The road to IndyCar’s proposed race series in Boston veered onto contentious ground last week, when Mayor Marty Walsh’s Chief of Operations, Patrick Brophy, made clear in an email to IndyCar representatives that not only should “agreements with all interested parties” should be finalized within two weeks, but that the local Seaport community needs to “buy-in.”

Make no mistake, this is the ghost of Boston 2024 at work. While the mayor would inevitably be making an effort to hammer out details around the IndyCar Boston series regardless of circumstance, it’s impossible to ignore the influence and experience that Walsh acquired (at times painfully) in his dealings with the failed Olympic bid.

The specific wording of Brophy’s email in one section illustrates the Boston 2024 fingerprint:

Mayor Walsh feels strongly that overall community “buy-in” and timely resolution of all financial terms for this proposed event are paramount to his final approval.

As Walsh was reminded during the Boston 2024 process earlier in 2015, community approval is particularly important in Boston. One of the major takeaways from Boston 2024 was that Olympic opposition wasn’t particularly distinct to the city, it was simply more organized and more resolute locally than in other places. Where major sports events can survive a degree of community disapproval elsewhere, Boston showed it would not tolerate the prospect of open-ended, secretive agreements with private sports organizations.

That probably explains why Walsh is so determined to have “all financial terms” resolved as soon as possible. As the mayor said when Boston 2024 was breaking down, “I refuse to put Boston on the hook for overruns.” That said, it’s important to remember that while he always stated this belief, his actions still committed Boston in the case of the 2024 bid. This time, the mayor is battling to stay out in front of the financial guarantees.

Unlike what he did with the United States Olympic Committee, the mayor hasn’t technically committed to anything with IndyCar yet. What was signed in May when the race was first formally announced was merely a memorandum of understanding. It’s an agreement, but isn’t legally binding. Should the City of Boston still decide that it doesn’t want to host the race after all, it remains free to do so.

In pushing IndyCar to deliver both community approval and acceptable (as well as transparent) financial terms, it’s evident that Walsh is at least attempting to not repeat the mistakes that were very publicly made in the handling of Boston 2024. Of course, whether he is able to achieve that aim remains to be seen. Nonetheless, the days when Walsh would get himself into trouble for openly admitting he never read the Boston 2024 concept bid appear to be over.

Perhaps, at a mayoral level, the “bid legacy” of Boston 2024 will be the knowledge that Bostonians aren’t afraid to say no. Walsh survived his support of the Olympic bid. His stance on IndyCar Boston appears to be more guarded, given the hard-learned lessons of Boston 2024.

IndyCar Boston released this statement regarding the Walsh administration’s recent email:

This request from the Mayor is an impetus to get the agreements in place and put everyone at ease on the future of the Grand Prix of Boston. We are in complete agreement with the Mayor and his wishes for all contracts to be finalized. We look forward to confirming the agreements and moving forward with this great event. As we have stated in the past and is in our agreement with the city, there will be no municipal dollars used to support the event. We have already signed a significant number of partners and sponsors all who are eager to move forward.