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Toronto 2024 Olympic Bid (Dead)

With the Pan Am games going well and the Opening Ceremonies a success, I think it's imminent the city will be bidding for the Olympics.

We would have to beat out the likes of Paris, Rome and Hamburg to win these Olympics. It's not inconceivable but will be a tough task. At least there is a legit chance here unlike 2008 going up against an unbeatable Beijing.
 
AlvinofDiaspar said:
Now that the doom and gloom over the Pan Am seem to be an overreaction, it seems a bid for the 2024 Olympics is back on the agenda. Let's think about how it will be similar/different to the 2008 bid, from a venues/infrastructure perspective:

waterfront_lrg.gif

From Gamesbid.com

The 2008 bid plan foresee 3 "zones" (Exhibition Place, Skydome Precinct, Portlands) for the venues, with the media village located in the now West Donlands/Canary Park and Atheletes' Village in the Portlands at the foot of Cherry Street, south of the Shipping Channel. Exhibition Place of course has since seen the BMO Place, now the Raptors training facility, Allstream Centre and X Hotel. Ontario Place is of course a site for redevelopment. With regards to the Portlands - the plans for East Bayfront and South Donlands are more or less complete, and the latter will involve significant public works that will likely be incompatiable with the original siteings. The Pinewood lands remain in play, and neither Sunlight/Unilever/First Gulf lands nor the Hearn was part of the original plans.

All 3 zones are linked up by some kind of high capacity transit system - with a new station at Cherry Street. This is broadly congruent with the current RER plans. DRL was not in the picture in the 2008 bid. The Spadina extension to York U, along with Phase I of Eglinton and Scarborough Subway extension should be completed/close to completion by 2024. QQE LRT remain on the books.

So, where would we fit all the pieces?
Click to expand...

I was going to dig up this info. Thanks for saving me the time. :)

Regarding the stadium, I think that it would be realistic to consider building it for Toronto FC. At their rate of growth, they're going to need a proper stadium by the time the Olympics come around anyway. BMO Field is arguably just a bunch of glorified bleachers. If Toronto's bid remains focused on the Portlands, there will certainly be a legacy of rapid transit so getting to the new stadium wouldn't be the problem that putting Toronto FC out in the remote Portlands would be today. The Argos could stay at Exhibition Place or move with TFC to the new stadium.

I'd expect that York U would become an important node in this bid. With a subway stop and plenty of parking, it would be easily accessible.

The signature sports would all need to happen downtown however. Athletics, races, swimming and diving would have to happen in the Portlands so a new pool facility would have to be built there. A stadium and aquatics centre would probably be the 2 big ticket items purpose built for the Olympics.

I agree with the MTCC redevelopment being fast tracked. It could host sports like martial arts, table tennis, fencing, weightlifting, handball, etc. Decking over the rail corridor would become an Olympic bid project and possibly even a signature legacy piece the way Queens Quay piggybacked on TO2008: a green necklace linear park linking Exhibition Place, the Olympic Convention Centre and the Portlands.

Transit projects would definitely include the Waterfront LRT and it seems that SmartTrack would fit right up the Olympic alley. By 2024, perhaps so would a Relief Line. Would the Bloor-Yonge choking point be able to handle an influx of world visitors? It's been shown that SmartTrack wouldn't provide much relief. On the other hand, SmartTrack can be built in time. Can we build a relief line in 7 years? I doubt it.

Overall, Toronto would benefit enormously from an Olympic bid. Our shopping list of major projects would likely be granted and most started because of the games, if not finished in time for them. Toronto is building some incredible momentum as a world class city. Winning an Olympic bid would make it take flight.
 
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toforumer said:
With the Pan Am games going well and the Opening Ceremonies a success, I think it's imminent the city will be bidding for the Olympics.

We would have to beat out the likes of Paris, Rome and Hamburg to win these Olympics. It's not inconceivable but will be a tough task. At least there is a legit chance here unlike 2008 going up against an unbeatable Beijing.
Click to expand...

I don't consider any of those a real threat. Paris has hosted twice before. Twice. Rome has hosted as well. Hamburg is — I don't mean any disrespect — a lightweight compared to the other cities running. Boston on the other hand would present a threat because the IOC will be looking to bring the Olympics back to the very profitable North American market. However, they don't seem to have their shit together and there is very little popular support for hosting an Olympic Games there.

I like our chances.
 
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MetroMan said:
I don't consider any of those a real threat. Paris has hosted twice before. Twice. Rome has hosted as well. Hamburg is — I don't mean any disrespect — a lightweight compared to the other cities running. Boston on the other hand would present a threat because the IOC will be looking to bring the Olympics back to the very profitable North American market. However, they don't seem to have their shit together and there is very little popular support for hosting an Olympic Games there.

I like our chances.
Click to expand...


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?)

Boston is a non-starter. Horrible support and not a tier 1 US city to bid on an international stage. Not worried at all about Boston. Boston may help Toronto out. Once they get eliminated on the first ballot Toronto could potentially pick up all those voters support in the next round.
 
