Public support for Boston's '24 Games bid "was already on the downslope, but it has plunged even further in the last month," according to WBUR-FM poll data cited by Katharine Seelye of the N.Y. TIMES. Only 36% of adults in the Boston region "support hosting the Games," while 52% oppose doing so. This "is among the most anemic levels of support ever registered by a potential host city at this stage in the process and could doom the bid unless it is reversed." A January poll showed 51% of area residents "supported the choice" of Boston as the American bid city, but by February, support "had slipped" to 44%. USOC CEO Scott Blackmun on Thursday in a statement said it is "still early in the process, and while we would be pleased to see full support across the board, we recognize that it will take time and effort to successfully answer the important questions being raised by Bostonians." The decline "coincides with a brutal winter in which Boston’s regional transit system, a linchpin in the proposed bid, collapsed as a record amount of snow fell on the city." Chief among concerns is that taxpayers "will end up being saddled with overrun costs" of the Games. Only 29% of the poll’s respondents believed that the promise of the Games being paid with private money was true, while 65% think that taxpayers "would end up footing the bill." They also "have a negative view of Boston2024, the group of business leaders, construction magnates and public officials who organized the bid" (N.Y. TIMES, 3/20). BOSTON.com's Adam Vaccaro noted 19% of people surveyed "viewed Boston 2024 favorably," compared 34% who viewed the group "unfavorably." Opposition group No Boston Olympics had a 34% approval rate. That is higher than the 29% who "viewed it unfavorably." Boston Mayor Martin Walsh previously indicated that he "would want to see 70 percent support" in the city by '17, when the IOC will pick the host city (BOSTON.com, 3/19).
PATRICK PARKS PAY: Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick on Thursday announced that he "will soon take his first full-time position since leaving office in January, and will forgo the $7,500 daily fee he was to be paid for occasional travel on behalf of the local Olympic bid committee." In Boston, Mark Arsenault in a front-page piece notes Patrick’s announcement "came a week after his rate of pay made headlines" and after Walsh earlier in the day "said he did not think the former governor should be paid for private work as a globetrotting ambassador for Boston’s Olympic bid." Walsh believed that Patrick "would make an excellent ambassador for Boston but that the fee could send the wrong message" (BOSTON GLOBE, 3/20). Walsh earlier Thursday had said that Patrick "should not be paid 'at all' and should instead volunteer his services for the Olympics bid, just as former Gov. Mitt Romney is doing" (BOSTON HERALD, 3/20). Boston '24 CEO Richard Davey said that Patrick "will be working, on average, 'probably one day a month' as the nonprofit’s 'global ambassador'" (BOSTON HERALD, 3/20).
