Pan Am Games a winner
Torontosun.com
May 30, 2015
by Jim Warren
Toronto has a long and proud sporting history. It has the most professional teams of any city in Canada. It is home to some of the most historic amateur sports clubs in North America, such as the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, founded as a sailing club in 1852.
But when it comes to the biggest sporting events held in Canada, Toronto has always been the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver have all hosted Olympic Games while Toronto was passed over twice.
Winnipeg hosted the Pan Am Games in 1967 and 1999. This summer, that will change.
Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) will host the Pan Am Games and its 7,000 athletes from over 40 countries, the world’s third-largest international multi-sport event.
It's true the lead up to the Pan Am Games has seen controversies - allegations of lavish expense spending and overly generous pay packages for senior executives, an ever-increasing bill for security, more traffic congestion and whether enough seats will be sold.
But, even in light of those concerns, these games will be a winner for Toronto, Ontario and Canada.
They have been a catalyst to get things built in southern Ontario communities by all three levels of government and the private sector.
Governments have been forced to honour construction deadlines. Major infrastructure has been built, by and large, on time and on budget.
The games have created new housing and sporting infrastructure unlike anything ever seen before and it has been spread out over a large geographic area, not confined to the host city of Toronto, as has happened with other games.
Today, because of the Pan Am Games, there will be new housing on Toronto’s waterfront.
A new, $205-million field house and aquatic centre in Scarborough will host swimming, diving and fencing, among other events, and be another legacy of these games.
The new velodrome in nearby Milton will become a world-class community centre for cycling, badminton, basketball and track.
Curt Harnett, Canada’s chef de mission for the Pan Am Games and an Olympic medallist in cycling, told me recently about riding his bike in the Milton velodrome.
“What excites me is (it) is really a community centre,” he said. “Kids were playing basketball in the centre, while I rode my bike and a mother walked her baby in a stroller on the outside track.”
Because of the Pan Am Games, Toronto finally has a direct rail link from Pearson Airport to Union Station.
A new stadium built for these games in Hamilton has rescued the historic CFL Ticats franchise in that city. Yes, that project had problems - mainly because of an impossible city council that couldn’t take yes for an answer.
Were mistakes made? Absolutely. No major project of this scope is ever perfect.
Games security and transportation could still be an issue. But when organizers won the bid, we couldn’t have imagined something like the Boston Marathon bombing and no one had ever heard of ISIS.
Traffic congestion in Toronto is a year-round event and would be happening with or without the games.
Some have raised concerns about the spending of tax dollars - the games' budget is $2.5 billion funded by the federal and provincial governments and local municipalities. But Toronto and the GTA are two of the biggest generators of taxes for both the federal and provincial governments.
After decades of infrastructure spending across the country, residents of these communities are now seeing some of their own money put back into their own cities.
The Pan Am Games have put people to work. They will promote Toronto, Ontario and Canada as world-class destinations for tourists.
They have delivered on new sporting, housing and transportation infrastructure. They will leave a legacy of opportunities for athletes of every kind, from future world-record holders to children.
The Pan Ams are a gold medal winner, even before they begin.
