FOR CANADIANS
There are many reasons for Canadians, and people living in Southern Ontario in particular, to be excited about hosting the 2015 Pan American and Parapan American Games in Toronto. The key benefits of hosting the Games focus on sport development and community development.
1. Sport Infrastructure
The Games will create much-needed new and updated sport facilities, particularly for Ontario’s amateur and recreational athletes. These facilities will be key community legacies that will launch athlete development through grassroots sport and increased physical activity within the general population.
There six major legacy facilities in the Toronto 2015 plan:
- The Canadian Sport Institute Ontario will provide interdisciplinary training, sport science, state-of-the-art equipment, sport medicine and advanced coaching.
- The Pan American Aquatics Centre, featuring a dive tank and twin 50-metre pools, will be the premier aquatics facility in Canada.
- Two additional 50-metre training pools, one located on each side of the Toronto region, are also part of the venue legacy.
- Pan American Stadium will create the capacity for hosting world-class competitions and also have an extensive community legacy.
- The Pan American Velodrome will be the only indoor 250-metre cycling track in Canada and one of only two in North America.
2. Legacy Endowment
Toronto 2015 will secure the long-term viability of key Games legacy venues through a legacy fund that has two primary goals: to support the long-term development of amateur sport, and to support the ongoing operation and maintenance of major Games legacy facilities.
3. Parasport Development
The Parapan American Games will work to enhance parasport through initiatives like parasport-specific coaching resource development, offering test events at every Parapan American Games competition venue before the dates of the Games, hosting a Parasport Innovation Conference, and an increased number of opportunities for classification.
4. Volunteer Recruitment
Toronto 2015 will develop a cohort of both general and sport-specific volunteers numbering 19,000 in total. At the conclusion of the Games, these volunteers will be a human legacy of qualified individuals, youth leaders and technical delegates.
5. Transfer of Knowledge, Equipment and Assets
This program will coordinate the flow of information that will help sport organizations in all aspects of sport development and assist in planning future sport hosting activities. The Games will also distribute surplus equipment at the conclusion of the Games.
1. Economic Impact and Job Creation
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.
2. Pan American Village – A New Community
The Pan American Village will become a new economically, socially and environmentally sustainable community. This new community will address public policy objectives including the reduction of urban sprawl, delivery of affordable housing, enhanced access to public transit, and reduction of the environmental impact of development.
3. Urban Renewal
The new infrastructure built for the Games will help revitalize the communities in which they are located. These facilities will redevelop brownfields, enhance transportation networks and create local economic opportunity.
4. Social Inclusion
Toronto 2015 will work to establish a consultative process that allows the region’s diverse communities to engage in the decision-making process in respectful and meaningful ways. The planning and execution of the Parapan American Games, for example, will be fully integrated with the Pan American Games, ensuring a constant standard excellence.
5. Youth Development
Toronto 2015 will engage youth with initiatives such as sponsoring community sport, supporting coaching and leadership development for local youth, offering job mentoring opportunities, and hosting an international Youth Sport Summit.
6. Event Management
The event management requirements of the Pan American Games will provide experience and training opportunities to the region’s already large contingent of skilled workers and volunteers. It will expand the region’s capacity for event hosting and accelerate the already significant economic opportunities in the region’s service sector.
7. Cultural Festival Legacies
Toronto 2015 will coordinate and sponsor a Pan American cultural festival that will begin in the years before the Games and continue through to the Closing Ceremony.
FOR PAN AMERICAN NATIONS
Toronto 2015 presents a number of exciting and valuable opportunities both to the individual athletes, coaches, teams and National Olympic Committees of the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO), and also to PASO itself.
Creating New Opportunities for Athletes and NOCs
1. Athlete Scholarships
The Toronto 2015 Athlete Scholarship Program will give high performance athletes in a variety of sports the chance to live and train in Toronto leading up to the 2015 Games.
2. Coaching Seminars and Clinics
Toronto 2015 will host three regional coaching conferences per year from 2011 to 2014, covering on-site costs for coaches selected by PASO NOCs. The Coaching Association of Canada will also host the International Council for Coach Education continental coaching conference for the Americas in Toronto in 2014.
3. 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 NOCs. Topics will include sport marketing, grant application writing, communications, media relations and event planning. Toronto 2015 will cover on-site costs for PASO participants.
4. Travel Support Grant
Toronto 2015 will provide a travel support grant that will provide real budget relief and allow NOCs to invest their resources in their teams and athletes instead of airfare.
5. Organizational Excellence and Experience
Toronto and its surrounding region are experienced hosts of a variety of international sport events. In 2015, the experience and expertise of the Toronto Games team will combine with the experience and talent of the veterans of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
6. Ideal Competitive Conditions
July in Toronto means long, warm, sunny days and comfortable evenings with an average daytime temperature of 26 degrees Celsius at a competition-ideal altitude of 112 metres above sea level.
7. 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.
8. Your Hometown in Canada
Toronto is home to people from every PASO nation. Every athlete who comes to the Toronto Games will have a built-in cheering section from his or her own country and culture.
9. Dedicated Cars and Drivers
In addition to the standard allocation of dedicated cars and drivers to the people holding key leadership positions within PASO, the IOC and the International Sport Federations, Toronto 2015 will provide every NOC with a dedicated car and driver for each of the NOC President and the Secretary General, regardless of team size.
10. Enhanced Rate Card
Toronto 2015 will provide NOC’s with an “enhanced” rate card system that offers the best rates and greatest convenience in obtaining the services and resources they might require in Toronto.
Continuing to Build the Brand and Influence of the Pan American Games
1. Guaranteed Financial Commitment
All levels of government – federal, provincial and municipal – are solidly behind Toronto 2015. The Province of Ontario is the Games deficit guarantor. This is secure support from stable government sources which ensures that Toronto can execute the 2015 Games with an optimal blend of reliability and ambition.
2. 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. It is also one of the most vibrant media markets in the world and an easy drive from the United States.
3. Media Hub
Toronto is a true global media capital with six major daily newspapers, four general all-sports television networks, multiple specialty sport networks and one of the first all-sports radio stations in the world. Toronto has the technology and talent to bring the 2015 Pan Am Games to more people in more ways in more locations than ever before.
4. Broadcast of 2011 and 2015
Toronto 2015 will work with Guadalajara 2011 to broadcast the 2011 Games in Canada to leverage sponsorships, partnerships and ticket sales for 2015. For the Toronto 2015 Games, the broadcast commitment will include more than 300 hours of coverage and full adoption of the latest web-based and mobile media strategies.
5. Transfer-of-Knowledge Program
Toronto 2015 will be an active partner with both the Canadian and PASO sport communities to contribute to the on-going development of resources available to communities and countries that plan to bid for and host major sport events.
6. Games Hosting Internships
Individuals from potential future host organizing committees throughout PASO will have the opportunity to work in staff positions across multiple disciplines with the Toronto 2015 Host Organizing Committee.
7. Volunteer Recruitment
The anticipated 19,000 Games volunteers required for Toronto 2015 will include volunteers recruited from diverse communities, with these volunteers participating in an innovative training program that will be part of a web-based service available to sport organizations throughout the PASO community.
