John Stall and 680News staff Nov 15, 2011
TORONTO, Ont. - Could the third time be the charm for Toronto and the our bid to host the Olympics? The head of Toronto's successful Pan-Am Games bid, Bob Richardson, told the Globe and Mail he is working on organizing a team and putting together a campaign to launch a bid to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to the GTA. Richardson is the man who spearheaded both the Pan-Am Games bid and the city's last Olympic bid, which went to Beijing in 2008. Richardson had already put together a lot of pieces for a bid for the 2020 games, until Mayor Rob Ford nixed the idea. He now says that his core group of backers remains in pace and is prepared to resurrect a bid for 2024 that would be pitched to the International Olympic Committee in just three years from now. This would be the city's third Olympic bid, but Richardson says that doesn't hurt the city's chances at all. Paris pitched four times, London pitched three times before it got the games, and Istanbul made five pitches for the coveted games. Toronto also lost a 1996 bid for the games to Atlanta. The formal bidding race begins in 2015 while the winning city is announced in 2017. If Toronto does go forward with the bid, it will likely have to compete with countries like South Africa, France and the United Arab Emirates, who have all hinted that they may have interest in the 2024 games.