BOSTON (MyFoxBoston.com) - The US Olympic Committee has pulled their support for the Boston 2024 bid.
Mayor Marty Walsh released a statement just after 3 p.m. saying he supported the concept, but had concerns about the financials.
"I strongly believe that bringing the Olympic Games back to the United States would be good for our country and would have brought long-term benefits to Boston. However, no benefit is so great that it is worth handing over the financial future of our City and our citizens were rightly hesitant to be supportive as a result. We always anticipated having the time to do our due diligence on the guarantees required and a full review of the risk and mitigation package proposed last week. This is a monumental decision that cannot be rushed, even if it means not moving forward with our bid for the 2024 Summer Games."
According to the Associated Press, the USOC's CEO said officials will explore other cities to host 2024 Games.
In a statement, the USOC said they believe the Boston 2024 bid was good, but they decided to pull their support because of the lack of public support.
"Notwithstanding the promise of the original vision for the bid, and the soundness of the plan developed under Steve Pagliuca, we have not been able to get a majority of the citizens of Boston to support hosting the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Therefore, the USOC does not think that the level of support enjoyed by Boston’s bid would allow it to prevail over great bids from Paris, Rome, Hamburg, Budapest or Toronto." You can read the full USOC statement here.
Plans for the Olympic bid were announced last year and in January the USOC picked Boston as the bid they would put forward to the International Olympic Committee.
Monday morning Mayor Walsh announced that he would not sign the host contract until he was certain taxpayers would not have to foot the bill.
>>RELATED: Watch the FOX25 and Boston Globe Olympic Debate here
In June organizers of Boston 2024 released an updated bid plan for the games, which included event spaces across Boston and the state.
This is a developing news story, stay with MyFoxBoston.com for the latest information as it becomes available.
