WATCH: It started slow, but in the end Toronto embraced its Pan Am hosting duties. So is the city ready for more? Just one day after the games wrapped up, talk has turned to a possible Olympic bid for 2024. Eric Sorensen reports.
TORONTO – Boston’s withdrawal from the race to host the 2024 Summer Olympics could make a potential Toronto bid “far more attractive,” particularly if no other American city steps up to the plate, experts said Monday.
“The Boston decision today certainly makes the landscape easier for a Canadian bid, a Toronto bid,” said Bruce Kidd, an Olympics expert at the University of Toronto.
“With no U.S. bid, a Canadian bid has a much stronger argument,” he said, noting that by 2024, it will have been almost three decades since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, the last time the Summer Games were held in North America.
READ MORE: ‘Let the dust settle’ from Pan Am Games before Olympic bid decision: Tory
A spokesman for the U.S. Olympic Committee said Monday that the organization has severed ties with Boston, where the prospect of a bid for the ’24 Summer Games was met with low public support and an active opposition group.
Little time remains for the organization to find another potential host city – the deadline to register interest with the International Olympic Committee is Sept. 15. But there is speculation Los Angeles could be in the running.
Meanwhile, there’s talk of a third Toronto Olympic bid following the city’s successful Pan Am Games, which wrapped up Sunday.
READ MORE: Boston out as candidate for 2024 Olympics
Toronto Mayor John Tory said he wants to let the dust settle before making a decision, adding that officials will conduct a “careful analysis” to determine whether a bid is in the city’s best interest.
“They say it’s not a good idea to go grocery shopping when you’re hungry and in the euphoria of what were a tremendously successful (Pan Am) Games… this is a serious, rational decision that has to be made,” Tory said Monday.
The head of the Canadian Olympic Committee wants to forge ahead with the pitch, and the president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee has also thrown his support behind the idea.
READ MORE: IOC president says facilities, sustainability key to winning 2022 Olympic bid
Organizers for the Pan Am Games have said they should have ballpark figures for the total cost of the event before the bid deadline.
Toronto had unsuccessfully bid for the Olympics twice, most recently for the 2008 Summer Games, when it came second to Beijing. Bids were also discussed on three other occasions but not officially filed.
The IOC rated Toronto’s 2008 bid favourably on infrastructure and technical ability, but raised concerns about its commitment to supporting sports in the community.
Several published reports have estimated a bid would cost at least $50 million and a source confirmed that figure to The Canadian Press.
Comments