Boston Olympic Support Stagnates at 40 Percent

(ATR) Support from Boston residents to the 2024 Olympic bid remains at 40 percent.

A new poll released by WBUR on Friday shows that the immediate reaction to the release of the new Boston 2024 bid plan did little to move the needle in terms of positive support.

Currently, the bid remains positive numbers will start trending upwards soon "as more residents take a closer look of our plans to bring the Games back to the United States."

"Boston 2024 is working hard to ensure that the people of Boston and the commonwealth have accurate information about the proposal to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games, as well as ample opportunities to voice their opinions and participate in the process," Boston 2024 said in a statement.

"These poll results show support is growing as more people see our 'Bid 2.0’ plans, which rely entirely on private financing for Olympic venues and operations and include substantial safeguards to make sure taxpayer dollars are not put at risk."

The statement from Boston 2024 is similar to the bid's last statement issued in June, saying that despite stable numbers, the bid is "confident" of growing support when people see the new plans.

While support for the bid remained stable, opposition for the bid became slightly greater. The last poll of Boston residents conducted by WBUR, in April, showed 50 percent opposition to the bid. In the latest poll, 53 percent of respondents reported opposition to the bid.

"It doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of movement right now," Steve Koczela, of The MassINC Polling Group who runs the poll, said to WBUR.

"But sometimes these small movements are evidence of a beginning of a trend."

Outside of the city, the polls show a slight uptick.

Statewide support for the bid came in at 42 percent with 50 percent registering opposition. The previous poll conducted in June showed that statewide support was only at 39 percent.

"Statewide support is relatively similar to what we saw in June, perhaps a slight tightening," Koczela said.

"There’s not a lot of time to get the poll numbers up to where the United States Olympic Committee can have confidence that the numbers are headed in the right direction in time for this decision."

The USOC says that they would like to see Boston registering 50 percent support or greater in the city, but would not give a timeframe for when they would like that to be achieved.

"We obviously want to see a positive trend, and the sooner the better," Larry Probst, USOC chairman, said to WBUR.

The last time Boston 2024 registered a majority of public support was in a January poll from WBUR, right after the city was named the United States host city for the 2024 Games. The city will have a referendum to decide the fate of the Olympic bid on November 16, 2016.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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