Toronto’s possible bid for the 2024 Olympics has hit a bit of a snag, as none of the city’s budget committee members endorsed a Toronto bid at a meeting this week.
Several committee members expressed their opposition to the bid, and the closest thing Toronto 2024 had to support was a hypothetical endorsement if the city’s bid gets the hosting cost covered by the private sector.
Canada’s The Star has the story here, summarizing the budget committee’s response to the bid as a “meh.”
The budget committee can’t necessarily kill a Toronto 2024 bid – The Star reports that city mayor John Tory and the Canadian Olympic Committee are the ones who must ultimately put in a bid – but their non-endorsement certainly hurts the momentum of the campaign.
The idea for a Toronto 2024 bid came out of a groundswell of national pride in how the city hosted the Pan American Games last month. But city council members said the harsh financial realities of how much hosting an Olympic event costs put a damper on that excitement for a Toronto-based Olympic Games.
From The Star:
Crawford (Ward 36, Scarborough Southwest) said that after the Pan Am Games ended, he was inclined to “ride the wave” and support Toronto pursuing the 2024 Olympics.
“But I’m starting to look at the fiscal realities, the cost of all that, and the fact that Los Angeles has actually put in a bid,” he said. “I’m not saying no to it at this point, but I’m sort of cautiously stepping back a little bit to wait and see.”
The Toronto bid also had to deal with the fact that Los Angeles seems set to get into the race as a last-minute bid. Toronto would have been the only North American bid after Boston’s proposal collapsed, but the addition of Los Angeles makes it more difficult for Toronto to ultimately win the Games.
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