The legacies of losing: rethinking the ‘failure’ of Toronto's Olympic Games bids

Abstract

Toronto has failed to secure the right to the host the Olympic Games on five different occasions (1960, 1964, 1976, 1996 and 2008). Toronto's Olympic bids do not emerge from a love of sport, instead they have been driven by the desire to use the Olympic Games as a vehicle to stimulate a large-scale redevelopment of Toronto's waterfront. This research demonstrates that sport and recreation are not seen as important pieces of the city's public infrastructure, and consequently Toronto has had to place its hope on the legacies of hosting (or winning), which even if successful, might represent a losing strategy for sport development.

Notes

^1.Oliver, ‘Toronto's Olympic Aspirations’; Laidley, ‘Ecosystem Approach and the Global Imperative’ and Laidley, ‘Creating an Environment for Change’.

^2.Zukin, Cultures of Cities, 7.

^3.Hiller, ‘Mega-Events, Urban Boosterism and Growth Strategies’.

^4. A few exceptions include Alberts, ‘Berlin's Failed Bid’; Oliver, ‘Toronto's Olympic Aspirations’ and Westerbeek, ‘Amsterdam Olympic Games of 1928 and 2028’.

^5.Cochrane, Peck, and Tickell, ‘Manchester Plays Games’.

^6.Essex and Chalkley, ‘Mega-Sporting Events in Urban and Regional Policy’.

^7.Gold and Gold, ‘Olympic Cities’, 300.

^8. Cochrane, Peck, and Tickell, ‘Manchester Plays Games’, 1326 and 1327.

^9.Hiller, ‘Post-Event Outcomes and the Post-Modern Turn’, 108.

^10. Ibid.

^11. Ibid.

^12.Lenskyj, ‘When Winners are Losers’; Owen, ‘Sydney 2000 Olympics and Urban Entrepreneurialism’; Rutheiser, Imagineering Atlanta; Waitt, ‘Playing Games with Sydney’ and Whitelegg, ‘Going for Gold’.

^13. Essex and Chalkley, ‘Mega-Sporting Events in Urban and Regional Policy’, 201.

^14.Dyreson, ‘America's Athletic Missionaries’, 73.

^15.Essex and Chalkley, ‘Olympic Games: Catalyst of Urban Change’; Hiller, ‘Mega-Events, Urban Boosterism and Growth Strategies’; Hiller, ‘Post-Event Outcomes and the Post-Modern Turn’ and Oliver, ‘Toronto's Olympic Aspirations’.

^16.Burbank, Adranovich, and Heying, Olympic Dreams, 28.

^17. Hiller, ‘Post-Event Outcomes and the Post-Modern Turn’, 317.

^18. Westerbeek, ‘Amsterdam Olympic Games of 1928 and 2028’.

^19. Ibid., 786.

^20. Ibid.

^21. Ibid., 786–7.

^22.Masterman, ‘Losing Bids, Winning Legacies’.

^23.Bercovitz,‘Critical Analysis of Canada's “Active Living”’.

^24. Oliver, ‘Toronto's Olympic Aspirations’, 770.

^25. D. MacDonald, ‘Harbor Board Presents Multi-Million-Dollar Island Face-Lifting Plan’, The Globe and Mail, September 13, 1951, 15.

^26.City Council Minutes Toronto, ‘Report No. 7 of the Committee’.

^27.The Globe and Mail, April 9, 1954, 59.

^28. Oliver, ‘Toronto's Olympic Aspirations’.

^29. C. Matheson, ‘The Olympic Games Invitation’, The Globe and Mail, April 19, 1955, 6.

^30. F. Tumpane, ‘Olympic Games? Phooey?’ The Globe and Mail, April 19, 1955, 3.

^31. ‘Allen links Olympic Bid to 50-Mile Waterfront Scheme’, The Globe and Mail, July 18, 1968, 5.

^32.Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto, An Invitation to Stage the Games.

