Toronto will not bid for 2024 Summer Olympics

Mayor John Tory decided at the last minute not to enter Toronto’s name into the race to host the Summer Games.

Thestar.com
Sept. 14, 2015
By Betsy Powell

Toronto will not be hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics with Mayor John Tory deciding not to enter the city into the competitive bid process, the Star has learned.

The mayor’s office would not confirm Tory’s position ahead of the deadline to submit a formal letter to the International Olympic Committee by 6 p.m. Tuesday. But two sources with knowledge of the decision say after weeks of deliberation the talks of a bid are now over.

Tory is scheduled to make the announcement standing in front of city hall Tuesday morning.

The decision was made after Tory received a lack of corporate enthusiasm and without firm support from the province. Key potential sponsors have also been lukewarm to backing a Toronto bid to host the mega event.

And timing is also working against the mayor. The IOC’s application deadline came just two months after Toronto successfully hosted the Pan Am Games and revived talk of a bid. The federal election campaign also created uncertainty.

Tory has spent the last few weeks consulting and gathering information on the pros and cons of mounting a bid, which he has said should be “largely financed by the private sector.”

Just the bid alone could have cost Toronto up to $60 million.

Premier Kathleen Wynne remained uncommitted Monday on the critical issue of who will pay.

“Ontario is not going to put itself forward and be on the hook for all of the costs,” she said.

“We need to understand where the other levels of government will be. He (Tory) needs to know where we and the feds would be; we need to know where the feds and the municipality would be.”

Wynne added “we also need to know where the private sector would be on this and how much enthusiasm there would be in the private sector” to subsidize the bid.

The biggest booster of a Toronto Olympic bid has been the Canadian Olympic Committee and its president Marcel Aubut.

“We have always been crystal clear in our intention to lead, advocate and prepare for a possible 2024 Toronto Olympic bid,” a COC spokesman wrote in an email. Representatives of the national sports federations voted unanimously last week to back Toronto.

The “vote recognizes the tremendous opportunity a bid would represent for a world-class city like Toronto and for the future of sport in Canada.”

Last week, Hamburg and Rome formally submitted bids. Budapest, Paris and Los Angeles have also entered the race.