catcher_of_cats
Active Member
An individual who cannot name any of the 37 North and South American countries is truly ignorant.
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Toronto 2015 Pan American Games
- Thread starter FutureMayor
- Start date
An individual who cannot name any of the 37 North and South American countries is truly ignorant.
DavidJamesTO
Active Member
^^^ And can no longer complain about American school children not being able to find Canada on a map of Canada.
J
Janbe
Guest
We need to rally behind this bid. I ask everyone to talk up Toronto's 2015 Pan Am Games bid. We need to build domestic support for our bid. We need to win these games.
EnviroTO
Senior Member
We need to win these games? We already have the Maple Leafs, Blue Jays, and the Raptors and you can find far more people in the world who know what those things are than can tell you what the Pan Am Games are (almost none could tell you where the last one was held).
The facilities are going to be so spread out that if Toronto ever bids for an Olympics it will have to plan on building almost everything from scratch. If they were bidding for the Pan Am Games with a facility plan similar to the one proposed for Toronto 2008 then I would agree that it is worth winning. With the current plan Toronto still wouldn't be in a position to bid for the IAAF World Championships for Athletics. The only facility being built in Toronto is an aquatic centre way off the grid in Scarborough. I doubt Toronto could win an FINA World Aquatics Championships with a pool so far away from the hotels where the tourists would stay.
The athletes village in West Don Lands could end up screwing up the neighbourhood depending on the units created and the percentage of them used for public housing. If the governments involved build units on the cheap ending up with dorm room quality accomodations that will certainly have an impact on the future desirability of the neighbourhood.
The facilities are going to be so spread out that if Toronto ever bids for an Olympics it will have to plan on building almost everything from scratch. If they were bidding for the Pan Am Games with a facility plan similar to the one proposed for Toronto 2008 then I would agree that it is worth winning. With the current plan Toronto still wouldn't be in a position to bid for the IAAF World Championships for Athletics. The only facility being built in Toronto is an aquatic centre way off the grid in Scarborough. I doubt Toronto could win an FINA World Aquatics Championships with a pool so far away from the hotels where the tourists would stay.
The athletes village in West Don Lands could end up screwing up the neighbourhood depending on the units created and the percentage of them used for public housing. If the governments involved build units on the cheap ending up with dorm room quality accomodations that will certainly have an impact on the future desirability of the neighbourhood.
J
Janbe
Guest
These games are very important to Toronto.
MattB
New Member
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Why?
spaced
Active Member
Passing thought: I wonder if Canada slapping Mexicans with visa requirements will affect our chances.
drum118
Superstar
It will start a construction boom and will speed up projects that are in the pipe line that are schedule to open a year or 2 after 2015 without the games.
2 new LRT lines would open sooner than later to service some venues on those lines.
Toronto finally getting some thing.
MetroMan
Senior Member
Touring of venues from PanAm officials is going on today in Hamilton. Bid organizers interviewed just now on CHCH seemed very confident, almost assured that the Golden Horseshoe would get the bid.
TO City of Light
Active Member
This discussion in tone and substance is so Toronto.
In Europe over the past few weekends - and for most of the summer - crowds of more than 60,000 have packed stadiums to watch track and field - always a crowd pleaser at the Pan Ams. The highlight of these meets, of course, has been Usain Bolt and the rivalry between USA and Jamaica in the sprints.
In Wimbledon or the US Tennis Open, tickets to the finals are Stub Hub territory and cost thousands. Up at the Canadian Open last weekend, there were lots of good tickets for the finals available at the box office and plenty of empty seats at match time.
I am not certain that globally more people would know who the Raptors, Leafs and Blue Jays are than who Usain Bolt and Serena Williams are.
In the world of sports, just what do Torontonians get passionate about other than third rate hockey and perhaps fourth rate soccer?
For sports of any other issue, is there any consideration other than cost?
Can we hold an event which draws on a market bigger than southern Ontario?