^33. D. Beddoes, ‘Honeymoon We Can't Afford’, The Globe and Mail, November 23, 1967, 42.

^34. Oliver, ‘Toronto's Olympic Aspirations’.

^35. D. Crombie, personal interview, July 13, 2004, Toronto, ON.

^36. Oliver, ‘Toronto's Olympic Aspirations’.

^37. Ibid., 783.

^38. C. Hume, ‘Ready for Our Closeup?’ The Toronto Star, October 21, 2000, B04 and B05.

^39. Ibid., B04.

^40. Ibid.

^41. B. Kidd, personal interview, August 4, 2004, Toronto, ON, and B. Kidd, personal interview, July 8, 2011, Toronto, ON.

^42.Booth, Kidd, and Toohey, ‘Three Responses to the IOCs Award’, 27.

^43. Kidd quoted in R. Doolittle, ‘The Stakes Are High in Toronto's Race to the Games’. The Toronto Star, October 14, 2011, http://www.thestar.com/sports/pan_am_games/2011/10/15/the_stakes_are_high_in_torontos_race_to_the_games.html (accessed January 01, 2012).

^44. J. Kernaghan, ‘Our Sports System's Broke, Panel Says’, The Hamilton Spectator, September 29, 2000, online (accessed October 24, 2012); ‘COA Official Says Canada Needs to Revamp Sports Structure or Else Court Failure’, The Canadian Press, February 20, 2001, online (accessed October 24, 2012) and K. Wamsley, personal interview, June 2, 2004, London, ON.

^45. Booth, Kidd, and Toohey, ‘Three Responses to the IOCs Award’, 27.

^46.Kidd, ‘The Global Sporting Legacy’, 143.

^47. B. Kidd, personal interview, August 4, 2004, Toronto, ON.

^48. B. Kidd, personal interview, August 4, 2004, Toronto, ON, and B. Kidd, personal interview, July 8, 2011, Toronto, ON.

^49.Canada, Sport in Canada.

^50.MacIntosh and Whitson, The Game Planners.

^51.McCloy, ‘Canada Hosts the World’.

^52.Zakus, ‘Genesis of the Canadian Sport System’.

^53.Kidd, ‘Culture Wars of the Montreal Olympics’, 154.

^54.Whitson, ‘Bringing the World to Canada’, 1224.

^55. Oliver, ‘Toronto's Olympic Aspirations’, 769.

^56.Latouche, ‘Montreal 1976’.

^57.Liao and Pitts, ‘Brief Historical Review of Olympic Urbanization’.

^58. Latouche, ‘Montreal 1976’, 260.

^59. Ibid., 261.

^60. Kidd, ‘Culture Wars of the Montreal Olympics’, 157–8.

^61.Green and Houlihan, ‘Advocacy Coalitions and Elite Sport Policy Change’.

^62.Government of Canada, Federal Policy.

^63.Canada, The Canadian Sport Policy, 16.

^64. B. Kidd, personal interview, July 8, 2011, Toronto, ON, and Rose, ‘Sport and Civic Engagement’.

^65. Rose, ‘Sport and Civic Engagement’.

^66.Clutterbuck and Howarth, Toronto's Quiet Crisis.

^67. Ibid., 23.

^68. Ibid., 22.

^69. Ibid.

^70.City of Toronto, Our Common Grounds Parks, 24.

^71. Ibid., 25.

^72. Ibid.

^73. K. Pitre, personal interview, July 6, 2011, Toronto, ON.

^74.Pitre et al., A Sport Framework, 5, italics added.

^75. Ibid., 5.

^76. K. Pitre, personal interview, July 6, 2011, Toronto, ON, and J. Evensen, personal interview, July 5, 2011, Toronto, ON.

^77. Pitre et al., A Sport Framework, 6.

^78. Ibid., 12.

^79. B. Kidd, personal interview, July 8, 2011, Toronto, ON.

^80. A. Vaughan, personal interview, July 6, 2011, Toronto, ON.