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I said my piece in 2011.
Athletes haven't moved between the villages and venues unsecured since 1972. If there was transit, it would have to be locked down for the duration. No nation wants to be the next Munich.
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The Summer Olympics are attainable by Toronto, but whether they are worthwhile to obtain is a different question.
I don't wish to visit that issue at length here, but rather, I'll note the often suggested benefits (new sports facilities, new affordable housing, new transit and sprucing up the community, along with tourism/branding benefits are all a bit questionable.
What's questionable is whether the sports facilities will be maintained (many are not in Olympic hosts cities), whether those facilities will benefit a broad swath of the community or solely elite athletes, and whether we couldn't just build the housing and the transit more cheaply, if it were built w/o the fanfare and cost of the olympics and perhaps be better sited as well.
There's also the question of whether the global exposure has a material, lasting impact on tourism.
The pros/cons are laid out quite well in this report by the Council on Foreign Relations:
The Economics of Hosting the Olympic Games
The costs of hosting the Olympics have skyrocketed, while the economic benefits are far from clear. This has led to fewer states interested in playing host and a search for options to lighten the bur…www.cfr.org
So, they could build the village in the middle of nowhere? Sounds like a great way to build a planned community.
I don't know. Other events, such as Pan-am, Commonwealth, etc. likely have a different security profile than the Olympics. Depending on the security arrangements, if they were the buses were possibly escorted.
I wish!
You could build an athletes village in Downsview….or the island airport. I think the Portlands would be built out. You have existing arenas and stadiums that could be used or upgraded. Sailing in Kingston, canoeing and rowing in St Catherine’s , equestrian in Caledon, road races around Queens Park (providing they tidy the place up) , you would need a new Olympic Stadium, so plunk that where Vaughn Mills is now, build a copy of AT & T Stadium, and post Olympics, say hello to your new NFL franchise….does this help at all?
I never thought of the actual Olympic Stadium. How large of one typically is needed? How large of one currently exists in the area?
Typically 80k-100k seats. NFL sized, not MLB.
Plus an Olympic-grade track and field venue, aquatic venue, cycling venue, white water venue. It goes on and on.
Whitewater in Minden Ontario, Track and Field at the Skydome, unless baseball is an Olympic sport, you have the Etobicoke Olympic pool already, there is a cycling veledrome in Milton, there are a variety of University venues in Toronto, Hamilton, Guelph, the arena in Hamilton….we have a lot of facilities that could be adopted and upgraded for an Olympic event. And much of it is connected by GO and other transit routes that exist or are building. We need a world class Olympic Village or villages for outlying events (e.g. Brock University for rowing - use, augment or add to existing student housing) I think if we inventories the sports and our venue locations in Ontario, mainly centered on the GTA, we would be surprised at the facilities we have that could be utilized.
Typically, the main stadium (80k-100k seater) is used for events like track. Most of the venues you mention are not Olympic/global competition standard. We can propose a bid using those facilities, and the bid would be rejected by the IOC.
