Boston Shake up Bid Committee for 2024 Olympics

With Boston's 2024 Olympic aspirations taking a beating, those hoping to bring the games to the New England city have turned to some local sports and business heavyweights to energize their bid.

Boston 2024 confirmed that Steve Pagliuca, co-owner of the NBA's Boston Celtics, will replace construction magnate John Fish as chair of the bid partnership. Pagliuca had served a vice-chair of the group since February.

"My goal is the same as it has been from the beginning of this journey: to bring Olympic and Paralympic Games to Boston and back to the United States," Fish said in a statement.

"I recruited Steve Pagliuca because of the sports expertise and leadership he brings to the bid."

While Fish will remain as a vice-chair, the bid group also announced on Thursday that Peter Roby, director of athletics and recreation at Northeastern University, is also coming on board as a vice chair and a director of the board.

Larry Lucchino, president and chief executive of baseball's Boston Red Sox, has been named as an adviser, along with Jack Connors, a founding partner of Boston-based advertising agency Hill Holliday.

Boston got the nod from the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) in January as the city to be nominated as an American candidate for the 2024 Games, beating out Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington.

The United States will be chasing its first Summer Olympics since Atlanta hosted the Games in 1996, and Boston's candidacy follows failed bids by New York for 2012 and Chicago for 2016 with no US candidate for 2020.

But local opposition to the bid, largely from residents who fear taxpayers will foot the bill for the games, has Boston's bid in trouble even before it is due to be formally presented to International Olympic Committee in September.

Although USOC member Angela Ruggiero suggested this month that there was "no guarantee" a Boston bid would be submitted to the IOC, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun said Thursday the committee is "100 percent behind" Boston's bid.

"Boston can deliver a great Games," Blackmun said. "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."

Pagliuca said the Olympics would bring lasting benefits to Boston.

"The Games are about more than sport; they are a symbol for what is best about each of us," he said.

"Wherever the Games are held, people around the globe stop and watch the world's greatest athletes compete.

"Through their examples on field of play, we see Olympic values of friendship, fair play and excellence in action. This is the gift of the Games and this is what I want our city and its young people to experience first-hand in 2024."