Toronto 2015 Pan American Games

[Marko]

If you had the ultimate choice, where (out of the follow locations only)would you place the Hamilton Pan Am Stadium:

Bayfront/West Harbour (favoured location)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...7222,-79.873052&spn=0.009578,0.02738&t=h&z=16

Confederation Park
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...45015,-79.74967&spn=0.009581,0.02738&t=h&z=16

Airport
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...1429,-79.929442&spn=0.019189,0.05476&t=h&z=15

Why is it a choice of only these 3 locations?

I think Confederation should be choice #1. The highway visibility, access and lakefront placement would have the most cache and class when shown on TV, etc...

Tiffany Street as #2, though this is a half-assed attempt at locating 'downtown'. If it was a truly downtown location then it would be choice #1.

The airport location should not be a consideration at all, IMO.

Honestly, they should dig it right into that hunk of land that is Harbourfront Park just north of the Tiffany site - I've thought this for at least a decade. The park and itself would be extended due to digging the stadium down and into the center, and this would be a real showpiece location... the equivalent of Toronto putting a stadium where the island airport is now, except with a land link. They can put some parking and other neighborhood development at Tiffany, and build a cool pedestrian bridge across the tan tracks to the stadium.

 

[Disparishun]

For all of us former competitive swimmers, the news that there will be a proper world class facility here in Toronto is all I needed to hear to get excited about Toronto getting these games. It's long overdue.

This is huge in the swimming world.

I am curious about this, too. What is wrong with the Etobicoke Olympium and Douglas Snow, etc., that prevents world class training? I remember both very well from the few years that, as a kid, I swam with NYAC -- but didn't know enough about competitive swimming then or now to catch what you are referring to.

 

[DSC]

(GEORGE SMITHERMAN, MPP TORONTO CENTRE Invites you to view the model of the Pan Am Games Athlete Village to be built in the West Don Lands at Gibsone Jessop Gallery, 55 Mill Street, (Distillery District) on SUNDAY November 29 from noon-6pm.

 

[threnody]

If you had the ultimate choice, where (out of the follow locations only)would you place the Hamilton Pan Am Stadium:

Bayfront/West Harbour (favoured location)
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...7222,-79.873052&spn=0.009578,0.02738&t=h&z=16

Confederation Park
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...45015,-79.74967&spn=0.009581,0.02738&t=h&z=16

Airport
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sou...1429,-79.929442&spn=0.019189,0.05476&t=h&z=15

I definitely prefer the first, but I'm partial to downtowns in general. Plus it will be just a couple of blocks from the James Street North GO Station, which will hopefully have all-day service by then.

 

[TOareaFan]

A hint at the squabbling that is ahead.....

.....http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/marianne_meedward/2009/11/25/11915426-sun.html

People in Burlington are opposing the location of a Pan Am games soccer facility in their area.

The usual nuggets of wisdom/oppostion:

1.....no place for a "huge" stadium (it holds 2,500 people)
2.....why are we spending $23 million on a stadium when our hospital needs $60 million.....might be true but these funds are for the Pan Ams not hospitals....if Burlington says no to this stadium it does mean they can transfer the $23 million to their hospital....they will just transfer it to a different community.

they will not be the last people to have this sort of fight as we get ready for these games.

 

[afransen]

The world is full of stupid people.

 

[Marko]

I'm sure Mississauga would love to have that $23 million to put towards a stadium. There's plenty of land by the Hershey Centre, or across the 403 by Tomken & Eastgate, or even in the MCC if they thought it could house the Argos or another permanent tenant.

People of Burlington - you either take the stadium or get nothing. Your choice.

 

[Tewder]

.....http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/marianne_meedward/2009/11/25/11915426-sun.html

People in Burlington are opposing the location of a Pan Am games soccer facility in their area.

The usual nuggets of wisdom/oppostion:

1.....no place for a "huge" stadium (it holds 2,500 people)
2.....why are we spending $23 million on a stadium when our hospital needs $60 million.....might be true but these funds are for the Pan Ams not hospitals....if Burlington says no to this stadium it does mean they can transfer the $23 million to their hospital....they will just transfer it to a different community.

they will not be the last people to have this sort of fight as we get ready for these games.

I can't tell you just how parochial and nimby-esque Burlington can be. In my experience, however, it is usually the same small cabal of seniors in town who have nothing but time on their hands to sit around and obsess over why all available funds aren't being directed at them personally, and pester local council over their most trivial of grievances and concerns. Fortunately this demographic is changing here - thankfully in large part to a lot of younger people who have moved here from Toronto - and Burlington has managed to forge on with some vision here and there. Unlike former mayor Macisaac, however, the current administration has not shown itself very progressive or very friendly to the idea of urbanization in Burlington. I hope it is an overarching trend that will happen inevitably in the long run despite mixed municipal efforts.

 

[Kiwi]

It was reported on CHCH News that Burlington has found and approved a new place for the new soccer field.

 

[EnviroTO]

They have decided Dundas and Kearns Road is their preferred location. Now nobody will be able to see the events there without a car. Great plan. Why bother building it in Burlington at all? Put it at Allan Lamport Stadium instead.

 

[GraphicMatt]

Jesus Christ, Burlington is retarded. As if putting the McMaster campus near a QEW off-ramp wasn't bad enough.

Wal-mart sure got a prime location right by the GO station, though!

 

[W. K. Lis]

They have decided Dundas and Kearns Road is their preferred location. Now nobody will be able to see the events there without a car. Great plan. Why bother building it in Burlington at all? Put it at Allan Lamport Stadium instead.

Lets see. 1.1 people per car is the average number of humans carried in an automobile, but give them the benefit of the doubt and say 2 people per car. Unless they really plan for buses right now, the parking lot will be a desert after the games.

 

[Tewder]

Jesus Christ, Burlington is retarded. As if putting the McMaster campus near a QEW off-ramp wasn't bad enough.

Wal-mart sure got a prime location right by the GO station, though!

Yep, you're absolutely right. This is all per the new council. The old one fought Walmart and wanted the Mac campus downtown Burlington.

 

[Tacoma]

There's an article in the Jan 2010 Toronto Life called The Age of Spectacle by David Macfarlane that discusses this topic and one line that stuck insofar as unreasonable expectations go, and I quote:

"And while the games’ supporters envision enormous benefits, it’s worth remembering that Winnipeg has twice hosted the Pan Am Games—in 1967 and in 1999. And Winnipeg is still Winnipeg."

As I read this thread and people here talking about all these benefits, I can't help now but think of this line which I found kind of funny if not truthful (with no slight to Winnipeg, of course!).

 

[jn_12]

After the games, Toronto will still be Toronto. What's your point? No one here has suggested Toronto will rival New York, London and Tokyo once the games come and go.