Kitsune
Senior Member
.. it must help that Africa has said no to a 2028 bid. Either the 2024 or 2028 games will be in North America now. That would give Toronto two shots if required.
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Toronto 2024 Olympic Bid (Dead)
- Thread starter Southcore
- Start date
animatronic
Senior Member
Not if LA wins.
MetroMan
Senior Member
We have a slight edge over LA in that we're in the Eastern US time zone. It's the most desirable time zone from a TV ratings perspective that evenly covers Europe and the Americas.
We've also never hosted and are an IOC favourite. If we don't get this in 2024, I think it'll be because it's Europe's turn, not because LA will beat us. If we can get over this reluctant should we/shouldn't we state that our government officials are in, then we have a very good shot at winning the bid for 2024 or 2028 if we use an unsuccessful bid as a springboard for the next shot.
We've also never hosted and are an IOC favourite. If we don't get this in 2024, I think it'll be because it's Europe's turn, not because LA will beat us. If we can get over this reluctant should we/shouldn't we state that our government officials are in, then we have a very good shot at winning the bid for 2024 or 2028 if we use an unsuccessful bid as a springboard for the next shot.
animatronic
Senior Member
$20 says we won't be on the ballot
Juan_Lennon416
Senior Member
An Olympian effort’s beyond us, for now: James
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2015/09/04/an-olympian-efforts-beyond-us-for-now-james.html
Even Games boosters should know it’s best not to start down the road of a half-hearted, doomed Olympics bid, writes Royson James.
By: Royson James Toronto Politics, Published on Fri Sep 04 2015
L.A.’s doing it right — the bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, that is.
Their city council gave the initiative unanimous consent this week. Go get it, guys, was the sentiment expressed in a West Coast can-do vote of confidence.
Here, with two weeks to go before a letter of intent is required to tell the International Olympic Committee that Toronto is interested in contemplating a bid, city council, and citizens — even the usual characters who often wave the city’s flag on such endeavours — are, well, almost comatose.
The editorial cartoon in Thursday’s Star aptly captures this reality. As competing cities flex to “set” mode, ahead of the starter’s pistol going off, our guy is still in his warm-up sweats.
Let’s just forget the whole thing, people. We’re not ready for prime time.
The mayor who must sign the letter? He has a donor for the $150,000 required to send off the letter, but not much else. He’s musing that the private sector, not his taxpayers, must pay the up to $60 million estimated cost of staging the bid — but it’s not like he has amassed a team of corporate bigwigs as backers.
This is no way to pursue the world’s largest and most costly shindig.
To win — to play the IOC game and “bribe” unashamedly, using all your political, business and lineage and centuries-old alliances and IOUs — requires a certain worldliness matched with old-world charm. Our guys tend to be buttoned-down barristers armed with briefcases and sharp pencils.
Arrggggh!
We understand the money concerns. We get the desire to have the private sector pay for the bid when the money changers stand to reap the benefits, such as they are. But to be haggling over that now, days from the starting gate, when the journey’s cost is counted in billions, is to demonstrate a certain unpreparedness.
If you have to hit up your aunt and cousins and neighbours for the down payment on the house, you likely can’t afford to buy it, much less pay the upkeep.
If you’ve just owned a Honda, successfully, and you want to upgrade to a Lamborghini but can’t even state why, expect the aunts and uncles to balk when you show up asking for help with the down payment.
I don’t blame the mayor for being in a quandary. It’s not his idea, this potential Olympic bid. Whether it should be is another matter. He didn’t campaign on it. City staff did not list it as a civic priority. The business community had not identified it as a deliverable when they voted for him. And the public — consumed with commuting woes, lack of housing and non-existent job security — didn’t even give it a second thought until everyone got caught up and carried away by the exuberance of a successful Pan Am games.
I love the idea of an Olympics in Toronto.
I believe my fellow citizens are up to the task of staging the “best Games ever.”
I know the GTA is in need of the infrastructure upgrades that will flow from hosting the world.
And I am confident such spending, and urgency of task, and guaranteed completion date will never be there, except when matched with such a catalyst.
But facts are facts. This is a risky venture. It takes careful, consistent, resolute management and oversight to keep the enterprise from going haywire. The margin of error is slim. It requires an Olympian effort — one obviously not contemplated in Toronto.
You don’t show up to the starting gate of an Olympic event — matched against the world’s best competition — without putting in years of toil and training and preparation.
As an Olympics booster, it’s painful to admit: Toronto’s not ready. Let’s drop this before we are embarrassed.
If the private sector bankrolls the bid then taxpayers are losing nothing by trying. But why throw away money when we’re so obviously unprepared. A more convenient time, yes. Our citizens, contented and self-satisfied as they are, will have to be jerked out of their complacency to care and clamour and advocate for something as bodacious as an Olympics.
The right catalyst will come someday. We are far from that point today.
