XVII PanAmerican Games - Toronto 2015

[Canadian Chocho]

I am so pumped after Vancouver! I think we should have a thread for this, i mean it's only just 5 years away.

I don't really have anything to contribute atm so here's the site and some recent articles/columns.

www.toronto2015.org/

What Toronto can learn from the Olympics

Hey Toronto, want to host a spectacular, smoothly run, controversy-free international sporting event?

Time to start planning for the Pan American Games, which we will welcome from July 10 to 26, 2015.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/...rticle1483438/

Dispatches from Vancouver: But Where Would We Put Our Cauldron?

As the Vancouver Olympics wind down, and as Canadians prepare for what’ll be one of the biggest television events in our nation’s history, an errant Torontonian wandering the streets of Vancouver can’t help but look around and wonder, “Could we do this?”

http://torontoist.com/2010/02/but_wh...r_cauldron.php

[Skybean]

Who are the people who watch the Pan Am games?

I have never seen any Pan Am games broadcast on any sports network here in Canada.

[Canadian Chocho]

That's because they usually cheap out (networks) and just air highlights, like what they do with the Commonwealth Games.

The PanAms is kind of a big deal from Mexico down. I'm sure the Canadian athletes find it important too.

[Looking/Up]

Opening Ceremony: Fireworks off of the CN Tower

[Canadian Chocho]

Yeah man, screw CityPlace residents (seriously, having fireworks go off twice in a lifetime is really not that bad)

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by Skybean

Who are the people who watch the Pan Am games?

I have never seen any Pan Am games broadcast on any sports network here in Canada.

Sports people watch. It's only the over the top events like the Olympics that draw in regular people who aren't real sports fans. Take events like bobsleigh and long track speed skating at the Olympics. I follow these sports every season, but come the Olympics, the number of eyes observing it jumps 50 fold. They aren't fans of these sports, but tune in because its the Olympics.

The Pan Ams don't have the prestige of the Olympics, so most of the people who watch will be the real sports fans that follow swimming, track, volleyball, etc. every year. There will a significant jump in viewership, but nothing like what an Olympics can accomplish.

[Taller, Better]

Oh, God I seriously hope they give up that clichéd overwrought "cauldron" fantasy. Go back to a simple but elegant dish with the flame being the centre of attention, not the hydraulic Canada Arms(tm).

[sumisu]

any word on jobs for this thing?

[kapone]

Its all good, Pan Am Games are a stepping stone for the 2020 SUMMER Olympics in Toronto

[Canadian Chocho]

2020 is too early...IF we want to bid again we should at least wait for 2024. But I think we should see how the PanAms go first.

[InTheBeach]

Vancouver did a great job! Loved it, but then again, the sports in the winter games are more relevant to me.

Who cares about the pan-am games? Lots of sports nuts, sure, and that is great for them, but most people simply will not notice - even in Toronto.

The good thing that may come from this is civic planning (not pride - pretty tough to get all jones'd about it).

Should we go for the Olympics? Hell no. The summer games seem like a complete boondoggle to me.

We need to look for some other think big project that has a little more purpose.

[MarkHerz]

The tip of the CN Tower should be the cauldron!

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by MarkHerz

The tip of the CN Tower should be the cauldron!

They should use the top of the City Hall chamber. That round part between the 2 curved towers. People could get far closer to it.

[Steeltown]

The flame will actually get relocated from Skydome to the Pan American stadium in Hamilton during the two week event. The flame will than be relocated back to Skydome during the closing ceremony. It's protocol to have the flame at the main track and field event, which is in Hamilton.

So really the cauldron will be moving around or there will be two cauldrons one in Toronto and Hamilton, kinda like in Vancouver, two cauldrons.

[koolio]

I just hope that they don't televise someone carrying the flame all the way from the Skydome to the Hamilton stadium. That is going to be one long pickup ride

[ratoronto]

We need a solid 2015 to set up the holy grail: Toronto 2024 or Toronto 2028.

It's our turn.

[ssiguy2]

I never even knew there still the PanAm games.......I thought it sort of went the way of PanAm Airlines.
I think its a bad idea but the most basic question is whether Torontonians even want it.
The political leaders get all excited and the policy wonks do cartwhells but is the people of Toronto who will be paying for it and putting up with the dispruption.
There should be a plebicite at the next city election and if it passes then you can start the discussion not before.
Vancouver Olympics were very well done and something the city can truely be proud of but suppost for the Olympics was lowest in BC compared to any other province in the country and quite low in Metro Vancouver. It was great fun but the citizens of BC are the ones who going to be paying for these games for decades to come. The games have come in at $8 billion over budget and that is as of now, the real cost will continue to rise as all these "unexpected" bills start arriving.

[AndrewJM3D]

Originally Posted by ssiguy2

I never even knew there still the PanAm games.......I thought it sort of went the way of PanAm Airlines.
I think its a bad idea but the most basic question is whether Torontonians even want it.
The political leaders get all excited and the policy wonks do cartwhells but is the people of Toronto who will be paying for it and putting up with the dispruption.

Well I for one think it's a great thing. i could care less about the event itself, I'm more looking forward to the improvement to the infrastructure we'll see. Finally Toronto will get a much needed face-lift from the feds. Money that for years has been siphoned out of the city to support other regions and cities across Canada will be returned. The people of Toronto have already been paying for years and years and while other regions have benefited we've seen a noticeable decline in service and quality. While the event will be expensive to hold, we will only be getting new venues and improved public transit that we should have had years ago.

Metro Toronto Canada's largest city GTA population (2009) 5.5 million with a transit system that doesn't look so young anymore.

image hosted on flickr

[ssiguy2]

That's all well and good but that doesn't change the fact that no one has asked TORONTONIANS want they want not city hall or the construction companies want.

[AndrewJM3D]

Nobody has asked in a long time, mostly the feds. Over the past forty years Toronto's wealth has been pillaged and dolled out across this nation. If you ask any Torontonian if they'd like a cleaned up waterfront, better transit, and better funded facilities most would say that's all we've wanted for the longest time. If it takes these Pan Am Games to do it then so be it. Did anbody ask the people of Vancouver? There is probably more support here to host an international event then Vancouver had prior to the Olympics.

I'd like to ask you this: Do you have any clue what impact this will have on Toronto's Eastern waterfront? This will help transform an area in the matter of 4 years that would have taken decades to get done otherwise.