A day after a U.S. Olympic Committee leader set off a firestorm of speculation by saying there's "no guarantee" Boston 2024 gets the USOC's backing, the committee's CEO said they're "100 percent" behind the Hub bid.
Governor Charlie Baker and Mayor Martin J. Walsh, meanwhile, renewed pledges to make sure state and city taxpayers don't get hit up to pay for the Olympics.
Chatter continued over just what she meant Monday when Angela Ruggiero, a former U.S. women's hockey gold medalist and member of both the U.S. and international Olympic committees, said there was "no guarantee" Boston will get the USOC's vote when it nominates a U.S. city on September 15 to the IOC.
"I think her comments were taken out of context, to some degree," Walsh said. "I think what Angela was talking about was that as you move forward in the process, there's no guarantee Boston gets the bid. I mean, it's a process."
Speaking before the Boston City Council Monday, Ruggiero said Boston's bid was "still being vetted" by the USOC. "There's three phases. Right now you're in the invitation phase ... It's more of an unofficial declaration that, hey, for example Boston's interested if the U.S. goes forward," Ruggiero said.
And after saying that meant there is "no guarantee" Boston -- and not runners-up Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Washington D.C. -- gets the USOC nomination to the IOC, Ruggiero was quick to add: "We want Boston to succeed, so we're doing everything possible ... You have the full support of the U.S. Olympic Committee."
That last point is what the head of the USOC is stressing. CEO Scott Blackmun said in a statement: "We are 100 percent behind Boston's bid to host the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Boston can deliver a great Games. There is no truth whatsoever to the rumor that we have asked them to stand down, or that we are considering going to another city."
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Meanwhile, Baker said Tuesday afternoon that he, House Speaker Robert DeLeo, and Senate President Stanley Rosenberg are just days away from jointly hiring a consultant to advise them on protecting the state's interests.
Baker said scrutinizing the feasibility, price, and timeline for a Boston 2024 would be a key job for the consultant. Another job for that consultant, Baker said, will be advising the leaders about the feasibility -- assuming an overall Olympics bid plan due from 2024 next month proves workable -- of a bid that avoids the usual IOC demand that state and city taxpayers be on the hook for any Olympics cost overrun with a public guarantee.
"The Olympics have won before without one," Baker said. "Los Angeles won in 1984. Chicago did not submit one. They didn't win, but they didn't submit one either. It's not unprecedented."
Mayor Walsh said: "I've made it perfectly clear that, as the mayor of the city of Boston, it's my responsibility to make sure I keep an eye on what the budget is and make sure that any overruns that might happen, or any costs that pertain to the Olympics, will not be paid for by the taxpayers of Boston."
That's the same line in the sand Baker's drawing at the state level. "Whatever it is the state does needs to be, because it will be taxpayer-financed, the work that we do needs to be work that all the taxpayers of Massachusetts have an opportunity to benefit from which says to me," Baker said, "that we really should be paying for [only] infrastructure."