Why are the national sports centres for Canada located anywhere but Toronto and why are Toronto and Ontario proportionately under-represented on elite level national sporting teams?
I am sure Toronto and region will get the Pan Ams, the alternatives are particularly weak this time around. Then we can expand this thread into a half decade long gripe session about costs, poor choice of venue locations, lack of interest, sure-fire failure, government bail-outs, how is it helping the poor, etc., etc.
.
In Europe over the past few weekends - and for most of the summer - crowds of more than 60,000 have packed stadiums to watch track and field - always a crowd pleaser at the Pan Ams. The highlight of these meets, of course, has been Usain Bolt and the rivalry between USA and Jamaica in the sprints.
In Wimbledon or the US Tennis Open, tickets to the finals are Stub Hub territory and cost thousands. Up at the Canadian Open last weekend, there were lots of good tickets for the finals available at the box office and plenty of empty seats at match time.
I am not certain that globally more people would know who the Raptors, Leafs and Blue Jays are than who Usain Bolt and Serena Williams are.
In the world of sports, just what do Torontonians get passionate about other than third rate hockey and perhaps fourth rate soccer?
For sports of any other issue, is there any consideration other than cost?
Can we hold an event which draws on a market bigger than southern Ontario?
Why are the national sports centres for Canada located anywhere but Toronto and why are Toronto and Ontario proportionately under-represented on elite level national sporting teams?
I am sure Toronto and region will get the Pan Ams, the alternatives are particularly weak this time around. Then we can expand this thread into a half decade long gripe session about costs, poor choice of venue locations, lack of interest, sure-fire failure, government bail-outs, how is it helping the poor, etc., etc.
.
Mystic Point
Active Member
Hopefully the Pan Am Officials will take one look at shabby decaying Toronto and hit the " eject " button. The last thing our sorry ass town needs is this sort of chaos.
SimplyOE
New Member
bastard!
ian
New Member
There have been many articles about how the lack of athletes from Ontario is directly related to our lack of facilities. (See this op-ed in the star for one example.) The Pan Am Games Bid is an effort to break this cycle by giving Ontario some better facilities. We can complain about individual venues, but our facilities are so far behind that any investment would help Ontario athletes.
Riverdale Rink Rat
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When two sides of the 'loser' spectrum collide...
... doesn't that mean the rest of us in the middle are probably right?
>> TO City of Light: We don't actually need to be the kings of any sport, thanks. We've already got facilities for those things we want to have facilities for. We need the Pan-Am games like we need a hole in the head.
>> Mystic Point: Toronto isn't shabby. It isn't decaying. It's -- in fact -- a beautiful place to live that's revitalizing it's shabbiest parts (Regent Park, Waterfront, Lower Don Lands, West Donlands) in massive size.
We don't need the Pan-Am games to tell us we're a cool place. We also don't need to denigrate the city just for the heck of it.
Peace.
... doesn't that mean the rest of us in the middle are probably right?
>> TO City of Light: We don't actually need to be the kings of any sport, thanks. We've already got facilities for those things we want to have facilities for. We need the Pan-Am games like we need a hole in the head.
>> Mystic Point: Toronto isn't shabby. It isn't decaying. It's -- in fact -- a beautiful place to live that's revitalizing it's shabbiest parts (Regent Park, Waterfront, Lower Don Lands, West Donlands) in massive size.
We don't need the Pan-Am games to tell us we're a cool place. We also don't need to denigrate the city just for the heck of it.
Peace.
TO City of Light
Active Member
Sigh....would that this were true. We both know that if the facilities were built there would be no money to operate/maintain them. And whatever little money is found would come at the expense of coaching, athlete support, paying down cost over-runs, etc. - a zero sum game.
While I am truly staggered by RRR's "logic", he/she is absolutely right about Toronto.
Why build anything? If we really wanted it we would have done so already.
We are so very cool. Some might call it complacency or smugness but in Toronto we call it cool.
Saying Toronto is not shabby or decaying is simply ripping off from Monty Python's dead parrot skit.