News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 02, 2020
 8.9K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 40K     0 
News   GLOBAL  |  Apr 01, 2020
 5.1K     0 

The point would be to spread the venues out though (If the IOC is going to allow venues outside of the host country, venues outside of Toronto will not be an issue), not cluster them together. Temporary venues don't need to be temporary. The buildings can be repurposed as community centres afterwards. Toronto's 2008 bid consisted of 3 different clusters within the core. It could essentially be the same, but spread out between Toronto and Hamilton instead of simply in the core.

I think building temporary facilities as permanent is going to add to the cost significantly done en masse. Sure you can have things like waterpolo, with pools and facilities that can be repurposed afterwards, but the biggies like athletics and aquatics? I don't think so. Recall the whole spread out plan under the original Pan Am 2015 bid and how it got (relatively) re-centralized because there is a certain efficiency to centralization. There is also the issue of reusing existing facilities - which is of course less of an issue in Hamilton or even Markham (with their sports plex by Unionville Station) but more of an issue in Mississauga, given the location of the whole Hershey complex.

AoD
 
Last edited:
I think building temporary facilities as permanent is going to add to the cost significantly done en masse. Sure you can have things like waterpolo, with pools and facilities that can be repurposed afterwards, but the biggies like athletics and aquatics? I don't think so. Recall the whole spread out plan under the original Pan Am 2015 bid and how it got (relatively) re-centralized because there is a certain efficiency to centralization. There is also the issue of reusing existing facilities - which is of course less of an issue in Hamilton or even Markham (with their sports plex by Unionville Station) but more of an issue in Mississauga, given the location of the whole Hershey complex.

AoD

But Mississauga wants these facilities on the Lakeview lands, so it wouldn't be a problem. They are looking to attract a post secondary campus, and build a cultural corridor with a museum and galleries. New facilities can easily be repurposed for these uses. Also, the Raptors 905 team could potentially use a new arena by then, depending on how popular they become. The Lakeview masterplan lends itself well to serving as an olympic cluster.

Im just not a fan of hosting these games with all of this temporary infrastructure, or clustering the extra infrastructure in a single area where not many people will be able to benefit from it. There are parts of the region that need something to jump start their development and these games can definitely bring that something.
 
All the venues should be near GO Train stations, rapid transit stations, light rail lines, or streetcar lines.
 
The last time an Olympic event was taken place outside of the host country was during the Melbourne Olympics (equestrian was done in Stockholm) (which was very much the other side of the world from Melbourne).
 
During the 2012 games in England, there were events held in other countries - soccer was played in both Wales and Scotland.
 
Toronto's 2008 bid had some soccer matches in Ottawa. Same country, but still 5 hours away.

Montreal had sailing events in Kingston. Nearly a different country :p
 
The football tournament would be certainly involve other cities. Rio 2016 will have matches held from Manaus to Sao Paulo to Salvador. London 2012, as previously mentioned, has matches in Scotland and Wales. China 2008 had matches in Shanghai and Shenyang, among others. Greece 2004 had matches in Crete and Thessalonika.

Perhaps a Toronto bid wouldn't involve another country (the US), but it is a certainty that it will involve other cities in some way.
 
That isn't a huge issue anyways - it wouldn't make sense for the region to host all the soccer matches.

AoD
Right, and it would probably be the same for other events like equestrian, golf, whitewater slalom and maybe even BMX or mountain biking.
 
Right, and it would probably be the same for other events like equestrian, golf, whitewater slalom and maybe even BMX or mountain biking.

Yup, some of them requires rural/semi-rural locales anyways. It was certainly planned to be that way for the 2008 bid. I am just saying that we should be careful not to disperse the core venues too much - compactness is one of the key wins before. Kind of academic at this stage since we don't even know if we are going to bid.

AoD
 
I am just saying that we should be careful not to disperse the core venues too much - compactness is one of the key wins before. Kind of academic at this stage since we don't even know if we are going to bid.

AoD
Yeah, I get that. I also think that a successful Olympics would need that compactness.

It's also why I don't support an Olympic Bid. It would involve too many facilties, so soon after we've already built so many.

Building a new Aquatic Centre (with Diving Tower) and Velodrome would be a huge waste of money. I find it extremely hard to believe that the GTA could support the current ones in Milton (previous cost $56m) and Morningside (previous cost $205m), along with a new set of facilities along the Waterfront. In my mind, it would certainly lead to one or the other being mothballed. We are also talking about spending easily $500m for these two new facilities alone.
 
Yeah, I get that. I also think that a successful Olympics would need that compactness.

It's also why I don't support an Olympic Bid. It would involve too many facilties, so soon after we've already built so many.

Building a new Aquatic Centre (with Diving Tower) and Velodrome would be a huge waste of money. I find it extremely hard to believe that the GTA could support the current ones in Milton (previous cost $56m) and Morningside (previous cost $205m), along with a new set of facilities along the Waterfront. In my mind, it would certainly lead to one or the other being mothballed. We are also talking about spending easily $500m for these two new facilities alone.

They should reuse the velodrome (probably with modifications) - it really isn't something that has to be downtown (location is an issue, but shrugs). Building a new aquatic centre is probably ok, since it's going to be in a new neighbourhood anyways - best if they could do it in Hearn so that we're retrofitting existing structures. The existing aquatic centre can be reused for other aquatic competitions. We certainly shouldn't go over the top with building new facilities.

AoD
 
Could the ravine system be used at all for the games? I was wondering about BMX (confessing i know nothing about BMX).

Also, i was wondering how Hearn might feature in all of this?
 
There are various proposal for Hearn reuse over the years (hockey, whatnot) - it's almost a given that it can be adapted as a venue of some sort - though the big ticket item I'd want to see it used for is aquatics - you have a natural gas generating station right next door that can be used to provide heating in winter, it's a no-brainer.

hearn.jpg

(Behnisch Architekten/National Post)
http://news.nationalpost.com/toronto/sports-complex-plan-unveiled-for-mothballed-hearn-station

AoD
 
Last edited:

Back
Top