'A win for the entire Golden Horseshoe'
Posted By DON FRASER AND BILL LANKHOF, SUN MEDIA
Posted 17 days ago
Toronto's Pan Am Games win is also a sports jackpot for Niagara.
That was the sentiment of local bid organizers and politicians who are thrilled Toronto and its GTA partners prevailed to host the 2015 Pan Am Games.
It means St. Catharines' Martindale Pond will host the rowing competition, and Welland the canoeing, kayaking, and long-distance swimming.
Toronto won on the first ballot in Guadalajara, Mexico, beating out bids from Lima, Peru, and Bogota, Colombia.
At a City of St. Catharines employee recognition night, many early-birds at the event at the Quality Hotel Parkway Convention Centre had just got wind of the announcement.
Their excitement was palpable: "Did you hear the good news," said one person, high-fiving another. "Yea, awesome -- just found out," the other replied.
Mayor Brian McMullan was grinning ear-to ear at the gathering.
"Just to have St. Catharines as a host to the rowing events is quite an honour," he said. "It will bring a lot of people to our community, a lot of visitors and tourists.
"It's also great for infrastructure," McMullan said.
"Not only the rowing course, but some of our transportation infrastructure ... and it will be a huge boon not only to our local economy, but the sports community in general.
"It's also a great Niagara story," he said, pointing to other Niagara facets in the bid.
Former St. Catharines mayor Tim Rigby, who led the region's part of the Pan Am bid, declared himself and his team "obviously very, very pleased.
"It's one of the ways you keep this place called Niagara working together," he said in a telephone interview.
Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe had come up short five times in recent years trying to win an international event. Five times they had come home losers in two Olympic, two Commonwealth Games and one attempt to get a World's Fair.
All of which turned the reaction to Friday's victory over Bogota and Lima into a volcanic explosion of emotion at the announcement in Guadalajara. The Toronto bid committee won with 33 votes on the first ballot, well ahead of Lima's 11 and seven for Bogota. As Pan Am president Mario Vazquez Rana prepared to make the announcement, he said "the city to host the 2015 Games is ..."
And, he paused.
"It seemed forever," said Jagoda Pike, chief operating officer of the bid committee, "then you hear 'Toronto' and your head explodes, your heart stops, you scream and I just started hugging people. A girl from a TV station kissed me."
It was minor pandemonium. The large Canadian delegation erupted in applause.
"This is more nerve-racking (then competing). There I had control," said former Canadian Olympian Charmaine Crooks, "here you're at the mercy of other people."
Marcel Aubut, the president-in- waiting of the Canadian Olympic Committee was running around giving everyone hand punches yelling: "We won! We finally won!"
Toronto got a huge boost from the 26 countries that make up the Caribbean contingent, which Barbados delegate Steve Stoute had pushed towards the Canadian bid.
"Toronto is a fantastic choice. I've been to a lot of these and from a technical perspective, it was the best bid. Today's final presentation put them over the top with the support they promised the athletes. It's what delegates wanted to hear," said Stoute. "The Caribbean was 99% supportive."
The Canadian bid emphasized that it was the best from both the athlete's and the Pan Am Games organization perspective. And, it worked. Lima's sentimental plea that it should get the Games because smaller, poorer countries deserved a chance failed, in the end, to resonate with voters.
While Toronto won by a wide margin, this never was a slam dunk.
"It felt pretty cathartic," said Chris Rudge, chief executive officer of the Canadian Olympic Committee. "It's hard to describe the sense of relief when your city's name is mentioned. It's pretty exciting. These decisions aren't always made from a rational perspective, so you always worry that all the hard work is undermined."
It does happen. Many people within Canada's amateur sports family still believe the Atlanta Games should have been Toronto's and that the troubled Commonwealth Games in India really belonged to Hamilton.
Organizers have said a win would bring new jobs, facilities and a little civic pride to Ontario's capital.
Some have questioned the investment in the two-week Games, which includes $1.4 billion for the sporting event itself and $1 billion for an athletes' village -- expected to be turned into a mixed-income neighbourhood serviced by transit.
The federal and provincial governments are each on the hook for 35 per cent of the $1.4 billion, or some $500 million each. Municipalities and private investors will pay the remaining $428.5 million.
Back in St. Catharines, David Oakes, economic development director for the City of St. Catharines, said the Toronto/GTA Games would have a significant impact on this area.
Obvious benefits include better infrastructure for the venues that will be used, he said.
"There are also some real opportunities from a training standpoint," he said. "They get the athletes to come here, (well) before and after the event to do training.
"This is not just a win for Toronto, it is a win for the entire Golden Horseshoe, including St. Catharines and Niagara," St. Catharines MP Rick Dykstra said in an e-mail.
"Our world-class facility at Henley was the natural choice to host the rowing portion of the Games."
dfraser@stcathariensstandard.ca
-- with files from The Canadian Press
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2015 Pan Am Games
Where:Toronto and Greater Toronto Area
When:Pan Am Games: July 10-26, 2015 Parapan Am Games: Aug. 7- 14, 2015
Events held in Niagara:Rowing at Martindale Pond, Port Dalhousie; canoeing, kayaking, and open-water, long-distance swimming in Welland's recreational canal.
Niagara Falls will have a welcome centre for athletes and families.
What now:So now that the Pan Am Games have been snapped up by Toronto, what's next in the process?Page A4
Welland celebrates:Good news for a city hard hit in recent years with industry closures.Page A5
