Boosters gush about Pan Am's effect on Toronto

Jubilant supporters of Toronto's winning bid for the 2015 Pan Am Games are calling the event a boost not only for athletics in Ontario but for everyone living in and around Canada's largest city.  

Members of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) tapped Toronto as the winning venue for the games on the first ballot in a vote held Friday in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The winning bid was announced at around 4:30 p.m. ET, an hour and a half earlier than expected.

Politicians from all three levels of government joined athletes and other bid supporters at the Harbourfront Centre in downtown Toronto to celebrate the win with raucous whoops and pints of beer.

The CBC's Stephanie Matteis, reporting from the party, described the reaction to the premature announcement, saying "at first it was … hushed silence, disbelief, and then pandemonium erupted."

TTC upgrades coming

Matteis said she spoke to people in Hamilton, Milton, and other locations across the Greater Toronto Area who said their communities would be affected by the Games.

The $2.4-billion event will be held in July 10-26, 2015 in Toronto and at 16 other municipalities throughout the Golden Horseshoe and as far north as Barrie. Around $1 billion from that bid will be put toward an athlete's village that will be converted to mixed-use housing after the games have concluded.

Alex Chan, 14, who hopes to compete in the Games as a diver, said that now that the Games will be held in Toronto, he is going to try "a lot harder" to ensure he competes there.

Alex's mother, Catherine, said she was particularly pleased at the prospect of a new aquatic centre in Toronto.

"This gives us pools that will meet international competition standards, which at the moment Toronto doesn't have … so it will filter down to the younger kids, if they want to learn how to be a competitive swimmer or a competitive diver like Alex," she said.

Toronto Coun. and TTC chair Adam Giambrone said the Games mean improvements to transit across the city.

"Deadlines never hurt," he told CBC News.

"Twenty-fifteen is a hard deadline, so for the link to the airport, for the transit city lines out in Scarborough, and as well for the waterfront lines, this just puts us on a track. Having a deadline really focuses everyone's attention."

Marnie McBean, winner of three Olympic gold medals in rowing, said the win will bring 16,000 new jobs to the city. 

'A Golden Horseshoe enterprise'

In all, more than 50 venues and six new facilities are planned for the region, including $170 million for another aquatic and sports training centre at University of Toronto, a $150-million stadium in Hamilton and four new Olympic-sized pools.

CBC Sports reporter Tom Harrington said, "We talk about Toronto having won the bid, but this is a Golden Horseshoe enterprise."

"And one important legacy, too, which I think the critics will have to deal with, is this … Pan Am village that will be built on the port lands in Toronto that will be turned into mixed income housing. That's a major infrastructure project that both the federal and provincial governments are going to support, because they see it as a legacy for the whole city and for everybody in Toronto."

Some Toronto residents have been less than enthusiastic about the prospect of the Pan Am Games in Toronto. Anti-poverty groups have argued that public funds can be better spent on improving conditions for the poor.

The federal government has already pledged $500 million in support for the Games, while the province will also chip in $500 million. Municipalities and universities will contribute $281 million, with an additional $147 million coming from media, sponsorship and licensing rights.

The province has agreed to pony up funds to cover any cost overruns.

Deputy premier George Smitherman said someone will be appointed to make sure the infrastructure for the Games will be properly implemented. He acknowledged that "obviously working within fiscal resources available in the current times — which are challenging — is going to be a really, really essential part of that person's job."