Venues (temporarily renamed Pan Am Dome for the duration of the Games) hosted the opening and closing ceremonies (temporarily renamed Exhibition Stadium for the duration of the Games) staged the
rugby sevens competition (Toronto Coliseum), in Toronto, was the venue for the
gymnastics competitions The 2015 Pan American Games used a mixture of new venues and existing and temporary facilities, some of them in well-known locations such as
Exhibition Place. After the Games, some of the new facilities will be reused in their games time form, while others will be resized. A total of 30 competition venues across 14 municipalities were used for competition. Ten of these venues were newly built, while fifteen were renovated to stage the games. Toronto was one of the most populous cities in history to hold the Pan American Games. In July, Toronto has an average mean temperature of and afternoon maximum average of The average humidity is 74 percent, and the city (
downtown area) averages five days with the temperature exceeding and about of precipitation, mostly brief periods of showers and occasional thunderstorms. Toronto's elevation is above sea level on average, though
the city has many steep hills and deep ravines, the largest ravine system of any city in the world. In January 2012, the
Toronto Organizing Committee for the 2015 Pan and Parapan American Games (TO2015) announced that sixty percent of the venues that had been proposed would be dropped in favour of a clustering system seen at other multi-sport events such as the
2012 Summer Olympics in
London. The opening and closing ceremonies were held at
Rogers Centre (renamed "Pan Am Dome" due to
sponsorship rules). Some of the competition venues in the Toronto area included
BMO Field (renamed "Exhibition Stadium" due to sponsorship rules), the
Pan Am/Parapan Am Fields, the
Enercare Centre and the
Toronto Pan Am Sports Centre, while the road cycling and marathon events include
High Park west of
Exhibition Place. Competition venues outside Toronto city limits included
Tim Hortons Field in
Hamilton,
Hershey Centre in Mississauga,
Markham Pan Am Centre in
Markham, the
GM Centre in
Oshawa, and the
Royal Canadian Henley Rowing Course in
St. Catharines. An additional million was to be spent in operating expenses such as venue management and marketing. The organizing committee expected to generate million in revenue. In addition, million was to be spent on building an
athletes' village in the
West Don Lands area of Toronto. A further million was budgeted on security, while transportation costs were around million. In 2014, the Ontario government provided an additional million to expand the torch relay, provide additional live broadcasting of events and other features. However, in 2019, the organizing committee found that the games were actually million under budget, and left a legacy of $60 million to continue to maintain the buildings and facilities built for the games. The games created a deadline for a project that had been stalled for years. In addition, a new
GO Transit train station in
Hamilton at
James Street North,
West Harbour GO Station, opened in time for the games. In October 2013, an expansion of the Pan Am site was announced to help complete in gaps in Ontario's
Trans Canada Trail and connect communities from Ottawa to
Windsor and
Fort Erie to
Huntsville in time for the games. Connections to the
Waterfront Trail were expected to be expanded and complete gaps in the trail. Premier of Ontario
Kathleen Wynne announced "The province is investing more than million in Pan Am / Parapan Am Trails to help create a continuous trail of more than ."
Athletes' Village in January 2015 The Athlete's village cost $735 million
CAD and had the capacity to hold up to 7,200 athletes and officials. After the games, the village was converted to 746 market-priced condominiums, 41 market-priced town homes, 250 affordable-rent apartments, 257 student dormitory units for
George Brown College, office and retail units, and a
YMCA recreation centre. The Athlete's Village was located in the
West Don Lands along Front Street East between Bayview Avenue and Cherry Street in Toronto. The development was certified
LEED Gold. Five satellite villages (all hotels and university residences) were also used to house athletes that were competing in venues far from the main village. Event producer, Carlos Patino, along with a panel of judges, carried out auditions in the second-floor gym at Ryerson University, renamed
Toronto Metropolitan University in 2022, with the goal of filling roughly 600 performer spots. Those selected would be in charge of various roles such as carrying placards at medal presentations. Many strived to be on the Pan Am stage. Age, gender and Toronto's multicultural communities were embraced and encouraged. Robyn Deverett, actor and physiotherapist among the auditioning hopefuls, said it best: "It's going to be...one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities." Over 63,000 applicants applied to become a volunteer. A total of 16,146 volunteers participated as part of the Games.
Ticketing Ticket sales began on September 15, 2014, for high-demand events such as the ceremonies, via a lottery. Purchasers would find out if they received tickets in November 2014. General sales of tickets began on December 8, 2014. The Games had 1.4 million tickets A special report from the Office of the
Auditor General of Ontario concluded that "TO2015 eventually sold over 1.1 million of the 1.4 million available tickets—over 1 million for the Pan Am Games (85 percent of the total available) and 89,000 for the Parapan American Games (49 percent of the total available)."
Countdown The one-year countdown took place in
Nathan Phillips Square in Downtown Toronto on July 10, 2014, in which a countdown clock was unveiled. A
Cirque du Soleil performance was also held there.
Medals In October 2013, it was announced that the medals for the games would be produced and designed by the
Royal Canadian Mint. In September 2014, it was announced that the supplier of the raw minerals used in the medals (over 4,000 in total) would be Toronto-based
Barrick Gold. All the materials used in the medals will come from the company's operations in the
Pan American region. The copper was mined at the company's Zaldivar mine in Chile, the silver at the
Pueblo Viejo mine in the Dominican Republic and the gold was mined at the Hemlo mine in
northwestern Ontario in the
Unorganized Thunder Bay District near
Thunder Bay. The designs of the medals were revealed on March 3, 2015, at a ceremony at the
Royal Ontario Museum. The design of the medals for the first time in an international able-bodied
multi-sport event included
braille. The medals are roughly in diameter and weigh about . The artist of the medals is
Christi Belcourt, a
Métis visual artist and author. There are three shapes on the front of the medal representing North America, Central America and the Caribbean, and South America, the three regions that competed at the games, while also giving a feel and texture of the medal podium. The back of the medal represents the logo and motto of the games and the design also includes elements and techniques of
mokume-gane that gives the medals the appearance of having wood grain.
Torch relay An application period for Canadians to carry the torch opened in October 2014 and continued until December. Anyone aged 13 years or older as of May 30, 2015 was eligible to become a torchbearer. Most of the torchbearers were selected by a random selection, while the others were selected by torch relay communities and games partners. The torch took a 41-day journey after being lit in May 2015 at the
pyramids of
Teotihuacan,
Mexico State northeast of
Mexico City. The torch was brought through a total of 130 communities, mostly in Ontario (with five outside the province:
Richmond,
Winnipeg,
Calgary,
Halifax and
Montreal). The torch was carried by about 3,000 torchbearers and travelled approximately . The relay began on May 30, 2015, in Toronto and finished on July 10, the date of the opening ceremony. The detailed torch relay route and celebration sites were announced on February 24, 2015. ==The Games==