The Pan Am Games included 7,000 athletes from 41 countries competing in 48 different sporting events.
The transformation of Toronto’s Direct Energy Centre into the Exhibition Centre, a main site for the 2015 Pan Am Games, was deemed a success.
More than one million people attended the games, Canada’s largest sporting event, from July 11-25. In addition to the Exhibition Centre, the 36 games took place at CIBC Pan Am Park’s four other competition venues, including the Toronto Coliseum, Ontario Place West Channel, the open-air Exhibition Stadium and the Chevrolet Beach Volleyball Centre, a temporary venue erected for the games.
The world’s third largest international multisport games behind the Olympic Summer Games and Asian Games, the Pan Am Games included 7,000 athletes from 41 countries competing in 48 different sporting events. The event, held every four years, was last hosted by Canada back in 1999 and prior to that in 1967.
The indoor venues accommodated a total of 16 events and 78 sporting sessions, with many selling out. At Exhibition Centre, this included indoor volleyball’s 10 evening events, with 5,000 people at each, and the rollersports’ 10 sessions, with 2,000 fans at each. Five of squash’s 15 sessions, which held 1,000 spectators, also sold out. In addition, many evening beach volleyball matches were sellouts.
Ticket prices ranged from $20 to $140, with the majority priced at $45 and under.
Exhibition Centre was a key component in the bid for the games, as it was considered a turnkey venue.
“This venue divides into four halls for different events, plus the north side of the building has a 10,000-square-foot indoor arena for gymnastics,” said Dianne Young, Exhibition Centre’s CEO. “It was straight rent for us, with a month-and-a-half buildup, and 85,000 hours of technical and skilled labor working on the ground.”
The facility hosted squash, racquetball, roller sports figure skating, indoor volleyball, rugby and handball, as well as serving as the broadcast center’s main site.
“An outdoor beach volleyball venue was built in our parking lot,” said Arlene Campbell, general manager, sales and events, for the Direct Energy Centre. “We ended up accommodating our traditional events plus putting this mega-event on within our season.”
The venue’s staff of more than 1,500 included a number of new hires.
“We hired and trained an additional 338 for our housekeeping staff and brought in 250 production services staff within the broadcast center,” said Campbell. “We had 350 working broadcast members and 1,961 registered press for the main media center.”
The economic impact of the Pan Am Games on the city was still being calculated at press time.
The games were awarded to Toronto in 2009, and planning took approximately three years.
“The first thing we did was to draw up plans for each specific venue,” said John Baker, vice president, Overlay and Broadcast Integration, for Toronto 2015. “At that time, we shuffled around events and landed quickly on facilities and sports well-suited for each venue.”
Because Exhibition Centre had other events scheduled before and after the Pan Am Games, it was a challenge getting the pieces in place within the necessary time frame.
“The venue team allowed us to phase development of the setup around its other events,” said Baker. “That integration and flexibility made it all possible.”
A free public park, similar to the types created for past Olympic Games, was built adjacent to the Exhibition Centre and attracted 20,000 on average each day.
“Delivering on this was a challenge and required a buy-in from sponsors, but also a partnership with the Exhibition Centre,” said Baker.
This area, dubbed the Common Domain, was a central hub for ticketed spectators and locals. The park included stages for live music, local food trucks and food kiosks. In addition to a Molson beer garden, a corporate hospitality village in this area provided setups for eight sponsors, such as local bank CBIC, Coca-Cola and Chevrolet.
Catering for the games’ work force, security, game officials and athletes operated out of the Exhibition Centre’s main kitchen. There also were two main concession areas designated for spectators inside the venue. Food offerings ranged from barbecue to Mexican, and pizza to Lebanese food, in addition to burgers, sausage, ice cream, fudge, donuts and roasted nuts. Participating restaurants included Hank Daddy’s Barbecue, La Lotoria, Pizza Pizza, Von Donuts and Wandering Bean.
“Final per caps are still being determined, but we estimate this to be at about $8,” said John LaChance, senior vice president at Spectra Food Services & Hospitality, which handles the Exhibition Centre’s food and beverage program.
In total, 420 foodservice employees were accredited to work the games. Six managers and two chefs were brought in from Ontario’s Budweiser Gardens, in addition to a chef from Spectra’s Windsor Ontario operation and corporate chef Bob St. Lawrence, who’s based in the U.S.
In terms of catered meals, 11,000 were served to ushers and security personnel, 5,000 to local press, 12,000 to foreign media outlets, 11,000 to athletes, 6,500 to VIPs and 3,000 to game officials.
“We built two mobile kitchen compounds to handle the catering,” said LaChance. “Most meals were hot, except the boxed lunches served to staff and crew.”
The 2019 Pan Am Games will be held July 26-Aug. 10 in Lima, Peru.
Interviewed for this story: John Baker, (416) 957-2068; Arlene Campbell,
(416) 263-3030; Jan Damnavits, (416) 957-2107; John LaChance, (813) 391-0110; Dianne Young, (416) 263-3611