Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter claimed the decision to rule out a bid, after putting its hat into the ring more than a year ago, was made after researching both potential venues and the cost of hosting the Games.

"It is millions and millions of dollars - probably in the hundreds of millions of dollars - to host such an enterprise," he said.

"You have to build an Olympic Village for people to live.

"You have to build Olympic-scale facilities for swimming or track or whatever you don't have enough of.

"So I felt, at this stage, that we should not submit a bid."

Nutter added that Philadelphia, which has previously unsuccessfully bid to host the Olympics on four occasions - 1920, 1948, 1952 and 1956 - needs to focus on staging other major international events, such as next year's World Meeting of Families, which Pope Francis is expected to attend.

Michael Nutter said the decision to rule out a Philadelphia 2024 Olympic and Paralympic bid came after examining both venues and costs ©AFP/Getty Images


He also highlighted the 250th anniversary celebrations of the US Declaration of Independence in 12 years and a potential bid to host the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Nutter's announcement followed the new earlier today that New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had decided not to back a bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics. 

Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington DC are still contenders, however, to be awarded the US nomination to bid. 

The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) last month revealed it will whittle down the interested cities to no more than three candidates by next month, before the ultimate choice is made by the end of the year.

The IOC is due to make the announcement of which city will host the 2024 Games in 2017.

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