate” by GamesBid.com producer Robert Livingston, who believes LA is the favorite.
New York, chosen over San Francisco for the USOC’s bid for the 2012 Summer Games, and Philadelphia announced last month they were no-longer in the running for 2024.
The International Olympic Committee will choose a 2024 host city in 2017. According to NBC Sports, the USOC hopes to decide whether it will submit a bid and choose a host city candidate by the end of 2014.
Related: Olympic Host City Bidding Process
International cities, including “Paris, Rome and a South African city,” are other possible host cities, NBC Sports reports.
Olympic-talk started heating up in Boston last November, when news broke that a group of local VIPs interested in hosting the 2024 Games, including Suffolk Construction CEO and new Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce Chair John Fish, New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft and former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, recruited Mitt Romney as a “key adviser.”
Since, pro-Olympics group Boston 2024 has advocated for a bid, rallying the public in support of bringing the Games to the city. Meanwhile, the No Boston Olympics group has maintained that hosting the Olympics is not a wise economic decision.
Last February, an 11-member committee created by Governor Deval Patrick to investigate the feasibility of a potential 2024 Summer Games concluded Boston could host the Olympics.
The USOC began sending inquiry letters to 35 mayors across the country in February 2013. According to the Washington Post, letters detailed specific requirements of potential host cites.
Host city requirements include:
- Having an Olympic Village that can house 16,000 athletes
- Enough space to accommodate 15,000 journos
- An “extensive” public transit system
- Boasting a workforce of 200,000
- Understanding a $3 billion operating budget
The Summer Olympics haven’t been held in the U.S. since 1996, when Atlanta hosted the Games. The 2002 Winter Olympics were held in Salt Lake City.
Sochi, Russia, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics, spent a record $50 billion on Olympic venues and preparations.
Creative Commons/Flickr image