In terms of return on investment the World Cup would be a much better deal for Canada. We already have more than enough stadiums to host, so infrastructure would be limited renovations and upgrades. The entire country gets showcased, which gives more bang for the tourism buck. Tons of foreigners come so the cash influx is real. Canada could easily campaign on "you guys have fucked this up for so long you need a squeaky clean bid like Canada to get your street cred back". Biggest downside is that FIFA corruption makes IOC corruption look like a rounding error.
 
I'm not sure why they'd need to return to Europe before going to North America. It'll have been almost 3 decades since a Summer Olympics in North America and that's historically the IOC's most profitable market by far. Tokyo winning 2020 was the best thing that could happen to a Toronto 2024 bid. If the US had won, we'd be out of contention for a couple more decades at best.

Regardless, who would they award the Games to in Europe? Paris or Rome who have already hosted? Hamburg — over Toronto?

I agree that our chances are way better than 2008. China was always an insurmountable obstacle. Like I said, I like our chances. We just need to close off these PanAm Games like they did in Vancouver where the city was hit by grief that it was over. If Canada keeps up on this path of racking up Gold and with all the buzz of activity generated by Panamania, John Tory isn't just going to come out supporting an Olympic bid, he's going to piggyback the popularity of the idea all the way to the IOC vote and beyond.
 
MetroMan said:
I'm not sure why they'd need to return to Europe before going to North America. It'll have been almost 3 decades since a Summer Olympics in North America and that's historically the IOC's most profitable market by far. Tokyo winning 2020 was the best thing that could happen to a Toronto 2024 bid. If the US had won, we'd be out of contention for a couple more decades at best.

Regardless, who would they award the Games to in Europe? Paris or Rome who have already hosted? Hamburg — over Toronto?

I agree that our chances are way better than 2008. China was always an insurmountable obstacle. Like I said, I like our chances. We just need to close off these PanAm Games like they did in Vancouver where the city was hit by grief that it was over. If Canada keeps up on this path of racking up Gold and with all the buzz of activity generated by Panamania, John Tory isn't just going to come out supporting an Olympic bid, he's going to piggyback the popularity of the idea all the way to the IOC vote and beyond.
Click to expand...

The USA didn't bid for the 2020 Olympics.

London hosted in 2012, Tokyo hosting in 2020. Both cities have previously hosted an Olympics. Paris last host in 1924. 100 years from 2024. The IOC is very Euro centric, I just have this feeling they won't go 3 consecutive summer Olympics outside of Europe. Rio is considered apart of the Americas which encompasses North and South. I believe that's the way the IOC views it.
 
toforumer said:
The crop of stadiums we have are a joke for FIFA World Cup standards.
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As opposed to a bunch of sand dunes? These international events are going to have to wake up to reality, and until - or even if - they do, Canada should be staying the hell away.
 
@MetroMan
I think for Olympic Stadium's these days you're talking in the 70k to 80k range in terms of seating, right?
So, I can't imagine that ever being a home field for the TFC. I know the Seattle MLS team has done well in an NFL stadium, but generally, MLS teams looks to play in soccer specific stadiums of around 20k to 30k. Plus with all the renovations going on right now, it's hard to see them leaving BMO anytime soon.

If Toronto gets the Olympics, I would imagine the stadium would be used by some ownership group to try to lure an NFL team here. Who knows if they'd be successful, but that would be the perfect end use for a stadium of that size.
 
JMSRead said:
@MetroMan
I think for Olympic Stadium's these days you're talking in the 70k to 80k range in terms of seating, right?
So, I can't imagine that ever being a home field for the TFC. I know the Seattle MLS team has done well in an NFL stadium, but generally, MLS teams looks to play in soccer specific stadiums of around 20k to 30k. Plus with all the renovations going on right now, it's hard to see them leaving BMO anytime soon.

If Toronto gets the Olympics, I would imagine the stadium would be used by some ownership group to try to lure an NFL team here. Who knows if they'd be successful, but that would be the perfect end use for a stadium of that size.
Click to expand...

I think recent Olympic stadia have a history of getting downsized post-games - it was in Atlanta (reconfigured for baseball), Sydney (110K to 80K) and London. We really don't have one in the 50-60K range for football/soccer/athletics in the GTA, and that size is the norm for soccer in any case. What I would like to see is a retractable roof along the lines of BC Place - and heated in winter along with the Aquatics Centre and any Olympic/Media village through the built in capacity for district heating at the Portlands Energy Centre.

AoD
 
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AlvinofDiaspar said:
I think recent Olympic stadia have a history of getting downsized post-games - it was in Atlanta (reconfigured for baseball), Sydney (110K to 80K) and London. We really don't have one in the 50-60K range for football/soccer/athletics in the GTA.

AoD
Click to expand...
Any track stadium would need extensive renovations post-games to fit a NA sport, particularly a tiny NFL field.
 
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