Some of Boston’s neighboring cities are also expressing concerns about the enterprise. Last month, the City Council in Cambridge, where various events would be staged, passed a measure instructing its officials not to spend any time or resources on Olympic planning. The councilman who introduced the measure, Timothy Toomey, called the idea of Boston’s hosting the Olympics “insane.”

Whether all this adds up to a scuttled bid or just a bump in the road remains to be seen. Other cities, including London, have started out with skeptical citizens only to see support increase as more information is shared and plans are completed.

The promoters of the Olympic bid, called Boston 2024, held their first meeting on Wednesday for the general public. A few hundred people attended. Most seemed to be supporters or came to learn more; there were some skeptical questions but no disruptions from opponents.

The Boston 2024 committee put on a professional show, setting the stage with a stirring video that it showed the U.S.O.C. last month. It then shared details of the bid that had led to Boston’s selection on Jan. 8 as America’s entry over Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington.

The committee was well aware of criticism that it had not been transparent and said that was a thing of the past.

“My apologies for a process that until now, a proof-of-concept process, where there wasn’t as much outreach as there should have been, as there might have been,” Dan O’Connell, president of Boston 2024, told the audience. “But you have our pledge going forward that this will be a fully transparent process as we put the actual bid together.”

Many questions concerned the financing for the Games and the potential for cost overruns, a hallmark of virtually every Olympics in the modern era.