According to the Toronto Star, if New Delhi wins the 2010 Commonwealth Games over its rival Hamilton, Canada, there’s a movement “quietly in place” urging Toronto to bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.
The Star reports that outside of Hamilton, it is widely believed that New Delhi will win the bid, to be announced in Montego Bay Jamaica on November 13.
And the report says that there’s no chance for a summer Olympic Games in Toronto until at least the year 2016 and likely longer than that. Toronto has already lost two summer Olympic Games bids for the 1996 and 2008 Games.
Also, many of the people involved with the former Olympic bids will be there if there is a Commonwealth Games bid.
It’s a familiar scenario. When Toronto was bidding for the 2008 Games, Vancouver waited quietly in the background, ready to bid for the 2010 Winter Games. And a Toronto 2012 Summer Olympic Games was in the works just before the 2010 Winter Games host city was announced, which was aborted when Vancouver won the bid.
And just yesterday David Miller, the leading mayoral candidate in Toronto’s November 10 election for Mayor, told the Star’s editorial board, “we’ve been making a fundamental mistake in our Olympic bids. I think we need to lay the groundwork to bring other international sporting events”. He added, “I think once you have a history of bringing those events, then you can be successful in the Olympics. It’s not the right time (to bid for the Games). It’s certainly not on my agenda for the next three years”.
