Toronto 2015 Pan American Games

[TOareaFan]

How much information does one ever put into delay announcements? It already seems more detailed than the information I get when my bus doesn't show up for 10 minutes.

If perhaps people were inconvenienced by this, perhaps I could understand. But since when isn't a 2-minute delay on GO not normal anyways!

It wasn't a delay announcement (in the traditional sense of it happening on the spot)....they told people last Thursday that the train would not be available.....the media didn't pick it up until the day but they went to the trouble of telling people last week and used those words...that is what I don't get.


Here is the quote from the story in the star on Tuesday:


"Late last week, GO Transit informed commuters that the 8:07 a.m. train from Port Credit to Union Station would be cancelled yesterday, due to "equipment not being available." "


http://www.thestar.com/article/689157

Again, you and I agree that the actual inconvenience is minimal....but to premeditate that sort of veiled/fuzzy language (to the general public) when the truth would have been fairly easy to swallow just seems bizarre to me.

 

[nfitz]

I don't disagree. And really, the optics are poor. Why GO couldn't find an extra train, or schedule the run out to Hamilton so it could have used the train after it arrived in Union is beyond me.

However, claiming I don't think that claiming that 1,600 people were fuming over a 2-minute delay is responsible journalism. I'd go as far as saying it is yellow journalism.

 

[Disparishun]

What's odd ... is frankly I have no recollection at all of Winnipeg hosting the Pan-Am games.

If you're old enough, you might even have no recollection of them hosting it twice.

 

[nfitz]

I didn't live in the Americas back then. And probably wouldn't have been able to remember that far back if I could. Oldest thing of that type I remember was the 1972 Munich games ... and perhaps only because of the massacre ... though perhaps not ... Spitz sticks in my mind.

 

[Logan]

I've got to say, this is the silliest out of a pretty silly bunch of criticisms. If you think Winnipeg hosting the Pan-Am Games makes it dinky, then just what does that make the Olympics (hello Sochi, Turin, Salt Lake City, Lake Placid, Albertville, Grenoble, etc., etc.)?

The Olympics are a global event watched by BILLIONS of people from every continent. You can't even compare that to the Pam Am games.

But hey, if you think this is going to put us on the map and rake in billions, then boast away! I really couldn't care less - that's how insignificant these games are.

 

[Disparishun]

If you think Winnipeg hosting the Pan-Am Games makes it dinky, then just what does that make the Olympics (hello Sochi, Turin, Salt Lake City, Lake Placid, Albertville, Grenoble, etc., etc.)?

The Olympics are a global event watched by BILLIONS of people from every continent. You can't even compare that to the Pam Am games.

You did not read very carefully, Logan. I was not comparing the Olympics to the Pan Am games. I was pointing out that judging the importance of Games by the size of the city hosting them is silly, since very small cities have hosted the Olympics.

Can you see how these things are different?

 

[nfitz]

... judging the importance of Games by the size of the city hosting them is silly, since very small cities have hosted the Olympics.

I can't think of any very small cities hosting the Summer Olympics. The winter games perhaps ... but that's a very different kettle of fish, given they tend to be held in winter resorts, historically ... though even the recent Winter Olympics have been in major 1-million+ cities such as Vancouver, Turin, Salt Lake City.

 

[Disparishun]

I can't think of any very small cities hosting the Summer Olympics. The winter games perhaps ... but that's a very different kettle of fish, given they tend to be held in winter resorts, historically ... though even the recent Winter Olympics have been in major 1-million+ cities such as Vancouver, Turin, Salt Lake City.

I don't understand. Do you really think that the prestige and success of the Olympics is due to the populations or world standing of the cities that host it?

I can't think of any very small cities hosting the Summer Olympics. The winter games perhaps ... but that's a very different kettle of fish, given they tend to be held in winter resorts, historically ... though even the recent Winter Olympics have been in major 1-million+ cities such as Vancouver, Turin, Salt Lake City.

Yes, you're right that, if you isolate it down to the Summer Games, the host cities have been larger ones, at least if you take metro area into account (Atlanta). As to Turin and Salt Lake City being major world cities -- well, they're certainly ahead of Sochi and Albertville and Lake Placid and Lillehammer, I agree, but they're no Rio de Janeiro!

 

[nfitz]

I don't understand. Do you really think that the prestige and success of the Olympics is due to the populations or world standing of the cities that host it?

Not at all. I was just challenging the claim that very small cities have hosted the Olympics.

