The jury is still out.
Boston looked like it may have been the front-runner to host the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, but after withdrawing their bid, the United States Olympic Commission (USOC) is back to the drawing board.
A committee named ‘Washington 2024’ had submitted a bid for the Olympic games to come to the area, with a lot of community support.
According to Stafford spokeswoman Cathy Volbrecht, Stafford even issued a proclamation in October 2014, supporting the bid.
Because Boston has pulled out their bid, Washington 2024 still has a window of time to resubmit their bid for consideration with the USOC.
According to Visit Fairfax President Barry Biggar, the USOC has to make their decision on who they’ll support by the end of August.
“The International Olympic Committee needs to know by September,” said Biggar, continuing, “L.A. (Los Angeles) seems to be the USOC’s choice…It’s really in the hands, right now, of the original committee that put forward the initial and original bid.”
George Mason University professor Dr. Stephen Fuller, who works at the university’s Center for Regional Analysis, stated that if the Olympics were to come to the region, it would have a huge economic impact.
“I undertook the economic impact analysis for the Washington-Baltimore Region’s proposed bid on the 2012 Olympics. While the costs were significant, the benefits were even greater. I believe this would be the case today if the Washington region succeeded in capturing the bid,” stated Fuller.
Biggar and Fuller both stated that they felt Washington D.C. may not be able to compete internationally for the 2024 Olympic slot.
“To prepare for the bid and compete with the other four or five international cities chasing the 2024 Olympics would be substantial and the likelihood of the US winning against Paris (it would be the 100th anniversary of its last summer Olympics) or the other cities would be small,” stated Fuller.
Despite these obstacles, there is still a possibility that the Olympics could be coming to Washington D.C.
“At this juncture, not much has been said, nobody has committed. No one has said, ‘yes we’ll move forward’ or ‘no we won’t move forward,’” said Biggar.
