The IOC has "laid the blame squarely on Boston" for its dropped attempt to land the '24 Games, claiming the city "failed to deliver on its promises," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. IOC President Thomas Bach said, "What we could see in a nutshell, what happened there is that Boston did not deliver on promises they made to the USOC when they were selected. Therefore we can understand the decision by the USOC and we are looking forward to an American bid with another city.” Bach added that Boston "did not appear to have a clear strategy." He said, "I gave up following it. It was pretty confusing. Every day, there was a new project coming from Boston or new people and new ideas. I really gave up following it in detail.” Bach noted that the USOC has "'committed' to submitting a bid for the 2024 Games and he was expecting them to deliver." He said, "For us the situation has not changed" (REUTERS, 7/29). The USOC is widely reported to turn to L.A. if it does submit another bid for '24, but Boston Mayor Martin Walsh yesterday said if L.A. does land the Games, it means "somebody didn’t tell me the truth." Walsh said that he "is interested" to see whether the USOC "heads west after ending its pitch" for Boston. Walsh: "I was given a commitment that L.A. was not in the mix, I was given that commitment several times by the chairman of the USOC. I’m interested to see what happens. ... I was specifically told that L.A. is not going to be part of this" (Villani & Atkins, BOSTON HERALD, 7/29).
TICK-TOCK OF SITUATION: In Boston, Levenson & Arsenault in a front-page piece report the dropped bid was the "culmination of weeks of behind-the-scenes tensions and jostling between City Hall and the USOC, as they battled stubbornly low poll numbers and emboldened opponents." Walsh said that the seeds of the breakup "had been planted about three weeks earlier ... when he sat in his City Hall office with USOC officials." Walsh was "upset at reports the committee was considering dropping Boston" for L.A., so he "demanded a letter from the USOC assuring him the panel would stick with Boston." He added that in turn, the USOC "started pressuring him to declare that he would sign" the IOC’s host city agreement, which "would include a guarantee that Boston would step in with public financing to deliver the Games if the organizers ran out of money." Walsh: "They were asking me to sign the document and I was asking them back, ‘Will you sign the letter?’ and ‘Let me see the letter saying we are the actual chosen host city.’ That letter never came." Levenson & Arsenault note the standoff "would eventually give the mayor a politically popular reason for backing away from the bid." USOC CEO Scott Blackmun and other USOC officials declined to comment. When a report "surfaced Sunday with a USOC official saying Los Angeles was ready to host the Games, Walsh resolved to go public with his frustrations." An anonymous aide of Walsh said, "It was clear to the mayor this was the last straw for him." Thirty minutes before Walsh "was scheduled to speak to the media," he called Blackmun and Boston 2024 Chair Steve Pagliuca to "inform them that he was going to declare that he was not ready to sign the guarantee." Walsh said that Pagliuca "did not try to stop" him and added that Blackmun "only asked that Walsh keep a positive tone." Around 5:30pm ET on Monday afternoon, Blackmun "left the mayor a voicemail wishing him well in the future" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/29).
STICK A FORK IN IT: In Boston, Andrew Ryan writes Walsh was stable to stave off "fracturing his relationships with local leaders" during the Olympics courtship and also "did not allow himself to become a bridegroom jilted" by USOC execs. In "true Boston fashion, Walsh blamed the folks from out of town, using the USOC as his foil." UMass professor Erin O'Brien: "He made the USOC the problem, not Boston 2024" (BOSTON GLOBE, 7/29). GRANTLAND's Charles Pierce wrote under the header, "Gone Baby Gone: Boston Tells The Olympics To Get Bent." Subheader: "Rejoice: A bad idea that should have never gotten this far was killed" (GRANTLAND.com, 7/28).
