Thursday, November 12th 2009

By Lily Panamsky

Toronto edged out Lima and Bogota to win the bid for the 2015 Pan American Games. It was announced on Nov. 6 that Toronto and the surrounding area won the bid to host the two-week games.

The Pan Am Games is a large summer sporting event held every four years for athletes of the 42 Pan American Sports Organization member countries that includes above 40 sports. Executive Director of Tourism Hamilton discussed early projected numbers for the overall Pan Am game. “[The estimated number of visitors] that will come into Southern Ontario is 250,000. We haven’t done the projections [for Hamilton] yet, but we will…The economic impact will range somewhere between $1.5 and 2 billion.”

The Pan Am project will run an estimated total budget of $1.4 billion, partly subsidized by the federal and provincial governments, plus $1 billion for an athlete’s village, and it will involve 17 municipalities, three universities – including McMaster – and over 50 venues.

The city of Hamilton will be one of the cities hosting events for the games. A new 15,000-seat stadium will be created over the next six years to host athletics events during the Pan Am Games and further Tiger Cat football games; the preferred location for the stadium is north of Barton Street, between Bay Street and Queen Street. A practice track just outside of the stadium will also be created. Hamilton is also receiving a velodrome, an indoor cycling facility. Additional events such as volleyball will be held at Copps Coliseum.

Roger Trull, president of University Advancement at McMaster, stated, “Hamilton is the largest recipient of facilities. We desperately need [a new stadium] and… I don’t think there is a permanent velodrome in Canada, so it allows Hamilton to become the cycling centre of the country.”

The estimated cost of the stadium is $150 million. Hamilton Ward I Councillor Brian McHattie stated that, “So far the city council has allocated $60 million for the stadium from the Hamilton Future Fund, which a source of funds we have internally here, but for the stadium to go from a 15,000 seat capacity to a 25,000—which is what we would need for Ti-Cat games and larger events like that—the additional funds—some 50, 60 million—will have to be raised from private sources.”

Trull explained, “There’s a funding formula that they have. So the government pays 56 per cent of the cost, and the host city, or in our case, the university, pays 44 per cent of the cost.”

McMaster University, being a strong partner to the city of Hamilton, will have the opportunity to participate in the Pan Am project as well. A new swimming pool will be constructed at the university, the outdoor running track will be resurfaced, and the Ron Joyce stadium field will be redone to meet international standards. No medal events will be held at the university and that the new facilities will be used as training facilities, but Trull maintained “A lot of this is still up in the air, it’s very common with these bids, that when a bid is won, you get down to the real work and lots of stuff changes—even the sites of various events.”

Adames estimated the job creation for the Games will be about 10,000, including jobs that deal with initial construction, games-planning, and operation of facilities. The estimated number of initial construction jobs for the stadium, velodrome, and pool in Hamilton is 2000.

Trull maintained that, although the Pan Am Games will not generate monetary profit to McMaster, the university’s participation in the Pan Am project will be beneficial to the school. “I think it’s a great thing. It’s certainly a great thing for Hamilton, and you know, what’s good for Hamilton is good for McMaster. The pool is something that we really need and we would really benefit from, we’ve got a lot of challenges to figure out how to pay for it, all that kind of thing, so it’s not going to be an easy process for us, but it will be a great addition to our campus for sure.”

Trull remained optimistic about the changes the Games will bring to Hamilton. “It’s going to build profile, it’s going to help revitalize downtown by putting the stadium and the velodrome there, and the whole process has been a big partnership between the city and the University and that will continue.”

“This Pan Am Games victory actually goes back a long time,” said Trull. Hamilton bid and lost to New Delhi, India for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and then bid and lost once again to Halifax for the 2014 Commonwealth Games; Halifax later withdrew its bid.

Rio de Janiero, Brazil hosted the last Pan Am Games in 2007 and Guadalajara, Mexico will host the 2011 Games.

Tags: 2015, Pan Am Games, Toronto