WATCH: The athlete’s village is near complete and some venues are open but others are still under construction and security preps are ongoing. Mark McAllister reports.
TORONTO – Wednesday marks 100 days to the opening of the Pan Am/Parapan Games and organizers say “they are going to deliver what they promised.”
“It’s been a long five or six years…and there’s just massive enthusiasm everywhere,” Pan Am chair David Peterson said. “We are in very, very good organizational shape.”
The Pan Am chair said the venues and facilities are “virtually” done and the Athletes Village is already completed. Ticket sales are on par for what was expected 100 days prior to the opening.
So far, some 350,000 of the 1.2 million Pan Am tickets have been sold, and according to organizers the opening ceremony is sold out. Details of the ceremony have yet to be released.
Tickets for gold-medal games for some sports, such as men’s baseball, men’s soccer and men’s basketball are already sold out.
Sales for Pan Am tickets were halted on March 9 and are slated to resume mid-April.
Peterson said there are still a few obstacles to overcome leading up to the opening ceremony.
“Lots of things can go wrong, and things will go wrong,” Peterson admitted. “So, the question is how do we fix it as we go. We think we have the mechanisms in place..the personnel, we have the people, the volunteers and massive enthusiasm.”
However, traffic in the Greater Toronto Area remains a concern for some residents. Last week, Ontario’s transportation minister said commuters will have to “do their part” to avoid gridlock during this summer’s games.
Games’ officials are banking on a 20 per cent reduction in traffic – through carpooling, transit use and other means – to keep delays at a minimum during the international competitions. However, Michael Harris, the Progressive Conservative transportation critic, said last week that the government’s goal of reducing traffic by a fifth is “wishful thinking.”
The Pan Am chair says there are two choices when it comes to handling potential traffic woes.
“You can sit at home and get neurotic worrying about traffic that doesn’t exist or you can sort of become part of the solution,” Peterson said. “We think we have solutions.”
The Pan Am Games will run from July 10 to 26, followed by the Parapan Am Games from Aug. 7 to 15.
–with a files from Global News reporter Mark McAllister and The Canadian Press.
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