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 The move was met with relief by Massachusetts officials, who had
faced an active opposition campaign that fought the idea of hosting
the Summer Games, forecast to cost more than $8.6 billion, from the
moment the USOC in January picked Boston over other major U.S.
cities including Los Angeles, Washington and San Francisco.
The USOC said it still hoped to pick a U.S. candidate to compete for
the games, against a lineup including Paris, Rome, Budapest and
Hamburg, Germany.
"We have not been able to get a majority of the citizens of Boston
to support hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games," USOC
Chief Executive Officer Scott Blackmun said in a statement.
"Therefore the USOC does not think that the level of support enjoyed
by Boston's bid would allow it to prevail."
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who had been noncommittal in
his support, said he had been waiting for a report by a private
consultancy due next month before deciding whether to throw his
weight behind the bid. He said USOC officials had pushed him to make
a decision earlier than that.
His statement came hours after Mayor Marty Walsh said he would not
sign the bid documents if they left city taxpayers vulnerable to
cost overruns.
 "No benefit is so great that it is worth handing over the financial
future of our city," Walsh said.
Backers of the bid had scrambled to assuage residents' concerns
about the cost, last week unveiling a plan to carry some $2 billion
in insurance that it said would cover any unanticipated costs.
They said they were designing a lower-cost approach to the games in
line with the International Olympic Committee's "Agenda 2020," which
is intended to combat the rising spending levels that broke records
during recent games in Beijing and Sochi, Russia. Russia spent some
$50 billion on the 2014 Winter Games.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said his city, which hosted one of
the most successful games in U.S. history in 1984, was interested in
taking Boston's place.
"Los Angeles is the ideal Olympic city," Garcetti said. "I would be
happy to engage in discussions with the USOC about how to present
the strongest and most fiscally responsible bid on behalf of our
city and nation."
In Washington, a spokeswoman for Mayor Muriel Bowser said it was
"too early to say" what the move meant for the capital's Olympic
hopes.
REFERENDUM UPPED PRESSURE
Just 42 percent of Boston-area respondents to a WBUR/Mass Inc poll
published earlier this month said they supported the idea of hosting
the games, with half against it. Three out of four respondents said
they worried taxpayer funds would be required to stage the games.
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The timing of the choice, which came at the start of a winter that
Boston received a record-setting 9 feet (2.7 m) of snow, exposing
weaknesses in the city's roads and transit systems, also served to
sour public opinion on the games.
"The 'T' is a mess as it is," said Christina Wingerter, a
24-year-old student, using the nickname for the city's subway
system. "No way it could handle millions of people."
The No Boston Olympics lobby group, which had formed to oppose the
bid, welcomed the decision.
"We need to move forward as a city, and today's decision allows us
to do that on our own terms, not the terms of the USOC or the
(International Olympic Committee)," the group said in a statement.
"We're better off for having passed on Boston 2024."
Officials had backed a proposal to put the matter to voters in a
ballot initiative next year, during the presidential election cycle.
The move to hold the referendum just months before the IOC is
expected to pick a host city, likely encouraged the USOC to drop
Boston and give it more time to find an alternate candidate,
observers said.
Robert Boland, a professor of sports administration at Ohio
University who specializes in the Olympics, added that city
officials had done little to drum up public support for the bid
during the competition with other U.S. cities.
"Boston was left standing alone rather than competing and that made
it harder to drum up public support," Boland said. "The minute you
get something you begin to think about not wanting it."
(Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles, Ian Simpson in
Washington and Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Sandra Maler,
Eric Beech and Bernard Orr)
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