Toronto Bows Out Of 2024 Olympics Hosting Race

Skyline_of_Toronto_viewed_from_Harbour
Photo Courtesy: John Vetterli

After weeks of speculation that Canada would have a city in the running to host the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics, officials from Toronto have announced that the city will not take part in the bid process for the Games.

Various media reports are stating that the city is not ready to financially support such a big venture, especially after hosting the Pan American Games this past summer. The price tag for hosting an Olympic Games can be in the billions of dollars, with the host city responsible for coming up with about half of the money. The cost of running the Pan American Games ran to about $2 billion, making it the most expensive Pan Am competition in history.

Toronto Mayor John Tory said the corporations that might be needed to step in and provide the money for the Olympics haven’t show any enthusiasm for the event. With today being the deadline for cities to officially submit bid letters, Tory said “time was against us in the context of building that kind of support you have to have from the community, including business, to make this work.”

Tory added that he thinks Toronto will be ready for a Summer Olympics in the future, though he didn’t say if that would be in 2028.

“The Canadian Olympic Committee is determined to have the Olympics back in the country at the earliest opportunity,” said the SOC in a statement to the media.

Canada hosted the Summer Olympics in 1976 in Toronto. The country also played host to the Winter Games of 1988 in Calgary and 2010 in Vancouver.

Toronto upgraded many sport facilities for the Pan American Games, including building a state-of-the-art aquatics center that held only 6,000 people. If Toronto were to hold swimming events in the Toronto Pam Sports Centre in the Olympics, the seating capacity would have to be increased by a factor of 10, at least.

Barring any last-minute entries, the field of cities in the running for the 2024 Olympics hosting gig are: Los Angeles, Paris, Rome, Hamburg and Budapest.

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

Welcome to our community. We invite you to join our discussion. Our community guidelines are simple: be respectful and constructive, keep on topic, and support your fellow commenters. Commenting signifies that you agree to our Terms of Use

1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Bill Bell
8 years ago

And Toronto just got done staging a very successful Pan-Am games and has a whole bunch of updated facilities that could have worked very well for the Olympucs ( aquatics/ velodrome/ rowing/ a nice hoops arena the adapters okay in, etc.)

In other words, ALL the facilities my hometown ( LA) Currently lacks and would have to come up with to host the games, not to mention a track stadium seating 80K ( and if younthink the IOC wants to use the decrepit and aging LA Coliseum again you’re dreaming!)

Paris, Rome, even Hamburg are much more viable candidates than La La Land. And if you believe the NFL is gonna relocate a team ir two,to,LA and build a multi- billion dollar stadia in Inglewood or Carson I have a nice bridge in Arizona I can sel l you on the cheap– right across Lake Havasau.

1
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x