Toronto Mayor John Tory announced that the city "will not make a bid" to land the '24 Games, according to David Rider of the TORONTO STAR. Tory said during a press conference outside city hall, "I believe that one day Toronto will be a great Olympic venue but not in 2024." He added that he had "consulted widely before coming to the decision." The decision was made after Tory "received a lack of corporate enthusiasm and no firm support" from the Ontario government. Key potential sponsors also had been "lukewarm to backing a Toronto bid to host the mega event." Tory said that he "would be forming an advisory committee to look at future uses of facilities built for the recently completed Pan Am games." Budapest, Hamburg, L.A., Paris and Rome have all "entered the race" to land the '24 Games prior to today's IOC deadline (TORONTO STAR, 9/15). The GLOBE & MAIL's Anna Hui in a front-page piece cited sources as saying that a "tight timeline and lack of interest from the private sector" were the main reasons Toronto will not bid on the Games. Tory has repeatedly said that he "only turned his attention to the idea of an Olympic bid after Toronto’s Pan Am and Parapan Am Games, which ended just last month." Since then, both Tory and Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne have "described their challenges in getting answers to questions about a potential bid, including cost, and whether Pan Am facilities could be reused for an Olympic event." Wynne also "pointed to the fact that the Olympic issue falls in the middle of a federal election campaign, meaning it remains unclear what, if any, financial support a bid might receive from the federal government." Tory in the past few weeks has "consulted with community and business leaders across the city on the Olympics." The city "submitted failed bids" for both the '96 and '08 Games (GLOBE & MAIL, 9/15).
MONEY PLAYED A ROLE: In Toronto, Powell & Pagliaro reported the "bid alone could have cost Toronto" up to C$60M ($45M) despite the fact Tory has stressed the bid should be "largely financed by the private sector." Wynne yesterday "remained uncommitted ... on the critical issue" of who would pay. Wynne added, “We also need to know where the private sector would be on this and how much enthusiasm there would be in the private sector" (TORONTO STAR, 9/15). The CP's Paola Loriggio reported members of the Toronto city council "voiced misgivings about the costs of bidding for and hosting the Games, while neighbouring Mississauga said it would not support a Toronto pitch." Critics "sounded the alarm about what they called unprecedented secrecy surrounding the discussions" (CP, 9/14).
