Toronto 2024 Olympic Bid

[Filip]

I think we have a great chance of winning our bid this time around. The summer games have not been in North America (the most lucrative time zones for big money US TV contracts) since Atlanta in 1996. That is 24 years. The USA is not bidding, South Africa just announced they will not be bidding. The only city bidding for now is Rome and Japan wants to announce a bid as well. Given what has happened, nobody sees it going through.

I think this may be our last chance to shine. Towered over on UT has a great synopsis of our situation:

It does seem that 2020 will be Toronto's last strong chance to win the games for a long time, for the following reasons:

- We no longer have a federal government that is hostile to Toronto, and vice versa.
- North America will not have hosted the games for 24 years by that point, their biggest tv and sponsorship market, and the US is not bidding, so for once, political reasons (continental rotation) would actually favour us.
- South America is hosting in 2016 (Rio), so the games won't go there in 2020.
- South Africa has pulled out of the race, which eliminates the crucial "first African Olympics" factor since no other country on that continent is capable of hosting.
- With London hosting in 2012, it will simply be too early to return to Europe.
- An Asian bid might give us competition, but it would be weak. After Beijing in 2008, Asia will have hosted much more recently than a North American city, and though there are rumblings that Tokyo will bid, I don't think there will be much support or desire for it after all the disasters they just went through. And although it's debatable how much influence winter games have on the summer games selection process, an Asian bid would likely be hurt further by Pyeongchang hosting the winter games in 2018, which is all but certain to happen. As for other Asian countries, I don't think any of them are ready to host such an extravagant event.
- An Australian bid could be a potential threat, but even they will have hosted more recently than North America, and the time zone they're in is very unappealing to the important global tv markets.

When you look at all those points, Toronto almost seems like a shoo-in. The only things that could hurt us would be perhaps the Vancouver winter games being held last year, Torontonians own apathy, and well, Rob Ford, whose support would probably be lukewarm in a best case scenario. I really can't picture him enthusiastically going to bat for us on this, no matter how good our chances might seem.

I honestly think if we wait until 2024, the golden opportunity will be gone. Asia and Europe will be back in play much more strongly, a first African games will be ever more overdue, and if Toronto doesn't bid for 2020, then no North American city will host that year, making our continent virtually guaranteed a victory in 2024, at which point the US will likely seek to host again, and if they win it, you can kiss a Toronto bid goodbye for at least another 16 years after that.

When you look at all that evidence and the way things are shaping up this year, it seems like the stars are aligning for us. I think it's 2020 or nothing. We won't get another strong shot within a time frame that is relevant to any of us.

I say we should resurrect all the aspects of John Bitove's excellent bid for 2008 that got Toronto such glowing reviews. Remember, we were widely considered to have the best technical bid by far, and only lost those Olympics due to political reasons.

I honestly feel like forwarding all my points to the Canadian Olympic Committee, but I'm sure they're well aware of all these things. I wouldn't be surprised if there were some serious discussions going on behind closed doors right now.

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The COC is apparently working on a Toronto 2020/2024 bid. I think 2020 is our best bet, by 2024 we may not have such an easy competition.

I would be turning 31 during these games... What a great time this would be to host the world.. Jeez if only.............

[MattToronto]

Is there a petition or a place of referral to get the ball rolling?

[Innsertnamehere]

this would be way better than the police and fire games. and the pan-am games. and if the federal government backed this, expect a lot of new transit upgrades for Toronto

[Filip]

Originally Posted by MattToronto

Is there a petition or a place of referral to get the ball rolling?

Last I heard the COC is working on a bid. The deadline to submit a bid is Sept 1, 2011. So, in the next few months we should know if Canada is submitting our city to run for the games.

[Marcanadian]

Does Ford support an Olympic bid? If he supports the Police and Fire Games, I don't see why he wouldn't support the Olympics. Plus, our hosting of the Pan Am Games will definitely appease the IOC.

[Filip]

Ford is probably already well aware that the COC is preparing a bid. He is most definitely salivating.. All that sport, a brand new 85-100k stadium for his future NFL team and a whole lot of sporting infrastructure.

Ford couldn't be a happier man than to push for the OG.

[flesh_is_weak]

Olympics are no fun, how about an Expo instead?

