Boston Will Be the U.S. City to Bid For the 2024 Olympics

As reported by the Boston Globe, among others, the United States Olympic Committee has decided to put its weight behind Beantown:

“The United States Olympic Committee has chosen Boston to be its standard-bearer in a global competition to host the 2024 Olympic Games, putting its faith in an old city that is brand new to the Olympic movement.

The USOC announced Thursday after a meeting at Denver International Airport that it will back Boston’s Olympic bid over those from San Francisco, Washington, DC and two-time Olympic host, Los Angeles.”

This is only one step in a long, long road for the Massachusetts state capital. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) won’t make its decision for the 2024 games until 2017 (and still has to sort out who if anyone is going to host the 2022 Winter games). Already though, the great Olympic debate has begun in Boston. Here’s the Globe’s editorial staff from earlier today:

“Above all, there can be no presumption that the city’s invitation to bid means that Boston must actually do so. Backers may attempt to create a sense of inevitability — who wants to be the stick in the mud? — but Boston deserves better than that. The apparent hunger of advocates to use the Olympics to show that Boston is a world-class city cuts both ways. Dozens of cities have hosted the Olympics. A more select group, including such provincial backwaters as Rome and Stockholm, have dropped out of consideration at one time or another after concluding it wasn’t right for them. The invitation to bid is great news, and a credit to Boston 2024. But Boston is, and will remain, a world-class city whether it chooses to bid for the Olympics or not.”

The Globe mentions the commonly-held argument (backed by evidence) that the Olympics don’t provide as many economic benefits — if any at all — to host cities. Instead of celebrating today’s news, the paper has made it clear that it’s not going to be anyone’s cheerleader over the next couple years while organizers iron out the city’s bid. With Boston’s most-read media organization officially playing Switzerland, the USOC will have to look somewhere else for local support.

(h/t to Deadspin for the last of those links)