U.S. Olympic Committee nominates Boston as city to host the 2024 Olympic Games

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Boston and not San Francisco will represent the United States in the country's bid to bring the Olympics to our shores in 2024.

That decision was made Thursday afternoon. Mayor Ed Lee and members of San Francisco's Olympic Committee have no regrets after the announcement was made.

"We're holding our heads high. This is something that were very proud to do. We were honored to be invited in this and we did our best to represent our city and our region," Lee said.

San Francisco Giants President Larry Baer was the one who took the phone call.

"He started by saying this was the toughest decision in their careers. It was a long and difficult meeting."

The U.S. Olympic Committee board of directors made their decision from Denver. The four finalists, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston and Washington D.C.

Iconic San Francisco's regional bid had a lot to offer, a privately funded $4.5 billion dollar plan, including a temporary track and field stadium for opening and closing ceremonies in a barren field in Brisbane.

Venues like the new Levi's Stadium, AT&T Park and the sports venues at at the University of California Berkeley, and Stanford as well.

Just to up the ante, they tweaked the proposal Wednesday on the eve of the decision, partnering with Oakland on a proposal to build a new stadium for the Olympic ceremonies.

There were also vocal critics of San Francisco's bid to host the Olympics as there were when then Mayor Gavin Newsom made an unsuccessful pitch to bring them here in 2016.

This time, they point to America's Cup which was supposed to bring a lot of money to the city and ended up costing San Francisco millions of dollars.

"What's it going to cost the public to put these events on," San Francisco Supervisor John Avalos said. "We're told it's not going to cost the city money to do that and I don't believe that."

It's not a done deal yet. Boston will have fierce competition from an international field, which could include Berlin, Rome and Paris.