Toronto 2015 Pan American Games | Page 154

MetroMan · Jul 12, 2015

TOareaFan said:
It did seem strange to me that they did not take advantage of the stadium's most prominent feature (the removable roof) in the presentation....I really thought there would have been two plans for the show 1) if bad weather a show with roof closed....2) if weather good, a plan where part of the show is conducted with the roof open.

These were, I believe, the most expensive tickets in the games.....and, afterall, the stars of the show are the athletes.....and to get to the cauldron lighting and have those two groups locked inside watching it on TV is a bad idea (IMO)....I guess we have the Vancouver games to thank for this as they sent Gretzky on that bizarre run/truck ride out of their stadium too.

Exactly. It's like having a wedding where the mass happens in front of all the guests but then the bride and groom head outside and are married on the church lawn in front of passersby, leaving all the guests to watch it on TV.

Our guests of honour (the athletes) and those who paid for the privilege of being at the ceremony were trapped inside watching the grand finale on TV. That left a bad taste in my mouth.

Kitsune · Jul 13, 2015

.. it left a bad taste in my mouth too. I was stuck - knew the fireworks, but had no idea if I would be able to see the cauldron lighting, so stayed. So did about half the crowd - the other half left during that really really is he done yet speech. I think that may have helped some people make up there mind too.

Marcanadian · Jul 13, 2015

The roof takes about 20 minutes to open and close, so they could have opened it up during the speeches towards the end I suppose. It definitely would have been an amazing visual for those in attendance. Meanwhile, Nathan Phillips Square is decked out in Pan Am installations:

Nathan Phillips Square by Marcus Mitanis, on Flickr

Edllguy · Jul 13, 2015

Please correct me if this is wrong but even if they could of opened the Rogers Centre roof they wouldn't due to safety reasons. I remember at the end of a Blue Jays game that I went to many years ago that when they closed the dome at the end of a game, security made sure that all fans were blocked from a certain inside radius for safety reasons.

Also, once when the dome was opened (during off season) a heavy piece of equipment was sheared off and came crashing down. Wouldn't look good on Toronto if someone was seriously injured or killed with the world watching us.

Edllguy · Jul 13, 2015

About the fireworks, I know it wasn't an ideal situation that we were caught off guard being caught inside with just video presentation of the fireworks but we can look at it from a different perspective.

Those who could afford tickets and were inside to see a great presentation of the ceremony for the Pan Am games were wowed and pleased, however, not everyone has the money to purchase these pricey tickets. I know because it cost me a ton of dough for my seats. However, people who could not afford the tickets were not left out by having access to a great fireworks show for free. So in a way the games access and equality values were demonstrated through this very situation where everyone benefited in some capacity whether you had money or not.

Edllguy · Jul 13, 2015

To the people who left town to avoid the Pan Am games and to avoid "chaos"...well I would like to let them know that you are missing out. My friends and I has a great time at Nathan Phillips Square Saturday night with the free concerts, light show and fireworks. It was a blast. The vibe that is feeding the city is really unique and as I attend these Pan Am events in person, I see no one complaining or being grumpy. I see a lot of people being ambassadors to visitors and tourists and it just makes me proud to be part of this event.

I just think now that a lot of the criticism has been unfair as I have seen with my own eyes how the Pan Am games are transforming the City of Toronto and the surrounding region for the greater good in many different ways.

Now off to planning my next Pan Am outing to take advantage of these city freebies.

animatronic · Jul 13, 2015

I've been trying to think of what the Pan Am Games most closely resembles, and I've settled on an undergraduate production of Chicago.

It's definitely better than a high school production, but nobody is pretending that this is Broadway. There's some talent in the cast and you can tell that one or two of the leads are probably going to go somewhere, but the balance of the team is best described as enthusiastic. The production values are uneven, and the audience (a half-full theatre of mostly friends and family) have a certain grit-your-teeth-and-smile approach to the whole thing.

Now don't get me wrong - the cast and crew have poured their hearts into it and for many this will be the pinnacle of their theatrical careers. It's just that their marketing campaign to get the general public to show up is woefully optimistic. And while most are working for free they still wouldn't have been able to mount the production without a generous subsidy from the student body.

Some may think that this is the next-best thing to professional theatre, but nobody beyond a small core is under any illusion that a kick-ass production will prove that the town is capable of landing the next touring edition of The Lion King.

TOareaFan · Jul 13, 2015

Edllguy said:
Please correct me if this is wrong but even if they could of opened the Rogers Centre roof they wouldn't due to safety reasons. I remember at the end of a Blue Jays game that I went to many years ago that when they closed the dome at the end of a game, security made sure that all fans were blocked from a certain inside radius for safety reasons.

Also, once when the dome was opened (during off season) a heavy piece of equipment was sheared off and came crashing down. Wouldn't look good on Toronto if someone was seriously injured or killed with the world watching us.

The roof moves a few times every baseball season with people in it.

EDIT: "it" being the stadium....not the roof.

TOareaFan · Jul 13, 2015

Edllguy said:
About the fireworks, I know it wasn't an ideal situation that we were caught off guard being caught inside with just video presentation of the fireworks but we can look at it from a different perspective.

Those who could afford tickets and were inside to see a great presentation of the ceremony for the Pan Am games were wowed and pleased, however, not everyone has the money to purchase these pricey tickets. I know because it cost me a ton of dough for my seats. However, people who could not afford the tickets were not left out by having access to a great fireworks show for free. So in a way the games access and equality values were demonstrated through this very situation where everyone benefited in some capacity whether you had money or not.

Opening ceremonies of games are nothing but a build up to the lighting of the cauldron.....the people inside the stadium (the athletes who the games are about and the spectators) were inside watching the same video of it that I was at home on my couch....that seems wrong.....it is more than a fireworks display.