[MattToronto]

I don't think we'd get a new stadium, rather Roger's Centre would get a huge overhaul. Similar to Vancouver.

[Filip]

Originally Posted by MattToronto

I don't think we'd get a new stadium, rather Roger's Centre would get a huge overhaul. Similar to Vancouver.

Not a chance. Rogers Centre is way too small, you'd need to add about 20-30 thousand seats for Rogers Centre to be a decent Olympic Stadium.

The Winter Olympics have never had these kinds of requirements. That's why they're the second rate olympics, and significantly cheaper to host.

[isaidso]

Yep, you'd have to get rid of the entire lower bowl just to fit an athletics track in there. Even then it might not fit. There is no way on earth that Toronto will win a bid without a brand new 80,000+ seat stadium. I'd love a Summer Olympics, but the stadium would likely end up being a white elephant. Toronto could do with a 40,000 seat football specific stadium, but nothing larger. Any Olympic stadium would need to have a design that allows it to be downsized to 40,000 after the games.

Btw, there's nothing 2nd rate about the Winter Olympics. They're just smaller.

[AndrewJM3D]

Originally Posted by flesh_is_weak

Olympics are no fun, how about an Expo instead?

Agreed, F*%K the Olympics, what a waste of money.

[casanova]

Originally Posted by AndrewJM3D

Agreed, F*%K the Olympics, what a waste of money.

Toronto already has placed a bid for the World Expo and embarrassingly canceled the bid. The amount of money to be spent on it was not worth the benefits. They opted out for the 2015 Pan American Games instead.

Trust me, the World Expo is not on top of the city's agenda of world events they'd love to host. The Olympics are next in line after the Pan Am Games.

[allurban]

It will be interesting to see what happens. Right now the 2018 winter Olympic games is down to three cities.

As for the 2020 summer games, in the absence of a bid from any other North American city, Toronto might have a good chance. It appears that Rome, Baku Brisbane, and Istanbul are also interested.

Also interesting to note that there may be strong interest in having the games in an African country - perhaps they will end up in South Africa.

Cheers, m

[flesh_is_weak]

Originally Posted by casanova

The amount of money to be spent on it was not worth the benefits. They opted out for the 2015 Pan American Games instead.

Trust me, the World Expo is not on top of the city's agenda of world events they'd love to host. The Olympics are next in line after the Pan Am Games.

surprising, coz i dont see how anyone outside of the american continent would be interested in the pan am games...and besides, if you check the competition, toronto was an obvious winner, bidding against third world cities

[TampaMike]

North America might be interesting because some are still pissed that we Rio was picked over Chicago. Many thought that Chi-town put together an amazing bid package and showed a lot of excitement for the Game to only be told "no". I still expect some cities will bid from the US, but the committee may tell them not until the next one.

[isaidso]

Originally Posted by flesh_is_weak

surprising, coz i dont see how anyone outside of the american continent would be interested in the pan am games...and besides, if you check the competition, toronto was an obvious winner, bidding against third world cities

The Pan Ams are only open to countries from America so it definitely only has regional appeal. Btw, Lima and Bogota aren't considered 3rd world.

[Nouvellecosse]

So just refresh me.

Why exactly are we sure no other NA city will be bidding?

[metroboi_nay]

After the USA losing to London for 2012, and then Chicago for 2016, I beleive the USOC said they won't be bidding for a while. It was pretty sad to see Chicago dropped at the first round. Many were in shock actually, as myself.

I doubt Toronto will go for 2020, but the logo could be interesting and fit really well.

"20ron20"

Ok I know it won't be like that, but you get where I'm going

[Taller, Better]

Politics plays such a HUGE role in the selection of the "winner" that the entire bidding process is merely advertising for the Olympics. I'm not entirely convinced that corruption and vote buying has disappeared, either.
Also I don't care for the way the voting happens. Every little country in Europe and Africa gets an individual vote (whether they have any more than one athlete participating or not), and giant unions like the USA and Canada (composed of States, not individual countries) get only one vote each. It is wildly stacked.

[AndrewJM3D]

Originally Posted by flesh_is_weak

surprising, coz i dont see how anyone outside of the american continent would be interested in the pan am games...and besides, if you check the competition, toronto was an obvious winner, bidding against third world cities

Lima is not 3rd world.

Hopefully we will have a nice waterfront for our bid.