Toronto to decide on potential 2024 Olympic bid ‘very quickly’

Toronto, Canada is mulling over a 2024 Olympic bid, and the city’s mayor says the official decision will be made “very quickly.”

The Associated Press reports quotes from Mayor John Tory suggesting that a potential bid is still very much on the table, but that the city would decide whether to move forward in the near future.

We reported briefly on a potential Toronto bid earlier this month, with the Pan American Games serving as a sort of ‘trial run’ for how well the city handled a major sporting event.

Toronto just wrapped up hosting those Pan American Games, an event that cost about $2.5 billion in Canadian dollars ($2 billion American dollars) to organize, according to the AP. The Games did leave Toronto well-stocked with athletic facilities and stadiums, though, infrastructure that would make an Olympic bid much more realistic.

“We have to sit down right after these games and prepare every bit of analysis — on the finances, on the benefits to the city, on the amount of publicity it will give us,” Tory said in the AP story.

The bid process would have to be a quick one for Toronto to get into the running for 2024, though. Official bids are due in by September 15th, giving the city just under two months to put together their pitch to the International Olympic Committee.

“We don’t have any choice but to get it done very quickly.” Tory said.

At this point, five cities have already publicly announced they’ll be in the running for the 2024 Olympics, one of them in North America. That’s the Boston bid, which is still struggling to gain local support in the United States.

Also planning to bid are Budapest, Hungary (which will also host the 2017 FINA World Championships); Hamburg, Germany; Rome, Italy; and Paris, France.