Advocacy groups and local pundits believe that bringing the Olympics to the City on the Hill isn’t worth the jaw-dropping expenses
Photo via Flickr user Navaneeth KN
The United States Olympic Committee has chosen Boston as its bid to host the 2024 Summer Olympics. Selected over San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington D. C., the capital of Massachusetts will next be pitted against “Rome, a yet-to-be-named German city, and possibly Paris or South Africa" for the slot, according to NPR. While many are rejoicing about the nod, a growing movement in the Bay State has been drumming up opposition.
No Boston Olympics is a Massachusetts non-profit that rallies together residents "who think there are better ways to invest public resources than throwing a three-week party for the global elite, while hard-working citizens foot the bill." Last February the group released a report that found that staging the Olympics would cost somewhere between $10 billion and $20 billion dollars, money which No Boston Olympics and its supporters believe should be dedicated to improving more essential things like infrastructure and schools. Over the past year, No Boston Olympics has dedicated itself to challenging Boston 2024 proponents by fact checking their claims.
In addition to NBO, many Boston locals have been speaking out against the bid. In July, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy went so far as to compare the Olympic notion with the city’s notorious, astronomically expensive, 25-year-long highway construction project known as “The Big Dig,” writing, "Think the Big Dig was bad? This would be the Big Dig times 10."
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