TOperson
Active Member
It's not hyperbole when info is provided about the displacement that occurred with past Olympics.
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- Thread starter Southcore
- Start date
It's not hyperbole when info is provided about the displacement that occurred with past Olympics.
Armour
Senior Member
As if that would happen here; we don't live in a dictatorship.........yet.
TOperson
Active Member
Is the UK a dictatorship?
Armour
Senior Member
Is snot delicious?
Johnny Au
Senior Member
It is becoming like one. It has the most CCTVs per capita of any G8 country. George Orwell would agree.
djthomps
New Member
http://panam.cbc.ca/news/article/marcel-aubut-coc-president-back-toronto-bid-for-2024-olympics.html
The speculation is over! We are definitely bidding for 2024! Well unless some of those morons down at City Hall vote against it...
The speculation is over! We are definitely bidding for 2024! Well unless some of those morons down at City Hall vote against it...
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animatronic
Senior Member
I think you meant to say so long as those morons down at City Hall are stupid enough to vote for it.
Juan_Lennon416
Senior Member
Toronto should consider hosting the Special Olympics World Games (Summer) in 2019 or 2023.
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djthomps
New Member
In my view if Toronto is going to bid for anything it should be the Olympic/Paralympics first and foremost. One can convincingly argue no other international event is going to the provide the kind of prestige as well generate the type of fast-track growth the region needs in areas such as its transit infrastructure as well as expedite the waterfront development that an Olympics can offer. Moreover, Toronto has already successfully hosted the Pan Ams, which many consider "second tier" to the Olympics/Paralympics in terms of international attention and appeal, so why should we aim for another similar event over the latter? Makes more sense to maximize our tax dollars with an event that will be more impactful long term in terms of infrastructure, tourism, legacy, etc.
Riverdale Rink Rat
Senior Member
Fixed that for you.
Riverdale Rink Rat
Senior Member
Does the TO bid group have its own Russian-style Internet propaganda machine, or did you birth directly from Aubut's head like Athena?
Toronto is already growing at an amazing pace, with more cranes in the air than any other North American city for 10 years plus now. We need any Olympics to spur growth? How about funding Waterfront Toronto properly for 1/10th or 1/20th the cost of an Olympics, build out LDL and Portlands without an insane new stadium, and enjoy the result?
AlvinofDiaspar
Moderator
Just because someone is pro-games doesn't equate to propaganda. Nice accusation though.
How about both? Unless you want to play the revisionist games, nobody would have given a damn about the waterfront if not for the 2008 bid.
AoD
Riverdale Rink Rat
Senior Member
You'll note it's a new member that has posted these two posts -- including the second which touches on every positive propaganda point an Olympic bid committee puts forward. I think it's a reasonable assumption to say that, pending lots of other posts on other threads, that this is a single-issue member shilling for an Olympics. DJThomps, please prove me wrong.
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/toronto-2008-olympics-a-city-that-might-have-been.7135/
I'm not certain that I'm playing revisionist Games (see what I did there?), AoD. Mayor Miller put himself on the board of WT and shook up the process to kick-start things from the city side, and he was Mayor from 2003-2010, not 1996. There's a high degree of 'impatience with the process' that Olympic fans moot about, but quite frankly I don't get the sense that most Olympic boosters actually care about the infrastructure boost they claim. They want the excitement of an Olympics in their hometown, and they DO NOT CARE about what it costs. So, throwing in a bunch of shiny baubles for the 'no to Olympics' crowd that cost even MORE billions is shrugged off, or worse, cynically thrown into the bid package to get people like me to 'buy in'.
On Twitter, someone suggested bidding for the 2021 aquatics championships instead: Infrastructure is now in place, with small further renovations of the Etobicoke pool and the UofT pool as the only infrastructure spend necessary. Absolute top-class swimming & diving, leveraging the Pan-Am spending. Why don't we do that instead?
allabootmatt
Senior Member
Forgive me if I am ignorant of comments that have already been made, but doesn't the very peculiar set-up of the Pan-Am facilities actually hinder, not help, an Olympic bid?
