London Mayor: "Euphoria" Will Greet Winning Boston Bid

(ATR) London Mayor Boris Johnson believes opposition to the Boston 2024 bid will subside as the campaign progresses.

Johnson visited Boston on Feb. 9 as part of a six-day trade mission to the eastern United States and visited with the city’s universities and Boston 2024 leadership.

"The change will come," Johnson told the Boston Globe after meeting with Boston 2024.

"As soon as, if and when Boston actually gets the nod from the IOC, I think there will be massive enthusiasm, of the kind that we saw in London. It’s got to have a social impact, massive social impact."

In his visit, the Globe reported Johnson stressed the need for an Olympic bid to "appeal" to as broad a base of people as possible to convince skeptics. Another need is for a definitive legacy plan.

"You've got to have a very clear idea about what you're going to do with your stadium," Johnson told British news outlet ITV.

"We decided that we were going to go for an athletics formula and take it down to 25,000, which was clearly not the right way to go and in my view we should have had a football solution from the start."

Polls for support on the Boston 2024 Olympic bid have hovered around 50 percent in support. At the time of bidding, London had 73 percent support from city inhabitants.

The IOC will decide on a 2024 Summer Olympics host city at its 2017 Session in Lima, Peru.

Written by Aaron Bauer

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