July 16, 2007
Torontoist vs. Torontoist in... Summer Games!
Torontoist vs. Torontoist is an occasional feature that has two of our staffers debating an issue that is important to our city. We invite our readers to join the debate in the comments section following the post.
Last week, Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive Chris Rudge (who Torontoist believes may have been separated at birth from David Miller) floated the idea that Toronto should seriously consider putting together a bid to host the 2020 Summer Olympics. Rejected for both the 1996 and 2008 games, the reaction in the city to this suggestion has been notably cool. Should Toronto play hard-to-get with the Olympics, or should we, once again, get all dolled up in order to win the affections of the I.O.C?
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KEN HUNT Let us first eschew the notion that hosting the Olympics is somehow not worth the bother. In order to believe that, you would have to believe that the other great cities of the world are terribly and collectively deluded for spending millions of dollars and thousands of hours on their own bids to host the summer games. The three cities competing right now for the 2016 games are Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo. The four cities that London beat out for the 2012 games were Paris, New York, Moscow and Madrid. Some of the cities currently considering bids for 2020 are Rome, Copenhagen, Lisbon and Prague. Every one of those places is already indisputably a world-class city. They are not trying to win the games to improve their image, or because they have a tourism crisis, they are trying to win because winning the games is worthwhile in and of itself. There is simply no other single event that places a city at the centre of the world's attention in the same way that the Olympics do. Being able to pull off an event of this complexity is a huge boost to civic and national pride and the other great cities of the world realize this. Toronto has realized it too, having produced two very credible bids for 1996 and 2008. The cynics will point to the waste and corruption that has plagued the bid process in the past. The cynics will point out that security will be a problem, transportation a nightmare, and that the funds needed to run the games will cause taxes to spiral upwards until we are all living in serfdom, shackled by the Olympic rings. The cynics will say that Toronto doesn't need to spend money on an Olympic stadium, or a diving facility, or a world-class velodrome, when we have problems with poverty and homelessness, but, as Oscar Wilde said, "cynics know the cost of everything and the value of nothing." Hosting the Olympics is more than an opportunity to draw tourism dollars to the city, hosting the Olympics is a chance to be a part of history. It is a chance to celebrate the hard work and accomplishments of young athletes who have dedicated their lives to achieving their dreams. It is a chance for the entire world to come together at one time, in one place, and find the common ground that eludes us so much of the rest of the time. Each Olympics produces incredible stories of triumph, iconic moments that are remembered long after the games have ended, and Toronto should want to be a part of that. Whether or not we can win the 2020 games will have a lot to do with whether Chicago wins 2016. If they do, then North America will be off the table for a while. If they don't, that means that by 2020, the summer games will not have been in North America, the I.O.C's richest market, for nearly a quarter-century. Toronto, with its previous bid experience, would be a natural front-runner. If Chicago wins, we can quietly withdraw, but if they don't we should be ready to put forward our best bid for 2020. Sure, it's possible that we might not be successful, that we might have our hearts broken again, but that sort of defeatism is just the kind of thinking that keeps so many individuals from realizing their Olympic dreams, lets not let it get in the way of ours. | PATRICK METZGER Does Toronto really want to take a shot at the 2020 Olympics? After losing the 1996 games to Atlanta, and 2008 to Beijing, you’d think that even the most tireless local athletic supporters would face the fact that letting the whole idea drop once and for all is the right thing to do. Firstly, let’s look at the motivation of the Canadian Olympic Committee—why do they want yet another Toronto bid? Not because Toronto as a city has shown any real enthusiasm for the idea, or has any particularly geographic merit. The simple fact is that there are only a few urban areas in Canada with the population base to host an event the size of the Olympic Games, and Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver have had or will soon have a shot already. In other words, we shouldn’t be too flattered—Toronto isn’t the first choice, just the only option left to the COC. Olympic boosters, not surprisingly, like to point out the potential benefits of a successful bid—the shot in the arm to civic and national pride, new sports facilities, hundreds of millions in tourist dollars, a chance to show the world that summer in Toronto is more than guns, SARS and roadwork. Unfortunately, before we grab the gold ring, there are a few metaphorical hurdles to get over, hurdles which we’ve proven spectacularly unsuccessful at clearing the last couple of times around. The bid process would be as contentious as ever, since as a city we like the idea of the Olympics, but we sure don’t want to pay for them. Faced with the prospect of property tax increases to fund mammoth swimming pools, stadiums, and high tech accommodations for athletes, Toronto homeowners would once again rise from their torpor to express their displeasure publicly. While that dialogue might be kept relatively civilized, not so the bleak, angry whining of professional poverty pests "Bread Not Circuses" who would emerge blinking from under their rocks to demand that any money raised for the Olympics instead be allocated to soup kitchens and public housing (for the record, I favour both bread and circuses). It’s that kind of civic infighting that amuses the international press and scares off the International Olympic Committee. However, image problems aside, the controversy highlights the very real divisions in the city over the prospect of hosting the games. It’s that divide, more than finances and facilities, that make the prospect of a successful bid so unlikely, and the idea of attempting one so unpalatable. In any case times are changing—bribery, drug scandals, political favouritism, and competition from more popular global events like the World Cup are taking the luster off of the Olympic gold. Before we drop a hundred million bucks just to watch our civic pride suffer another world-class humiliation, let’s ask ourselves if it’s really worth it. |
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By the time 2020 rolls around the slide that the Olympics are already in will have accelerated into a death spiral. All other financial considerations aside the continued willingness of the TV networks to pony up huge licensing fees is in question simply because of waning viewer/advertiser interest. Keep in mind that in the US the Torino games were beat in the ratings by American Idol. The Bejing games will probably be a disaster for the image of the games due to the 1-2-3 combination of corruption, an inevitable totalitarian crackdown and lackluster TV viewership. 2010 will be a glittering success and nobody outside Canada will notice or care.
