The Debating Games are well underway as Toronto has a brief lull between the Pan Am Games closing and the Para Pans soon to start here on August 7th.
So it’s time to rev up the debate around T.O. bidding for the Big O. As in Olympics. Also as in the unfortunate and timeless nickname that will forever shackle the legacy of the 1976 Montreal Olympics. The Big O debate is whether or not Toronto should pursue, yet again, a bid for the Summer Olympics. The 2024 Games are next on the docket and the powers that be have only precious weeks to make a call. The smoke hadn’t lifted from the extinguished cauldron Sunday night before politicos, scribes, and sports advocates come out blazing and choosing sides. Add the backdrop of Boston’s humiliating exit from the 2024 race this week and the fire just keeps getting hotter.
I have an obvious bias. I am all for anything that helps Canada, Toronto, athletes, our industry. Let’s face it, there is clear opportunity for economic gain for people like me if we have an Olympics in our city. But candidly I also see the argument for things such as pursuing the Expo 2025 bid. Objectively, that property may generate better, larger, more sustainable, and accessible benefits. But I am not picking or stumping for one over the other. But I do have an unshakably strong opinion about one thing. Context.
Too often when Olympics, or Stadiums, or Expansion Teams are debated, the opponents twist and turn numbers to make them suit their arguments. It’s easy for adversaries of a cause to focus on the examples and cases of past failures. It’s human nature to debate what didn’t work and why that should be a lesson. It’s also human nature to be non-believers. To have little faith. Zero courage. The vast majority of society lives with these shackles.
Thankfully history has been dominated by people who dare to believe. People who dare to think the world isn’t flat. People who have the courage to turn back dictators. People who have faith that man can fly. People who want to walk on the moon. People who want to connect the world electronically.
The Debating Games need those people. People who will point to Barcelona and prove the Olympics can work. People who can point to new types of companies and demonstrate how old models in business, charity, and education are extinct. People who understand how those disruptive models need to be applied to legacy organizations like IOC and FIFA. People who can apply those disruptive models to building infrastructure. People who can apply those disruptive models to managing events.
If we do this, then we will see the real opportunity. The real opportunity isn’t to hold a party for a few elite bureaucrats or sponsors. The real opportunity is to inspire the minds and hearts of our young people. Our old people. Our disenfranchised people. It’s an opportunity to do what we do best. That is, be Canadians.
We say we are a great country. We say we are innovative people. We say we are a community. We say we are entrepreneurs.
So let’s prove it. Let’s bid, win, stage an Olympic Games that creates a legacy of sport, access, equality, and fiscal soundness…that will make us all forget we ever argued about it in the first place.