Why the Pan Am Games Matter

If you are the utmost pessimist, Toronto's Pan American Games that start this week would be looked upon as a serious nuisance. More traffic and more people clogging up our city in the prime of summer. It would be looked upon as something competing for attention to distract you from the Blue Jays, warm weather and vacations. There's been mounting debate as to whether or not Torontonians will actually get behind the Pan Am Games. There may not even be close to the 250,000 tourists that were expected to come to Toronto, meaning hotels aren't seeing the influx in occupancy that was supposed to happen. Ticket sales have been slow, with more than half still available just days before the opening ceremonies. Unless there is a mad rush over the next few days, these Games could turn out to be massively botched—but they shouldn't be.

On the surface, it's easy to see why the Pan Ams might seem like a nasty scar for Torontonians and their summer plans. With an Olympics every four years, the Commonwealth Games, World Championships and World Cups—another event can seem exhausting, especially when the Pan Ams doesn't rank high when compared to those other competitions.

For the past week, HOV lanes have been a major talking point of the games—yes, road lanes, not athletes or competition—and traffic concerns will only amplify as the two-week competition unfolds. Also, 27 out of the 48 sports are hard to get to by public transit, which means getting to these venues requires time spent in a car. Yuck.

What we must all realize is that these world events don't come to Toronto very often. Hogtown has never hosted an Olympics (Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver have), or a Commonwealth Games (Victoria, Hamilton, Edmonton and Vancouver have), and Winnipeg is the only Canadian city to host the Pan Ams—once in 1967, another in 1999. Once the athletes, officials and team mascots leave town, who knows when we'll see another competition of this calibre again in Toronto?

The Pan Ams is a time to witness and marvel homegrown talent. Remember, most of these athletes are the same ones that compete at the Olympics. When are you ever going to get this close to elite competition? You'll see the young kids from the women's Canadian soccer team who didn't see much game time during the World Cup displaying their skills in Hamilton, Ontario. You'll get to see unique sports like European handball and the ever-aggressive, and sometimes dangerous, water polo. Then there's track and field events, weightlifting and swimming. If you were walking into these events blindfolded, you'd think you were at an Olympics.

The Pan Ams is a time to go see the newest, multi-million dollar stadiums and centres built for Toronto and the Pan Ams, such as the new 5.45-hectare soccer stadium in Hamilton. It's a time to revisit established venues like Toronto's 12,000-seat athletics stadium, the Ryerson Athletics Centre or the Milton Velodrome. If that's not enough, Pan Am ticket holders get free public transit on the day they are going to an event. Getting to most of these stadiums and sports centres is free. Everything is better when it's free.

One gets the feeling, from what's been reported by local media, that the Pan Am Games have the potential to turn out disastrous. That it will be a train wreck. That it will be just another sporting failure that Toronto has to sweep under the rug.

But Torontonians love their sport, and it's entirely possible that attendance figures will support that notion once the festivities actually begin. One billion viewers worldwide were expected to have watched the Women's World Cup, which took place across six Canadian cities. The Canada Day Jays game was sold out. In more recent times, Raptors games are full of screaming fans both inside and outside the arena, while Toronto's hockey and soccer teams both enjoy unconditional support.

Torontonians thrive on seeing their teams do well, and, the Pan Ams, where athletes are competing for their country—not just their city—should be no different once the competition begins. Don't get guilted into going to the Pan Ams because $2.5 billion has been spent on it—go to see some of the country's top athletes perform. They are your kids, friends, neighbours and entertainers, and they are some of the best in the world at what they do.