I am less fussed by the spectators missing out than I am the athletes....fussed about both but it seems wrong to shut the athletes out of that moment.

kaboi · Jul 13, 2015

Riverdale Rink Rat said:
http://www.blogto.com/sports_play/2015/07/10_venues_created_for_the_pan_am_games_in_toronto/

So, the BlogTO site had this (AoD had me over there to see the food from the Union market). Swimmers will disagree with me, I'm sure, but the UTScar pool & dive tank is a huge overbuild, the velodrome I'm still pretty skeptical about, and building a new stadium for the Tiger-Cats is a waste. Overall, though, it could have been a lot worse, and putting various facilities at college campuses means they'll get used after the games for something, at least.

I guess time will tell, but history has shown that elite facilities can help build strong national programs. It's no coincidence that Canada's surge in international speed skating followed construction of the Calgary Oval. Ditto bobsled and skeleton, also thanks to the Calgary Olympics.

The velodrome is a top notch facility, the only of its kind in Canada, and will house the national program after the games. Of course there are no guarantees Canada will emerge as a cycling powerhouse (Canadian ski jumping didn't exactly blossom after 1988, not for the men at least), but it's a lot more possible. And it will host a range of other sporting facilities that will be available to the community. The UofT facility offers a similar promise for watersports.

Meanwhile, the new stadium in Hamilton isn't just for the Ticats; it will likely be getting a pro soccer team too. No guarantee it will enjoy TFC-level popularity, but pro soccer is in the ascendant and will probably be the lifeline (and transition plan, eventually) for the slowly dying CFL.

I personally find the global obsession with sports to be kind of strange, but for people who care about such things and want to see more Canadian pro teams and more success in the Olympics, I would think these PanAm facilities are a huge boon. I doubt they'd view any of these facilities as overbuilt. Or will change their tune when the medals start piling up.

Videodrome · Jul 13, 2015

Siobhan Morris ‏@siomo 2m2 minutes ago
.@NealaBarton with the PanAm Games says they've sold roughly 900,000 tickets now. #TO2015

That is a huge increase in ticket sales.

Tuscani01 · Jul 13, 2015

MetroMan said:
I really am upset. Call me bitter but I spent money to be excluded from the most memorable event of the PanAm Games. I understand why they couldn't open the dome midway through the show but that's only because they didn't plan for it. They must've known that people at the show would be disappointed to miss out on the fireworks. All we got was a little poof around the flame that made people giggle. Meanwhile, the people outside the stadium got an historic fireworks show that will be remembered for decades. Those inside had to watch it on TV.

Most Olympic stadiums don't even have a roof so they could've come up with another way to set up the lights and audio equipment. Opening the dome during the speeches would've given us a show off moment for the world: "Look at what our stadium can do: it's a convertible!" Then they could've had the base jumper parachute into the stadium and lit the flame. The fireworks could've included the SkyDome as well with people inside getting a unique perspective.

I'm making myself even more bitter by thinking about what could've, should've been. I really hope that they do an encore for the closing ceremonies or I might just be bitter forever

Honestly, its not really something that should have been expected though for spectators (being able to view the fireworks). I've seen many ceremonies where the fireworks are never visible to the audience inside. It's more for TV than anything. Otherwise, they'd have an empty stadium.

Beijing had fireworks throughout the skyline that couldn't be seen by spectators, London had fireworks throughout the Olympic Park, and on Tower Bridge which couldn't be seen by spectators, and Sydney had the Harbour Bridge fireworks which couldn't be seen from the stadium. Heck, even if the dome was open I wouldn't have been able to see the fireworks from where I was sitting, as the Dome still covers a good chunk of the sky from inside.

AlvinofDiaspar · Jul 13, 2015

Well they are limited by the design of SkyDome in any case. Got to say Athens 2006 had the classiest cauldron ceremony of late - it's been getting more and more gimmicky since Barcelona.

AoD

DarnDirtyApe · Jul 13, 2015

Riverdale Rink Rat said:
So, it sounds like it was a great start! But, much more importantly, did DDA get to the cottage without fuss, despite the horror of HOV? Was Code Monkey able to drive in circles around Toronto, or did the 401 slow him down despite the Gardiner flowing? Inquiring minds want to know...

The Gardiner was nearly empty and 427 and 401 WB were far lighter than usual, as it seems that most people got the message to avoid downtown at all costs. We didn't even get to benefit from the HOV lanes as traffic was flowing at 20km/h over the limit anyway. It looks like inbound traffic was equally light, and I heard reports that the city was generally deserted on Friday night.

Of course, we got snarled by traffic on the 410 NB at around 6:30PM as Peel region denizens went about their daily lives in ignorant bliss of the events going on downtown. We still made it to Collingwood in just over two hours and had a lovely weekend. Heard that the opening ceremonies had some good parts but the 1.5 hours of political speeches were a real drag. We forgot to record it but I don't think I will go to the trouble of downloading it - life's too short to be glued to the TV watching a politician's idea of "world class" entertainment.

christiesplits · Jul 13, 2015

I went to the Canada vs. Brazil men's soccer game last night in Hamilton. Probably 80% sold out, with a great crowd. Women's games and non-Canadian men's games are apparently well below 50%.

MetroMan

Senior Member

Kitsune

Senior Member

Marcanadian

Moderator

Edllguy

Active Member

Edllguy

Active Member

Edllguy

Active Member

animatronic

Senior Member

TOareaFan

Superstar

TOareaFan

Superstar

kaboi

Active Member

Videodrome

Senior Member

Tuscani01

Senior Member

AlvinofDiaspar

Moderator

DarnDirtyApe

Active Member

christiesplits

Senior Member