Expansive, expensive Pan Am bid faces challenges
http://www.thestar.com/sports/article/640866
Real racing for the 2015 Pan American Games starts tomorrow in Mexico City when David Peterson hands in Toronto's bid book, a stylish and entertaining blend of fact and fancy.
It says Toronto on the cover, even though much of it is about Southern Ontario, from whitewater paddling in Minden to rowing in St. Catharines, canoeing in Welland, boxing in Oshawa and volleyball and (for some reason) track and field in Hamilton.
Originally, the book was to have been turned over to the Pan American Sports Organization a month ago, but tragedy struck. The young grandson of PASO head Mario Vazquez Rana was taken by the swine flu virus and, understandably, PASO business was suspended.
Premier Dalton McGuinty gets his copy officially today, which is fitting since it's Ontario on the hook for the inevitable cost overruns.
As always, it's an impressive document; Toronto never looks better than it does in these things – and there have been a few. Considering the project's $1.4 billion (at least) price tag, and lack of finality on plans at this point, it should look good.
If the Ontario bid ranks ahead of Bogota, Colombia, and Lima, Peru, at this point, that doesn't necessarily mean it will stay there. Toronto is playing a dangerous game right now and we could go from first place to third place faster than the Blue Jays just did.
For starters, does everyone know Toronto also is bidding on the 2015 World Police and Fire Games? For two years, the city has been working quietly on obtaining this 60-sport, 10-day fiesta for more than 10,000 athletes. Technically it isn't a competing event, in that it is not ticketed and doesn't require the massive security and so on. That said, it will compete for sponsorship dollars, media coverage and volunteers (and the Pan Ams will need 25,000 of those). Plus, even bidding for them hands a crowbar to Lima and Bogota and invites them to swing away.
In reality, Toronto is one of six bidding cities and this seems to be mostly a courtesy bid, holding space for a future try at an event that is more of a tourism boost (these cops and firefighters pay their own way and don't need a village built for them.) The head of the police games organization is from Fairfax County, Va., which just happens to be bidding, along with Sydney; Winnipeg; Pretoria, South Africa; and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, according to the organization's website. Still, bidding at the same time looks dumb, to say nothing of the waste of money.
More of a problem for Toronto's Pan Am bid might be the plan's vastness. The equestrian events in Caledon, mountain biking near Barrie, field hockey in Brampton and shooting in Ajax make sense. But the two major summer games endeavours are track and field and swimming and swimming has been slated for a new facility at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus, with track at a planned new football stadium in Hamilton. Those are 100 kilometres apart and mean long travel times from the athletes' village, to be built at the old Ataratiri site.
Why does Hamilton want a football stadium with a large running track around the field? One of the beauties of Ivor Wynne Stadium is its compact nature; fans are right on top of the field. Why lose that in a new place?
That's a local concern, obviously, one that can be rectified later. For the next six months, the focus is on PASO voters and how to impress them. They will be wooed this summer at the Caribbean games in Trinidad and Tobago in July, then at the IOC congress in Copenhagen in November, a month before the PASO vote in Guadalajara, Mexico, in November.
We're nowhere near the homestretch yet, but the time to win it – or lose it – starts now.
plus it could put us at centre stage for a future Olympic bid that we may actually win.