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2015/09/04/an-olympian-efforts-beyond-us-for-now-james.html
Even Games boosters should know it’s best not to start down the road of a half-hearted, doomed Olympics bid, writes Royson James.
By: Royson James Toronto Politics, Published on Fri Sep 04 2015
L.A.’s doing it right — the bid for the 2024 Olympic Games, that is.
Their city council gave the initiative unanimous consent this week. Go get it, guys, was the sentiment expressed in a West Coast can-do vote of confidence.
Here, with two weeks to go before a letter of intent is required to tell the International Olympic Committee that Toronto is interested in contemplating a bid, city council, and citizens — even the usual characters who often wave the city’s flag on such endeavours — are, well, almost comatose.
The editorial cartoon in Thursday’s Star aptly captures this reality. As competing cities flex to “set” mode, ahead of the starter’s pistol going off, our guy is still in his warm-up sweats.
Let’s just forget the whole thing, people. We’re not ready for prime time.
The mayor who must sign the letter? He has a donor for the $150,000 required to send off the letter, but not much else. He’s musing that the private sector, not his taxpayers, must pay the up to $60 million estimated cost of staging the bid — but it’s not like he has amassed a team of corporate bigwigs as backers.
This is no way to pursue the world’s largest and most costly shindig.
To win — to play the IOC game and “bribe” unashamedly, using all your political, business and lineage and centuries-old alliances and IOUs — requires a certain worldliness matched with old-world charm. Our guys tend to be buttoned-down barristers armed with briefcases and sharp pencils.
Arrggggh!
We understand the money concerns. We get the desire to have the private sector pay for the bid when the money changers stand to reap the benefits, such as they are. But to be haggling over that now, days from the starting gate, when the journey’s cost is counted in billions, is to demonstrate a certain unpreparedness.
If you have to hit up your aunt and cousins and neighbours for the down payment on the house, you likely can’t afford to buy it, much less pay the upkeep.
If you’ve just owned a Honda, successfully, and you want to upgrade to a Lamborghini but can’t even state why, expect the aunts and uncles to balk when you show up asking for help with the down payment.
I don’t blame the mayor for being in a quandary. It’s not his idea, this potential Olympic bid. Whether it should be is another matter. He didn’t campaign on it. City staff did not list it as a civic priority. The business community had not identified it as a deliverable when they voted for him. And the public — consumed with commuting woes, lack of housing and non-existent job security — didn’t even give it a second thought until everyone got caught up and carried away by the exuberance of a successful Pan Am games.
I love the idea of an Olympics in Toronto.
I believe my fellow citizens are up to the task of staging the “best Games ever.”
I know the GTA is in need of the infrastructure upgrades that will flow from hosting the world.
And I am confident such spending, and urgency of task, and guaranteed completion date will never be there, except when matched with such a catalyst.
But facts are facts. This is a risky venture. It takes careful, consistent, resolute management and oversight to keep the enterprise from going haywire. The margin of error is slim. It requires an Olympian effort — one obviously not contemplated in Toronto.
You don’t show up to the starting gate of an Olympic event — matched against the world’s best competition — without putting in years of toil and training and preparation.
As an Olympics booster, it’s painful to admit: Toronto’s not ready. Let’s drop this before we are embarrassed.
If the private sector bankrolls the bid then taxpayers are losing nothing by trying. But why throw away money when we’re so obviously unprepared. A more convenient time, yes. Our citizens, contented and self-satisfied as they are, will have to be jerked out of their complacency to care and clamour and advocate for something as bodacious as an Olympics.
The right catalyst will come someday. We are far from that point today.
Last edited by a moderator:
Tewder
Senior Member
So there are three camps now: the pro, the anti, and the 'not capable' camps. Not sure I'm liking the cynical, defeatist tone of this last one, there's more than a tinge of self-loathing to it all. I'd truly hate to see the vision of Toronto that lurks in their minds.
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
It would have been more convincing if he didn't write this less than a month ago:
http://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2015/08/07/bring-on-the-olympics.html
Clearly, resolution starts from the personal - and it's of course interesting to see LA going for it, as if they already had all their problems solved, per Royson.
AoD
Juan_Lennon416
Senior Member
Ha...he went from "Go for it" to "Let’s drop this before we are embarrassed" in such a short time frame
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Pretty pathetic, if you ask me. It's like someone on a high diving platform, looked down, got scared and went home. Kind of typical, really.
AoD
animatronic
Senior Member
Been a quiet weekend so far-any updates to your prediction?
MetroMan
Senior Member
No news this weekend is good news for those who want to see us bid. The long weekend was Tory's shot to bury it. Whatever he announces next week will be in the spotlight.
Juan_Lennon416
Senior Member
Not necessarily and I would refrain from jumping to conclusions.
cornflakes
New Member
Maybe this means Toronto's subway system will get a huge upgrade.
animatronic
Senior Member
No chance. LRT certainly but not enough time to start any subway expansion from scratch.
Tewder
Senior Member
He was asked to jump to a conclusion.