It may seem like forever from now, but that's to be expected for the colossal logistical (and bureaucratic) headache that is the Summer Olympics. Still, today Boston was selected as the U.S.'s representative for the 2024 summer games. In being chosen with this "honor" Boston beat out Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington D.C. The Massachusetts metropolis is seeking to become the first U.S. city to host the games since Atlanta did so back in 1996.
On the international stage, Boston will now be up against the likes of Rome and potentially Paris and Berlin (as well as a yet to be named city in South Africa).
The logic behind Boston being chosen by the USOC was centered around their proposal to place no Olympic venue more than 10 minutes from public transportation, as well as their planned usage of private funding, some sort of incorporation of the area's prestigious universities, the city's proximity to enormously populated areas, the fact that Boston is in a "TV friendly" Eastern time zone, and the usage of pre-existing (as well as temporary) structures in an effort to not spend so fucking much money on a two-and-a-half-week spectacle.
In fact, Boston's final Olympic plan is projected at a (relatively) low amount of $4.5 billion dollars, which only seems modest when compared to the $40 billion dollar price tag for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, or the eyebrow raising $51 billion bucks spent by Russia for last year's Winter Games.
Beantown's final proposal will be completed this upcoming September, but the winning bid won't be officially announced until two years after that.
So we guess it'll be awhile before we know how this all ends up playing out.
[via The New York Times]
