Toronto Pan Am Team Studies Vancouver, Student Referendum on Aquatics Venue

Vancouver Lessons for Toronto

Toronto 2015 Pan Am organizers utilized the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games to learn lessons on how to host a major international sporting event.

Toronto 2015 Chairman Roger Garland and CEO Ian Troop presented a report on their Vancouver Olympics experience to the board of directors on Thursday. Toronto 2015 had a presence in Vancouver throughout the entire Games.

Garland said he was impressed with how Vancouver organizers reacted to problems especially in the early days of the Games. He noted that in a complex event that there are bound to be unexpected problems that occur.

"The real challenge for management is to try to be ready is that when things go wrong to react positively," Garland said after the board meeting. "I think Vancouver obviously had some issues to deal with specifically at the front end and I think they did an outstanding job responding to those needs. It is a complicated thing putting on Games like this and we have to be ready as best we can to handle it."

Toronto 2015 is in the early phases of planning for the Games after winning the host rights last November. Thursday's board meeting was the first for Troop after he took office last month. He is in the process of finding a senior management team to form the core of the organization.

"It has been a very busy month. I have tried to get off to a very fast start and I do believe in on the job training," Troop said. "You learn by doing and that is the mantra I have taken."

While is searching for the right personal, Troop will be in transit over the next week. This weekend he visits Vancouver to learn about aspects of hosting a para-athlete event. He then travels to Mexico City to meet with Pan American Sports President Mario Vazquez Rana for the first time. After the meeting, he travels to Guadalajara to meet with organizers of the 2011 Pan Am Games.

Pan Am Referendum at U of Toronto

University of Toronto student are voting this week on a referendum to use student fees to build a new $140-million athletics center that would host swimming and diving events for the 2015 Pan Am Games.

Voting for the referendum ends Friday. If it passes students would pay an additional $80 per year in fees even if they do not get to use the facility by the time it is finished.

University administration and the student union are backing the referendum. Toronto 2015 CEO Ian Troop expressed confidence on Thursday that students would pass the measure. Result will be announced on Monday.

"Everything I've heard is that the students understand the value of the facility that they are getting and that there is going to be a favorable outcome," Troop said. "I don't expect us to have to cross any bridges. If we do we will. At this point with the enthusiasm of our partners I am really not entertaining too many thoughts about what our fallback will be."

Students would contribute $22 million for the project with the University contributing $8 million. The remaining funds would come from federal, provincial and Pam Am organizing committee funds.

Written by Sam Steinberg.