Pan Am Games Toronto
On August 30th, the Pan American Sports Organization’s (PASO) Evaluation Commission visited key sites slated for the Pan / Parapan American Games 2015, and had the opportunity to meet with Bid and senior government officials, and renowned athletes and officials involved in Toronto’s bid.

The 2015 Pan American Games will bring 10,000 athletes and officials to Ontario, along with 250,000 tourists. The Games will trigger 15,000 new jobs in the province, primarily in construction, tourism and event support.

Why Toronto should host the 2015 Pan American Games:

1. Organizational Excellence and Experience
Toronto and the Greater Golden Horseshoe region are experienced hosts of a variety of international sport events. The International Triathlon Union World Cup, World Basketball Championships, World Baseball Classic and Road World Cycling Championships are all part of the region’s hosting resumé. The 2007 FIFA Under-20 World Cup broke all tournament attendance records to become one of the largest single-sport events in Canadian history. At Games time, the experience and expertise already in and around the Greater Goldern Horseshoe will combine with the procedures, lessons and, most importantly, dedicated people with sport hosting backgrounds from across Canada, including veterans of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, to make Toronto 2015 one of the most talented and tested host city teams in the world.

2. Ideal Competitive Conditions
At Toronto 2015, Pan American athletes will compete in optimal conditions, giving them the best chance to excel. Existing facilities in the Toronto 2015 venue plan are proven and world-class, including venues like the Air Canada Centre, home of the Toronto Raptors, and the Rogers Centre which welcomed the World Baseball Classic earlier this year. All new venues will be built to the highest standard in order to meet or exceed International Sport Federation requirements and enhance the experience and facilitate the performance of the athletes. The newly-constructed Pan American Village will meet Olympic standards for comfort and convenience and will provide a service-oriented home-away-from home that is convenient and secure, vibrant and welcoming. The Pan American Games are scheduled from July 10 to 26, 2015 and the Parapan American Games are scheduled from August 7 to 14, 2015. Athletes will compete in a clean and healthy climate ideally suited for performance. July and August in Toronto provide long, warm, sunny days and comfortable evenings with an average daytime temperature of 26° C at a competition-ideal altitude of 112 metres above sea level.

3. Welcoming, Safe Communities
Toronto is famous among global visitors for its safety and cleanliness. The Economist magazine ranked Toronto the fifth “most liveable” city in the world and the Mercer survey points to Toronto as the best city for personal safety in the Western Hemisphere. The city’s neighbourhoods and streets are safe day and night; parks, ravines and a network of hiking trails knit together the city’s urban communities. There are bike paths, beaches and iconic architecture along with globally-recognized museums, art galleries and performing arts centres all walking distance from each other. From the third largest theatre district in the world, to one of the highest observation decks on the planet in the CN Tower, and to the internationally-famous Niagara Falls just an hour away, Toronto offers countless reasons to enjoy the world-class setting of the Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan Am Games.

4. every Athlete’s Hometown in Canada
Toronto is home to a population that speaks more than 100 different languages and to people from every one of the PASO countries. Sport is one of the most powerful ways that this multicultural society has taught and united its children, youth and communities. It is impossible to live, work and play in Toronto without seeing – every day in a thousand different ways – that Toronto residents are global citizens. Every athlete who comes to the Games will have a built-in cheering section from his or her own country and culture. Toronto’s tapestry of nationalities also enlivens the cultural life of the city, with international festivals like Caribana, a million-person event that celebrates the Caribbean, and Salsa on St. Clair, a dynamic event that highlights the city’s large Latin community.

5. revenue-Driving Market
Toronto is Canada’s financial capital, the third-largest financial market in North America and home to a regional population of 8.1 million people. Over 200 million people are within a three-hour flight or one-day drive of Toronto, the vast majority of these in the Eastern time zone which is so critical to broadcast television in Canada and the United States. All of this defines a market that is rich with opportunities for sponsorship, private sector partnerships and revenue generation. Particularly in these times of global economic uncertainty, the stability of the Toronto corporate base creates a market particularly well-matched to the Pan/Parapan American Games; it establishes a financial environment that both helps protect against the volatility of the world economy and generates a wealth of opportunity.

6. Media Hub
Toronto 2015 has ambitious media plans and the capacity to match. As a true global media capital, Toronto boasts six major daily newspapers, four general all-sports television networks, a number of specialty sport networks and one of the first all-sports radio stations in the world. The intensity of the Toronto media market ensures that the communications vehicles, technology and talent will be available to bring the stories of the 2015 Pan/Parapan Am Games to more people in more ways in more parts of the world than ever before. It will allow Toronto 2015 to give PASO athletes and sponsors more exposure at home while also offering fans from all corners of the Americas and the Caribbean unprecedented choice in experiencing the Games from the comfort and convenience of their living rooms, offices, cafés, community centres and street corners through the use of new media and mobile technology.

7. International Sport Development
The Toronto 2015 Pan/Parapan Am Games will make an historic commitment to assisting all nations within the Pan American Sports Organization to prepare for success at the 2015 Games and beyond. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, the Toronto 2015 Games plan includes a number of initiatives designed to engage Pan American nations in sport legacy programs that begin before the Games.

Athlete Scholarships: The PASO Athlete Scholarship
Program will support high performance athletes in a variety of sports from Pan American nations to live and train in Canada with Canadian athletes in advance of the 2015 Games.

Coaching Seminars and Clinics: Toronto 2015, working with the Coaching Association of Canada (CAC), will organize and host three regional conferences per year from 2011 to 2014 for coaches selected by PASO National Olympic Committees. With the assistance of Toronto 2015, the CAC will also play host to the International Council for Coach Education (ICCE) continental coaching conference for the Americas in Toronto in 2014.

Sport Administration and Marketing Workshops: Toronto 2015 will host in Pan American countries three regional sport management workshops per year from 2011 to 2014 for PASO National Olympic Committees. Topics will include sport marketing, grant application writing, communications, media relations and event planning.

Transfer-of-Knowledge and Information Program: The Toronto 2015 legacy plan includes a multi-faceted transfer-of knowledge program designed to help NOC’s strengthen their organizational capabilities and take the next steps toward hosting the Pan/Parapan Am Games or other major sport events themselves.

Games Hosting Internships: Individuals from potential future host organizing committees throughout PASO will have the opportunity to work in staff positions with the Toronto 2015 Host Organizing Committee.

8. Guaranteed Financial Commitment
All levels of government – federal, provincial and municipal – are solidly behind Toronto 2015, having already committed to support the $1.4 billion Games budget. The Province of Ontario will serve as the Games deficit guarantor. This is secure support from stable government sources that provides a rock solid foundation to the Toronto bid and to the 2015 Pan/Parapan Am Games even in the context of a turbulent global economy. It ensures that Toronto will be able to execute the 2015 Games with an excellent blend of reliability and ambition.

9. Broadcast of 2011 and 2015
Toronto’s ambitious media plan will bring the Pan Am Games an Olympic-style presence in both broadcast and web-based media. Toronto 2015 will work with the Guadalajara 2011 Pan American Games to arrange for up to 50 hours of coverage from the Guadalajara Games to be broadcast in Canada to build excitement for the Pan/Parapan Am Games and leverage sponsorships, partnerships and ticket sales for 2015. For the Toronto 2015 Games, the Games broadcast commitment will provide more than 300 hours of coverage in English, French and Spanish, and will include the full adoption of the latest web-based and mobile media strategies.

Official Website: http://www.toronto2015.org/