Toronto’s official “bid book” consisting of three volumes in three languages totalling 600 pages, is off to the printers some time this week, and the printed copies will be sent to the International Olympic Committee next month.
The bid book has maps for each of the 28 sports, as well as a seating plan and an architectural drawing. There are also photos and overviews, and sketches of what a 2008 Summer Olympics in Toronto would look like.
Karen Pitre, vice-president of TO-Bid, who had a big hand in drafting the book, called it a great document. She said “it’s taken years to get this together, but we’re very happy”.
Although the themes presented in the book are similar to those outlined in the master plan made public last year, the new plan has a downtown focus that bid officials hope will attract support from IOC members who want to minimize travel time for athletes. But there isn’t as much for the area outside Toronto, called the 905 area, as originally planned.
Those in charge of the 28 international sports federations that make up the Summer Games demanded many changes. Eleven of 28 Summer Olympic sports will have at least preliminary events staged in the 905 region, the same as a year ago. But the actual number of new venues that will be built or old sites renovated, has dropped to 14 from 28.
Among the changes are archery, which was slated for Oakville and field hockey preliminaries for McMaster University, as well as the road cycling race in Hamilton. But bid officials said the sports groups for those sports wanted to be downtown, so archery and field hockey have been moved to the port lands’ site in downtown Toronto and the road cycle race will take place in Toronto.
Other changes include the boxing finals, moved from downtown Toronto to Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, at the request of the sports federation.
Most of the Olympic action will be concentrated at three downtown “rings”; one ring on the port lands, one ring centred around the Sky-Dome/Air Canada Centre/Convention Centre area and the third around Toronto’s Exhibition Place.
The athletes’ village for 15,000 people would be built by the private sector on the port lands and then leased by Olympic organizers.
