Priscilla Lopes-Schliep wins her heat in the women's 400 meter semi hurdles during the 2010 Canadian Track and Field Championships in Toronto on Saturday, July 31, 2010.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
The first gold medal of the 2015 Pan American Games goes to York University - for striking while the iron was hot.
Games organizers confirmed Monday that the suburban Toronto school will be the site for the cornerstone track and field meet, and university officials confirmed the signing of a letter of intent to stage the events.
The decisive actions overshadowed discussions in Hamilton over the location for a new football stadium and whether it should include a track and field facility.
The York cluster of venues, a hub of sport facilities at Toronto's north end, was previously slated to include tennis and rugby. It already is host venue of a major professional tennis tournament, the Rogers Cup, the Tennis Canada offices, and has held international rugby events in the past. The 2015 Pan Am rugby tournament was moved to York from Fletcher's Field in nearby Markham.
While approvals need to be confirmed in September by the Games directors and partners, becoming the official location for three events could bring millions of provincial and federal dollars in new construction.
"It's a great story for York and for the Games overall," said Ian Troop, chief executive officer of the 2015 Pan American Games. Troop intimated that York had always coveted the track and field meet but was unable to push it in the bid process because the school was in the midst of labour negotiations.
"But York was willing and waiting to participate."
Troop stopped short of saying Hamilton's intransigence on the stadium was the major factor in the move to Toronto, but several factors came to play in York's favour.
York already boasts a good indoor facility for athletics, and that sat well with Athletics Canada and officials with the Own the Podium athlete funding program. There was also a Rugby Canada assessment of Fletcher's Fields as a rugby site for the Games, and it was deemed to be better used as a practice location, while games could be played at the university. Third, Toronto FC's BMO Field switched from synthetic turf to a natural sward, which wouldn't hold up to Games soccer matches and many practices. And there's the top-notch tennis centre.
Toronto 2015 will present recommendations on its full venue plan to its board of directors in September. The board approval will then be submitted to Games partners for their approval. Current funding calls for the Games organizers (HOSTCO), including provincial and federal grants, to make up 56 per cent of the budget, while 44 per cent is to come from York.
"Accelerating the review of these venues moves us an important step closer to on-budget and on-time Games readiness," Troop said.
"In pursuing these discussions, the university will be guided by a clear set of principles, including alignment with the university's future needs and the efficient use of its land, and the needs of our community neighbours," said Mamdouh Shoukri, York's president and vice chancellor.
York spokesman Keith Marnoch said the agreement to be the tennis venue for the Games was signed "a while back, and we kept a close eye on things and were able to offer world-class facilities.
"A letter of intent is an agreement to get down to whatever we can do in the future. There's no guaranteed dollars - other than the fact we're responsible for 44 per cent," Marnoch said.
He said the track and field facility would probably have 10,000 seats for the Games - 5,000 permanent places and 5,000 temporary.
Troop said the move to Toronto was not prompted by the tussle between Hamilton city council and the CFL's Hamilton Tiger-Cats over the location of a stadium.
But the background suggests the disharmony between city council and the football club got in the way of Pan Am plans.
While the Ticats and owner Bob Young preferred an East Mountain site, on Aug. 12 Hamilton city council picked the downtown West Harbour site to be the location for a subsidized stadium and Pan Am venue. Young withdrew from all negotiations.
So, though the downtown West Harbour site will have subsidies and is scheduled to have soccer during the Games, it does not have the Ticats as a long-term tenant.