Before Queen's Park decided to just admit reality and sell the Pan-Ams as 'Toronto 2015,' it was, of course, a "Golden Horseshoe" bid. This resulted, as we know, in ridiculously dispersed facilities to spread a bit of Pan-Am pixie dust to as many ridings--sorry, I mean municipalities!--as practicable.
Do we really intend to hold swimming events, one of the two marquee Olympic sports, in a venue at UT-Scarborough that won't be accessible by rapid transit even in 2024? Or to have a velodrome in a field in Milton?
It seems that an Olympic bid with a reasonable chance of success would have to propose new facilities in a central location, IE the Port Lands, per the IOC's well-documented preference for having as many events as possible co-located in an Olympic 'park.' That means duplicating specialized sporting venues which already face non-trivial 'legacy' questions.
There are always some events held at a distance from the central venues in any Olympics, typically those that require large outdoor courses (ie rowing, mountain biking, etc). But I find it hard to see how Toronto could succeed without significantly centralizing some of the core sports around the proposed Olympic stadium. That means additional cost to duplicate facilities, and undermines a significant part of the supposed advantage of having hosted the Pan-Ams first.
It will be interesting to see how Tory proposes to thread this needle, since he doesn seem quite bullish on on Olympic bid.
An aside: as an ex-rower with a keen interest in the sport, I would LOVE to see the 2008 plan for a proper 2K course in the Shipping Channel revived, making one of the few summer sports in which Canada is consistently competitve a centrepiece of thr Olympic park. But considering St-Catherine's has a totally world-class course already it seems unlikely this would happen, and rowing will be relegated to a distant site -- as in London, Beijing, and Athens.
Before Queen's Park decided to just admit reality and sell the Pan-Ams as 'Toronto 2015,' it was, of course, a "Golden Horseshoe" bid. This resulted, as we know, in ridiculously dispersed facilities to spread a bit of Pan-Am pixie dust to as many ridings--sorry, I mean municipalities!--as practicable.
Do we really intend to hold swimming events, one of the two marquee Olympic sports, in a venue at UT-Scarborough that won't be accessible by rapid transit even in 2024? Or to have a velodrome in a field in Milton?
It seems that an Olympic bid with a reasonable chance of success would have to propose new facilities in a central location, IE the Port Lands, per the IOC's well-documented preference for having as many events as possible co-located in an Olympic 'park.' That means duplicating specialized sporting venues which already face non-trivial 'legacy' questions.
There are always some events held at a distance from the central venues in any Olympics, typically those that require large outdoor courses (ie rowing, mountain biking, etc). But I find it hard to see how Toronto could succeed without significantly centralizing some of the core sports around the proposed Olympic stadium. That means additional cost to duplicate facilities, and undermines a significant part of the supposed advantage of having hosted the Pan-Ams first.
It will be interesting to see how Tory proposes to thread this needle, since he doesn seem quite bullish on on Olympic bid.
An aside: as an ex-rower with a keen interest in the sport, I would LOVE to see the 2008 plan for a proper 2K course in the Shipping Channel revived, making one of the few summer sports in which Canada is consistently competitve a centrepiece of thr Olympic park. But considering St-Catherine's has a totally world-class course already it seems unlikely this would happen, and rowing will be relegated to a distant site -- as in London, Beijing, and Athens.
Admiral Beez
Superstar
That makes sense to me. Focus on supporting the sport(s), not the circus.
By 2024 there may be no massive media sponsorships to milk since television may well be dead, and instead free content rules the day. Even today I watch live sports for free on http://agr8tvbox.ca/ By 2024 no one will be willing to pay for any sports coverage.
Instead of postponing infrastructure and development in the hopes of getting the Olympics, let's just build the city we want now.