Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed a bill Thursday to form a commission that will look into a potential 2024 Boston Olympic bid, according to reports.
The bill would create a panel to look into the aspects and feasibility of hosting the Olympics in 2024, with a completed report by March.
The U.S. hasn’t hosted an Olympics since the 2002 Winter Games and is in the middle of its longest stretch between hosting Olympics since a 28-year gap between 1932 and 1960.
In February, the U.S. Olympic Committee sent letters to mayors of 35 cities to gauge interest in potential bids for 2024.
In March, Boston mayor Thomas Menino said the idea of bringing the Olympics to the city would be “far-fetched.”
USOC chairman Larry Probst said 2024 Olympic bidding will be talked about at USOC meetings in December, when a timetable for the selection of a city could be created. Bidding for the 2024 Olympic host begins in 2015, and the IOC will vote in 2017.
Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Dallas and Philadelphia are among other cities that have expressed interest.
Probst said in September that if the USOC decides to bid, which would not be until 2014, that it will come from “not a long list of cities, realistically.”