Boston has been shortlisted as a possible U.S. host for the 2024 Summer Olympics, along with Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Jamaica Plain-based City Councilor Matt O’Malley has been a supporter of exploring the possibility.
“The U.S. Olympic Committee was very keen on Boston,” O’Malley told the Gazette last week. “There are many ways it makes sense.”
The four U.S. cities were chosen by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) to submit detailed proposals last month. The USOC will next select a finalist to support as the official U.S. Olympics bid before the International Olympic Committee (OIC) for a final decision. Various cities in other countries will bid as well.
While O’Malley is not involved in “any official capacity,” he said, he supports conducting a thorough feasibility study, partly to “make sure this makes sense financially.”
“I don’t think anyone wants this to go forward if it didn’t make sense,” he said.
“It could be fabulous or it could really destroy our park as we know it today,” Franklin Park Conservancy Executive Director Christine Poff told the Gazette. “Our first priority is to be a park that serves the neighborhoods around the park.”
O’Malley also pointed out that, if Boston were chosen to host the 2024 summer games, the events would most likely be spread out all over New England, to “share the glory and the cost.”
“I’m cautiously optimistic,” he said.