Toronto pondering potential 2024 Summer Olympics bid

With the Olympic Games now in full swing — and the subsequent outbreak of Olympic fever in TV-watchers everywhere — Toronto's city council is reviving the dream of one day hosting the world-class event.

On Friday, council voted to investigate the possibility of a 2024 Summer Games bid, the Toronto Star reports. This comes as an amendment to another motion: to study the possibility of a World Expo 2025 bid.

Two separate reports — one on each bid — will be submitted to Toronto's economic development and culture committee in March 2013, CBC News reports.

Toronto lost its bid for the 2008 games to Beijing, an extensive — and expensive — process. Toronto lost its 1996 bid to Atlanta.

Last year, councillor Doug Ford declared that Toronto was in no position to host the Games as the city contemplated a 2020 bid. This time around, Mayor Rob Ford is backing the motion to investigate the 2024 possibility. Doug Ford was absent from the vote, the Toronto Star reports.

[ Full coverage: London 2012 Olympics ]

"He has some reservations about it," Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong conceded to the Globe and Mail. "I don't think the mayor is prepared to make a decision right now. He wants to see all the facts."

What makes us better contenders this time around?

Well, the Pan American Games might be key. Toronto is set to host the games in 2015, guaranteeing that the city will have world-class facilities worthy of Olympic athletes.

"Presuming that we do a good job on it, I think it's very positive," Bob Richardson, the organizer behind Toronto's successful Pan Am Games bid, told the Globe and Mail. "The proof of that is in the pudding for Rio [de Janeiro]. They held the Pan Am Games and that was a huge plus for them in terms of their successful bid to host the 2016 Olympics."

Still, if Quebec City bids on the 2022 Winter Olympics as it's rumoured to do, Toronto's odds will be hurt: Canada isn't likely to be awarded back-to-back games. Plus, the country has already hosted the Games three times in the last 40 years, making its bids more difficult than a more largely populated nation with fewer Olympics to its name.

Councillor Minnan-Wong says that he'd choose the Olympics over the 2025 World Expo.

"If I had to choose, there's no question: The Olympics. It's the most important global event a city can host: The economic benefits. The job creation. The buzz it would give the city. And the infrastructure that would be left would be amazing," Minnan-Wong told the Toronto Star.

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Not everyone is as enthusiastic, nor do they see these so-called "economic benefits."

Montreal didn't pay down its $1.5 billion debt from its 1976 Summer Games until 2006. The $43 billion China spent on the games has left the city with large abandoned facilities, unmaintained since the record-expensive event.

"Although the allure of an Olympic games gets everyone excited, history shows that the financial hangover rarely justifies the party," Councillor James Pasternak said on Sunday. "This is normally a high-risk venture in which taxpayers are carrying the load for a generation."

Amateur athlete Paul White told the Toronto Sun that the Toronto bid only makes sense if the city's prepared to maintain the new facilities.

Other critics worry that there's too much uncertainty when it comes to transportation and the city's transit plans.

London mayor Boris Johnson thinks Toronto should just "go for it."

"I think that's a great move," Johnson told The Canadian Press earlier this year. "Go for it, Toronto. You won't regret it if you get it."

The London Olympics reportedly cost more than $14 billion.

The winning bid for the 2024 Summer Games will be announced in 2017.

Do you think Toronto should bid on the Games?