News   Dec 20, 2024
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Toronto 2024 Olympic Bid (Dead)

Otherwise, what are our options? Downsview, Mr Christies...?

Not going to happen - but the Island Airport would have offered a huge site as well.

There is a Port Lands Study somewhere out there and I don't know if an Olympic Stadium will be part of the vision

The only extant plan that is relatively advanced is for the Lower Don Lands/Villers Island Precinct, basically everything west of Don Roadways and north of the Shipping Channel. This is dictated by the rerouting of Don mouth. The actual plan for the precinct can be modified of course.

http://www.portlandsconsultation.ca/node/18

And a pretty good presentation of the area: http://portlandsconsultation.ca/sites/all/themes/portlands/files/Port Lands Charrette APPENDIX B_sm.pdf

And the original Fung report for the waterfront (which kickstarted WT) also foresee the stadium in the Portlands, part and parcel of the 2008 bid:

http://www1.toronto.ca/city_of_toronto/waterfront_secretariat/files/pdf/torontow2.pdf (p. 47 - 27 of the PDF)

AoD
 
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Toronto has an opportunity to present a fairly centralized bid, with the IOC-friendly skyline view behind the stadium, etc.. (this is all marketing).
Firstly. I don't think Toronto has the stomach to have an Olympics given all the "Pan Scam" whiners right now. There will be a lot of "No! No! Nien! Never! Boondoggle!" whining.

Now that aside, we win "TORONTO 2024" and it's coming like a freight train on a railroad...

Then my take -- do not leave Hamilton out.

We have to milk existing facilities including the new soccer/football stadium we have here in Hamilton. The brand new Tim Horton's field now being used for Pan Am Soccer, glitches and all, meets the necessary world class criteria and has capacity for temporary end-zone seating for a temporary expansion of attendance to a quoted 40,000 people, which is bigger than London 2012's smallest soccer field. We can handle being one of the fields for the soccer events. London Olympics 2012 needed six soccer fields. Toronto 2024 will require multiple, too.

By 2024, we will have 15-min electricified service to Burlington, and the Hamilton LRT should be running (if not delayed). We essentially set hard-deadlines for these infrastructure megaprojects announced, and help ensure that these needed infrastructure projects happen. That in itself, is very worth the price of Hamilton's participation, putting ourselves accountable to the currently-promised transit projects, like GO RER and the LRTs.

Maybe don't bring Olympics yet -- population is a bit too skeptical due to world sports scandals --

But if it happens.... then TORONTO 2024 definitely must include HAMILTON!
 
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I think involving Hamilton is a given - it was even proposed in the 2008 bid (though in a very limited way, I think it was just boxing at Copps?).

AoD
 
I like our chances better in this race compared to 2008. But you have to think the IOC will want to go back to Europe. Will they go three consecutive Summer Olympics outside of Europe? (Rio 2016, Tokyo 2020, 2024 Europe or North America?)

Isn't London considered to be part of Europe, geographically speaking at least? Regardless, it's like 2 hours from Paris so I think it's difficult to argue that the they haven't hosted the Olympics in 'that part of the world' lately. Toronto's turn!
 
An Olympic stadium at the Eastern Channel with a bridge to the islands and LRT connection down Cherry would be hard to turn down. Usually Olympic parks are in rather nondescript areas far from the city centre. A Portlands site would offer some pretty spectacular helicopter shots for TV.
 
Then my take -- do not leave Hamilton out.

We have to milk existing facilities including the new soccer/football stadium we have here in Hamilton. The brand new Tim Horton's field, glitches and all, meets the necessary world class criteria and has capacity for temporary end-zone seating for a temporary expansion of attendance to a quoted 40,000 people, which is bigger than London 2012's smallest soccer field. We can handle being one of the fields for the soccer events. London Olympics 2012 needed six soccer fields. Toronto 2024 will require multiple, too.

By 2024, we will have 15-min electricified service to Burlington, and the Hamilton LRT should be running (if not delayed). We essentially set hard-deadlines for these infrastructure megaprojects announced, and help ensure that these needed infrastructure projects happen. That in itself, is very worth the price of Hamilton's participation.

Don't bring Olympics yet -- population is a bit too skeptical due to world sports scandals --

But if it happens.... then TORONTO 2024 includes HAMILTON!

Full disclosure: mdrejhon lives in Hamilton
 
I would think NBC would be ecstatic about the Olympics in Toronto - in the Eastern Time Zone, only an hour from New York, lots of skilled tv people here already, no language barrier. They hold a lot of weight with the IOC. The biggest negative I see would be the stadium - other than they Olympics, what would it be for? Although if it could be reconfigured for baseball, the Jays could move there, and out of the Skydome which is already really long in the tooth as stadiums go.
 
The biggest negative I see would be the stadium - other than they Olympics, what would it be for? Although if it could be reconfigured for baseball, the Jays could move there, and out of the Skydome which is already really long in the tooth as stadiums go.

TFC. BMO field is bit of a joke in the long run.

AoD
 
Leveraging that 2008 bid, if there were venues at Ont Place, TO Islands(?), Ex and Rogers centre - and athletes village (plus venues) at Portlands. The City may also repurpose a ferry to do a circuit of those cites as an additional way to get athletes and fans to the events. Maybe even throw in an express ferry from/to Hamilton - and Oshawa if they also have venues.

Might be a waste of $$ since you'd need to build appropriate docks for the ferries, and I doubt it would be sustainable afterwards.
 
Leveraging that 2008 bid, if there were venues at Ont Place, TO Islands(?), Ex and Rogers centre - and athletes village (plus venues) at Portlands. The City may also repurpose a ferry to do a circuit of those cites as an additional way to get athletes and fans to the events. Maybe even throw in an express ferry from/to Hamilton - and Oshawa if they also have venues.

Might be a waste of $$ since you'd need to build appropriate docks for the ferries, and I doubt it would be sustainable afterwards.

Actually something similar was proposed in 2008 - the local venues in TO have ferry service, though the main link is the rail line between the Ex-Union-Cherry

Toronto2008.png

(From SSC)

AoD
 
YA, I sorta realized after I posted that I recalled seeing some red dotted lines. Braindead today, too much weekend fun.

A month ago I was against an Olympic proposal (and Pan Ams) but the cynic in me sees it as the path of least resistance to QQE LRT, DRL and kickstarting the Portlands.

We always talk and debate this stuff to death with very little actually accomplished, unfortunately these big events seem to be the only way to get the 3 levels of Government to open their chequebooks for these major initiatives. Wish it wasn't this way, but it seems to be reality.
 

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