Best part about this post: The Commodore64 Summer Games! Loved it!
Another distraction from city-building? Nay.
"Best part about this post: The Commodore64 Summer Games! Loved it!"
You may thank the graphic genius of Marc Lostracco for that design.
"Each Olympics produces incredible stories of triumph, iconic moments that are remembered long after the games have ended, and Toronto should want to be a part of that."
Why? And by "each" you mean the Atlanta Olympics were everybody was dressed as Coke cans?
The Olympics is about watching TV and should be 100% funded by companies. When we have the courage to keep all our pools and community centres open at no charge for young people all year long then we can prattle on in Spinal Tap fashion about the Majesty and Pagentry of the Olympics.
could the games become an "excuse" to get a better transit system infrastructure? it seems like pulling teeth to get any of that infrastructure funding from higher-level govs, but maybe with a project like this uniting people in gov, we could get those post-games benfits.
I think if we really want the Summer Games we need to figure out what infrastructure we'd need like a Velodrome or an equestrian course and start building the parts of it that we may need with or without the games, and build it in such a way that we can bolt on extra seats for the games themselves. We need better transit irrespective of getting the games, so let's build better transit!
In that way the Games costs would only reflect those costs that are for modification of venues and for building temporary venues which would be re-roled after the games. We should consider bidding for the Commonwealth Games, World Athletic Championships, World Cycling Championship, World Equestrian Games, Special Olympics World Summer Games etc. to get more use out of the venues and field test our infrastructure for a future Olympic bid.
That is a stellar header graphic, Mr. Lostracco.
But stop using my necklace for a logo.
Marc Lostracco + C64 graphics = teh win
It's a shame that the fate of the Olympics is determined by how many Americans watch it on TV, which in turn means which timezone the Games are in.
I'm a fan of the Olympics in spite numerous reasons not to be, but unless some serious federal and provincial funding comes in for Toronto's pre-existing issues, and soon, I'd have to say no.
As someone who worked in the past with the IOC and who lives in Atlanta, site of the 1996 Olympics, but also loves Toronto (why else would I be on here?), I hopefully can add some perspective.
First of all, the biggest question of if Toronto can get the 2020 games depends on where the 2016 games are held. South America and Africa have never hosted the games and the IOC really wants to change that. If an African country gets the 2016 games (most likely Cape Town, South Africa), the 2020 games almost certainly would go to a city in the Americas. If Rio de Janeiro gets the 2016 games, it makes it much less likely that another city from the Americas would get the 2020 games. The IOC does not like putting back to back Olympics in the same area, even if Rio and Toronto are thousands of miles apart.
Would it be good for Toronto? That all depends on what the city hopes to accomplish. If it is just having a month in the international spotlight, you have to ask does Toronto really need that? What does Toronto gain from being better known worldwide. Make no mistake, it would put Toronto on the lips of people around the globe in a way that has never happened before. No matter what anyone thinks of the 1996 games, it raised Atlanta's visibility in the world in way that Coca-Cola, CNN, and Gone With the Wind never could.
If you're looking for the games to be a way to a lasting legacy of infrastructure improvements, it all depends on how you do it and what plans there are for the facilities after the games. Here in Atlanta, Centennial Olympic Park completely transformed the part of downtown it is located in. The crime rate where I live in sight of the park dropped over 95% between when construction for the games started and the years that followed. What was once boarded up warehouses and the home to the second most violent postal code in the state of Georgia now has a great park, the world's largest aquarium, thousands and thousand of new residents, restaurants, and tons of renovations and new development. If you want to see the area before the Olympics, go rent RoboCop 3, which was shot in Atlanta. They didn't have to dress the neighborhood up much to make it look like an even more decayed version of Detroit.
While the Olympics had a great lasting legacy in downtown, the venues spread across metro Atlanta have come to a variety of fates. The swimming and diving venue has been turned into a recreation center for the Georgia Institute of Technology and Olympic Stadium is now Turner Field, home of the Atlanta Braves. On the other hand, the shooting range venue slowly decayed and no one has found a good use for the tennis center. Sure you could play games there but it's not big enough or close enough to the city center to attract a professional tournament and the large amount of seating is overkill for local tournaments.
I'd love to see Toronto get the 2020 games. In many ways Toronto is the city I wish Atlanta could be. We have some of the same problems and even compete for the stupid title of widest road in North America but Toronto has always seemed to be more about people than about business. That may be hard to see when you are living there but spend some time in a large city in the US, especially a corporate town like Atlanta, and you'll understand what I mean. In the end, I think Atlanta won the games over Toronto in '96 because the bid committee from Atlanta was willing to do what it took to get the games regardless of the cost. I'm glad Atlanta won because it did do wonders for the city and set it on a path of renewal, which is a path that I think Toronto has been able to find on its own and didn't need to travel down that far anyway.
Best wishes for a successful 2020 bid!
--Jason
Jason,
Just wanted to say thanks to you for taking the time to drop by Torontoist and leave such a thoughtful, insightful note on our board. Thanks!
Boo Olympics!
If you Olympic tards want the Games(TM) so badly then you should damn well pay for them yourselves!
Don't mock, but maybe we should just get Montreal to bid again. At least they have most of the facilities from last time and it would pay to refurb the O rather than build a 70,000 seat stadium in Toronto just for the Olympics.
As a Toronto taxpayer, I'm OK with Montreal bidding just as long as I don't have to pay for it!