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 The city's mayor had earlier scheduled a news conference for Tuesday
when many felt he would announce that Canada's largest city was
going to join a race for the 2024 Games that includes heavy favorite
Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Budapest and Hamburg.
But according to reports in the Globe and Mail and Toronto Star
newspapers, each citing two sources with knowledge of the decision,
Toronto Mayor John Tory has opted against sending a bid to the
International Olympic Committee and will make that announcement on
Tuesday.
According to the sources in the Globe and Mail report, Tory reached
his decision based on a tight timeline and lack of interest from the
private sector.
The Toronto Star report said Tory's decision was made after he
"received a lack of corporate enthusiasm and without firm support
from the province. Key potential sponsors have also been lukewarm to
backing a Toronto bid to host the mega event."
While opponents have argued that an Olympic bid would consume too
much public money, backers were greatly encouraged after Toronto
successfully hosted this year's Pan American Games, the largest
multi-sport event ever staged in Canada.
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For 16 days in July, Toronto had a taste of the Olympic experience
and ate it up with gusto as over 1 million tickets were sold and
Canadian athletes enjoyed unprecedented success in the multi-sport
event between countries from North America, Latin America, South
America and the Caribbean.
Toronto has failed in its five previous attempts to host the
Olympics, the most recent being a bid for the 2008 Summer Games that
ended in a second-place finish to Beijing.
The IOC, which set Tuesday as a deadline to accept candidates, will
elect a winning bid for 2024 in September 2017.
Rio de Janeiro will host the Summer Games next year with Tokyo
holding the event for a second time in 2020.
(Reporting by Frank Pingue; Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)
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