Why was Boston's 2024 Olympic bid dropped?

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WWLP – SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – The U.S. Olympic Committee and Boston 2024 announced on Monday to drop the bid for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic games.

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker said the bid's information, however, won't be wasted.

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"Some of the analysis, especially around the economic development opportunities that were rolled out in that proposal, and some of the transportation initiatives," says Governor Baker, "I think were pretty thoughtful and are things that we can learn from and incorporate into our own activity going forward."

The Boston bid considered hosting events outside the eastern half of the state. Some of the events would have been hosted in western Massachusetts, according to the latest version of the bid. White water rafting would have taken place on the Deerfield River, and road cycling would've started in Hampshire county, and end at the memorial bridge in Springfield.

The biggest reason the bid was dropped was because a majority of Mass. citizens didn't support the games in Boston. The USOC believed the bid wouldn't prevail over great bids from Paris, Rome, Budapest, or Toronto.

Massachusetts Senate President Stan Rosenberg says, "You look at so many of the other venues and so many of the other past games, and the national government got behind. We saw no indication that our federal government was going to step up to the plate beyond just the security costs."

Boston 2024 says they believe they could've generated more public support, but the USOC said time was running out if they were going to consider another city's bid. Boston 2024 chairman Seve Pagliuca says they look forward to offering their support and knowledge to any American city chosen to participate in the 2024 bidding process going forward.

A full report of the decision will be available to the public sometime in August.