Bad Week for Boston 2024

The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and all the Boston papers shined a not-so-rosy light this week on the future of the 2024 Boston Olympics bid.

Chairman John Fish has been blamed for the lack of transparency, consultant Doug Rubin for the Public Relations failure and there are reports that the US Olympic committee could drop the bid if plummeting public interest doesn't turn around soon.

"Sometimes in Boston, we punish success," said former Boston City Councilor Mike Ross.

Ross finds all of the skepticism very frustrating.

"If we just drum this idea out of town, we'll never know. We'll be left with nothing," he said. "And I just sit back, thinking, 'why would someone want to kill this idea?'"

The people who don't want the Olympics are those who fear "Big Dig sized" cost overruns that could rob public schools and services of much-needed dollars.

"I don't necessarily have a problem with spending some public money to leverage private money. Government does that all the time," said Suffolk University Vice President John Nucci. "There's nothing unusual about that. It's a matter of degree."

Nucci says he's leaning toward supporting the Olympics but wants more questions answered before he takes a final stance.

Meanwhile, amidst the negative headlines, Boston 2024 seems to be taking a step back. Both John Fish and Boston 2024 co-chair Steve Pagliuca cancelled their appearance on this necn's show, "This Week in Business."

"I think it's actually good that they're not saying anything for maybe a week," said Boston Globe Columnist Shirley Leung, a regular contributor on TWIB. "They're making too many headlines every single day, and they're not good. So it's good they're taking a time out."

But is it too late, as opponents hope, to turn the tide on the Olympic bid?

Nucci thinks there's still time to change public sentiment.

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