What a difference a day makes. In 24 little hours, the prospects for a Boston Olympics have gone from full steam ahead to dubious if put to a vote.

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh told The Wall Street Journal that he would not “stand in the way” of a referendum on bringing the 2024 Olympic Summer Games to Boston.

He quickly backpedaled, most likely after taking multiple calls from Boston 2024 officials who were not amused.

The episode led The New York Times to conclude, “Putting the issue before voters would have the potential to throw a wrench into Boston’s plan to represent the United States in the international competition, particularly if it showed that support in Boston was only lukewarm.”

The latest installment of the Olympics soap opera began with a WBUR/MassINC Polling Group survey that found that while 51 percent of metro Boston residents supported the Olympics, 33 percent opposed holding the Games in the region.

But 43 percent of those surveyed were not “excited” by the prospect. Still worse, from the perspective of US and international Olympics organizers who believe that local support is vital, a nightmarish 75 percent of those surveyed wanted to hold a referendum on the Olympics.

That statistic may have No Boston Olympics, the lead opposition group, doing back flips. However, the prospects for a referendum that produces a no vote are not assured.

A citywide referendum on the Olympics might energize voter turnout: That would be truly historic. Americans don’t have a great track record on voter participation. Only 38 percent of registered Boston voters turned out for the 2013 mayoral election.

A large turnout won’t necessarily produce a no vote, however. For starters, the Olympics construction equals jobs, after all. And who doesn’t love a party?

But there’s a reason that Walsh and others don’t want a citywide vote. It’s much the same one that led late Mayor Thomas Menino to oppose a citywide vote on casinos. Bostonians can be ornery about traffic, security restrictions, cost overruns, and other things that they don’t think are in their everyday interests. Even Boston’s celebrated urban mechanic, however, misread the allure of casinos; restricting the vote to the East Boston did not produce his desired outcome.

The prospects for a statewide vote on the Olympics are a little murkier. Signature gathering alone would be a major challenge for opponents of the Olympics. And large financial backers would likely step forward to assist in mounting that type of effort or the inevitable Pittsfield-to-Provincetown marketing campaign that would follow. In 1972, Colorado voters turned down the honor (and potential costs) of hosting the 1976 Winter Olympics.

The No Boston Olympics contingent has more in common with the transportation advocates who tried and failed to preserve gas tax indexing last year. Those groups could not convince voters that potholes don’t magically fix themselves.

Boston 2024 has overwhelming firepower in the dialing for dollars department. The group raised $11 million just for the opportunity to put a plan before the IOC. Surely, there are millions more at the group’s disposal should a state referendum move from threat to reality.

Would the issue of spending state taxpayer dollars on a big metro Boston party be enough to derail the entire venture in a statewide referendum? With a multi-million budget deficit mess on its hands, the Baker administration has been silent on this latest wrinkle. Groups who experience funding cuts in the next round of fiscal trimming could also raise questions about the state getting put on the hook for any the Olympics costs.

Walsh doesn’t want his legacy or his first reelection campaign to rest entirely on whether or not the Olympics ends up in Boston. But at this point he seems to be all-in the effort to land the Games. The latest wrinkle: A report this morning from the Globe that the mayor “signed a formal agreement with the United States Olympic Committee that bans city employees from criticizing Boston’s bid for the 2024 Summer Games.”

The mayor’s rough news cycle that started over his views on a referendum may only be getting started.

–GABRIELLE GURLEY

BEACON HILL

Gov. Charlie Baker pegs the state’s deficit at $765 million, CommonWealth reports.

House Speaker Robert DeLeo tapped his campaign account for $200,000 last year to pay for legal advice during the Probation corruption trial, CommonWealth reports.

At least six bills were filed last week to address the issue of non-compete clauses in employment agreements, an issue that divides the business community and on which a compromise agreement faltered last year.

MUNICIPAL MATTERS

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is betting he can save money by spending money, ordering nearly $2 million worth of outside audits of city departments in an effort to identify inefficiencies in their operations.

The Quincy City Council is set to adopt tighter regulations on reflexology and bodyworks businesses in an effort to close down those that officials think are merely fronts for illegal sex operations.

The Stoughton Housing Authority has suspended its executive director without pay while it considers whether to fire him after he was caught on tape allegedly stealing the prescription medicine of a 90-year-old resident.

The Lynn City Council reviews zoning changes to spur housing construction, the Item reports.

Fall River Mayor Sam Sutter will meet with the City Council Wednesday to convince them he needs two new positions for former aides at the Bristol District Attorney office.

The Lowell City Council considers an overnight parking ban, the Sun reports.

OLYMPICS

WBUR reports that traffic congestion could actually ease during a Boston Olympics.

NATIONAL POLITICS/WASHINGTON

President Obama, in his penultimate State of the Union address, declared economic victory and laid out an ambitious agenda on paying for education, child care, family leave, middle-class tax cuts, and lifting the Cuban embargo, a set of priorities that the Republican-controlled Congress says ain’t gonna happen. The full text of the president’s speech is here.

Lane Glenn, the president of Northern Essex Community College, hails Obama’s call for free access to schools like his, the Eagle-Tribune reports.

Larry DiCara and Patrick Reynolds say American voters are looking for a man or woman on a horse for president in 2016.

BUSINESS/ECONOMY

Eleven of 12 footballs used by the New England Patriots in Sunday night’s game were underinflated, ESPN reports.

A Staples-Office Depot merger could be in the offing.

HEALTH CARE

An administrative arm of South Shore Hospital has agreed to a $1.8 million fine for paying illegal kickbacks to doctors to refer patients to the hospital’s specialists and affiliates, CommonWealth reports.

Vermont is further along that any other state in addressing drug addiction, Governing reports.

TRANSPORTATION

The Globe reports that 40 new commuter rail locomotives delivered to the MBTA last year at a cost of $222 million have been out of commission because of a potential problem with faulty ball bearings, a problem the T never disclosed until the paper learned about the problem last week.

The Steamship Authority is planning to move forward with an approximate 7 percent fare and parking hike for expected rising fuel costs, wages, a new ferry, and a new terminal, despite concerns from island residents who use the service saying they are already overburdened.

ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT

Kathryn Eiseman says the region doesn’t need new natural gas pipelines.

Quincy is the latest community to win its appeal of the new controversial federal flood zone maps, which drew many more homeowners and businesses into the floodplain costing them thousands of dollars more in insurance premiums,

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

A cardiac surgeon was shot and killed at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston by a man who then killed himself. The surgeon has operated last year on the assailant’s mother. Several doctors in the area react to the tragedy, fear of which, they say, often lurks in the back of their minds.

The Suffolk District Attorney’s office rules that the December 2013 fatal shooting by Boston police of an armed gang member who had shot at officers was justified.

Webster selectmen, calling their town a magnet for sex offenders most likely to reoffend, call for zoning changes restricting where sex offenders can live and walk, the Telegram & Gazette reports.

MEDIA

Dan Kennedy spotlights “three tales of woe” at three newly acquired GateHouse Media papers in Massachusetts.

The mayor of Paris says she is planning to sue Fox News after the network repeatedly aired comments from experts and anchors falsely stating that the city had Muslim “no-go” areas that non-Muslims would not venture into and are ruled by Sharia law. The network has aired an apology for the misstatements.