Toronto to host 2015 Pan Am Games

[steeper]

My question to you.... what the fuck are the Pan Am Games?












Srsly though. Who even broadcasts them in Canada? Obviously I've heard of them before, and I'm pretty sure Halifax was trying to get them a while ago... but come on. Why are we spending $2.4 billion on a sporting event that no one watches?

[mike8917]

Originally Posted by steeper

Srsly though. Who even broadcasts them in Canada? Obviously I've heard of them before, and I'm pretty sure Halifax was trying to get them a while ago... but come on. Why are we spending $2.4 billion on a sporting event that no one watches?

Cause there using this as a stepping stone to the Olympics just like Rio did.

[charlisangel]

I never heard of these games.

[ourmodernred]

Originally Posted by steeper

My question to you.... what the fuck are the Pan Am Games?












Srsly though. Who even broadcasts them in Canada? Obviously I've heard of them before, and I'm pretty sure Halifax was trying to get them a while ago... but come on. Why are we spending $2.4 billion on a sporting event that no one watches?

More teams compete in the Pan Am Games than in the Winter Olympics.

[steeper]

Originally Posted by ourmodernred

More teams compete in the Pan Am Games than in the Winter Olympics.

There are 80 nations projected to participate in Vancouver 2010, and 40 nations participated in Rio's Pan Am Games.

[FlyingKiwi]

I can't say I've ever heard of them before.

[Omep]

"Pan-Am" sounds very Latin American and it sounds like Canada and the U.S. (along with other North American places that are not Latin American) do not belong.

[Iconic]

I got this

The Pan American Games are a multi-sport event, held every four years in the year before the summer Olympic Games and between competitors from all nations in the Americas. The last edition was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2007. The next will be in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011, followed by the 2015 games in Toronto, Canada^[1].

[FlyingKiwi]

Originally Posted by Omep

"Pan-Am" sounds very Latin American and it sounds like Canada and the U.S. (along with other North American places that are not Latin American) do not belong.

It also initially sounded to me as if it was sponsored by a now-defunct airline.

[Proley]

I'm apathetic. I've never watched the Pan American games on television before, and I can't say I will in 2015. Apparently about $1.4 billion will come from public funding and another $1 billion from private. $2 billion will be generated in economic activity for Toronto. I doubt they will keep to budget, I predict cost overruns and wasted tax payer dollars.

[irishamerican]

Originally Posted by FlyingKiwi

It also initially sounded to me as if it was sponsored by a now-defunct airline.

that was exactly what i thought, i was saying Pan-Am why arent they gone lol

[Richard]

sounds lame, never watched them. sounds like canada + the us and a bunch of third world fail countries, doesnt sound too good unless there is like soccer in it.

[AAASAS]

The true question is why not?

It brings new infrastructure to the city, new housing developments, new sports complexes, that aren't going to be used just for the PANAM games, they will go on the serve the city after. Mind your own business Ottawa boy, your from the GTA aren't you, how could you see this as not a good thing?

Toronto also gets worldpride 2014. Which I'm going to make sure I am outta town for.

[ourmodernred]

Originally Posted by steeper

There are 80 nations projected to participate in Vancouver 2010, and 40 nations participated in Rio's Pan Am Games.

But how many of those 80 are participating in one event? Many.

Originally Posted by Richard

sounds lame, never watched them. sounds like canada + the us and a bunch of third world fail countries, doesnt sound too good unless there is like soccer in it.

Most of Latin America is hardly "third world fail"

[steeper]

Originally Posted by AAASAS

The true question is why not?

It brings new infrastructure to the city, new housing developments, new sports complexes, that aren't going to be used just for the PANAM games, they will go on the serve the city after. Mind your own business Ottawa boy, your from the GTA aren't you, how could you see this as not a good thing?

Toronto also gets worldpride 2014. Which I'm going to make sure I am outta town for.

Mind my own business because I live in Ottawa... but I should care because I'm from the GTA? That makes no sense at all.

I'm happy about the infrastructure improvements this is going to bring, but I'm also confused as to why the government would throw so much support behind it without doing anything to bring the games to the forefront of people's minds. Toronto is a long way from Montevideo and São Paulo; if these games are going to be successful then they need to get Canadians buying tickets and something tells me people in Trois-Rivières aren't going to be rushing to buy tickets and book hotels in Toronto for an event they've scarcely heard of.

Vancouver 2010 will be successful because Canadians care a great deal about the Winter Olympics and about winter sports in general. The Pan Am games lack national recognition as something great though. There was little buzz created about the campaign (I didn't even know Toronto was pitching something for it until they won, and I read the CBC religiously).

It seems foolish to invest in an event like this without first investing in making people care through public awareness campaigns, and I don't know... maybe actually getting some form of media coverage of the 2007 games in Rio? I remember the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games and the 1998 Nagano Winter Games vividly and watched the events constantly, but I didn't even know that Winnipeg had hosted the 1999 Pan Am Games until I started looking into Toronto's winning bid.