 

[Disparishun]

Not at all. I was just challenging the claim that very small cities have hosted the Olympics.

... and, obviously, they have, though you can get a different answer by narrowing to the Summer Olympics.

 

[afransen]

Which he did, if you read his comment.

 

[GenerationW]

For you historians, if the Pan-Am Games are famous for anything, it is this notorious basketball incident.

Bobby Knight - Pan Am Mishap

In spite of the great academic successes he had at Indiana (and nearly all of his players graduated, far above the national average) the press preferred to highlight the dramatic—and occasionally violent—interactions between Knight on one hand and everyone else on the other. In 1979 at the Pan American Games, Knight, in a confrontation with a Puerto Rican police officer, punched the cop after Knight was ejected from a game on a technical foul. The Puerto Rican government then put out a warrant for Knight's arrest, but he could not be extradited from the U.S. In the late 1980s Puerto Rico recalled the warrant. Knight, quoted in Sports Illustrated at the time, said of the Puerto Ricans, "F—'em, f—'em all.… The only thing they know how to do is grow bananas."

 

[TOareaFan]

Calling BS on some things.

I spent a few minutes on the bid website and saw this opening paragraph on the village:

The newly-constructed Toronto 2015 Pan American Village will be located at the heart of the Games on an 80-acre site next to the Don River in Toronto’s waterfront district. The Village will be the Games-time home for up to 8,500 athletes and team officials, and will incorporate a full range of conveniences and amenities. Located just east of downtown Toronto, the Village is within 45 minutes of almost all Games venues and less than 25 minutes from the airport. All Village facilities in use during the Parapan American Games will be fully accessible and provide a barrier-free environment.

Unless they are going to give private direct GO trains (or the airport they are refering to is YTZ) those are just unachievable.....try getting to Hamilton (at any reasonable travel time) from the east side of Toronto's core in 45 minutes.......Pearson in 25 minutes?

I think we know, now, why they had to comandere a train, provide a helicopter and escort limo/buses......if any of those delegates had a stop watch and bid book in front of them they would have called BS on all the times (The Powerade Centre in 30 minutes from here???? As a Battalion season ticket holder I can tell you that it is not possible!).

 

[AKS]

maybe they will speed up construction of high speed rail? Not sure if the blue 22 will be done for 2015. I think it would be under 30 min for blue 22. If they're building high speed rail from toronto to hamilton and stuff, maybe it will be fast to get to places.

 

[MetroMan]

I spent a few minutes on the bid website and saw this opening paragraph on the village:

Quote:
The newly-constructed Toronto 2015 Pan American Village will be located at the heart of the Games on an 80-acre site next to the Don River in Toronto’s waterfront district. The Village will be the Games-time home for up to 8,500 athletes and team officials, and will incorporate a full range of conveniences and amenities. Located just east of downtown Toronto, the Village is within 45 minutes of almost all Games venues and less than 25 minutes from the airport. All Village facilities in use during the Parapan American Games will be fully accessible and provide a barrier-free environment.

Unless they are going to give private direct GO trains (or the airport they are refering to is YTZ) those are just unachievable.....try getting to Hamilton (at any reasonable travel time) from the east side of Toronto's core in 45 minutes.......Pearson in 25 minutes?

I think we know, now, why they had to comandere a train, provide a helicopter and escort limo/buses......if any of those delegates had a stop watch and bid book in front of them they would have called BS on all the times (The Powerade Centre in 30 minutes from here???? As a Battalion season ticket holder I can tell you that it is not possible!).

^ You're missing the entire point of this thread: getting the games will ensure that the infrastructure is built to meet these targets... and that infrastructure will remain in place long after the games are gone. Hence the positive legacy of hosting the PanAm games.

These are already projects in the works but they'll get fast tracked since there'll be a solid deadline to meet. Blue22 will reach YYZ in less than 25 minutes and improvements to GO can provide a quicker, more reliable trip to Hamilton.

If we get these games -- like it seems all but certain at this point -- we'll have struck the jackpot: A games event that's a tiny fraction of the cost to put on an Olympic games but will equally fast track waterfront development and transportation infrastructure.

In addition to all the other legacy benefits, if successfully held, we'll have the PanAm games on our resumé to bid for a future Olympics which will already have a lot of the work complete, will focus on Toronto alone and will put the eyes of the world on Toronto bringing in invaluable tourist advertising that money just can't buy.