Toronto to bid on Expo

Ottawa must help Toronto lure Expo Jul. 19, 2006. 01:00 AM ROYSON JAMES On a glorious summer day when the Muskokas beckon and the Bay St. executive is thinking about anything but profiteering and city-building nine years from now, Councillor Brian Ashton brings the gospel of Expo 2015 to the heart of the business district. (Toronto Star)

Now, I would be the first to tell you that Toronto is a beautiful city with a myrid of things to do, to see and to enjoy. From the food to the culture to the shopping, it is a beautiful city and that is without leaving the downtown core. So I am surprised that the city is even trying to win the World's Fair. As pointed out in the article:

The event is far away, few people know Toronto's bidding, and Expo is a world event that ranks a distant third to the Olympics and soccer's World Cup as a prized catch.

So, why is Toronto even bothering? The return on investment, if estimates are correct but they so rarely are for this sort of thing, is $7 for every $1 (and that is Canadian by the way) invested. As an investor, that is not a lot of wiggle room, especially given the poor track record of the Olymics and World Cups over the past few years - and this is an event that is third. Does anyone even remember the last World's Fair? (Think hard...Anything? Well, it has been in Canada twice, once in 1986 in Vancouver and in Montreal in 1967 - which is where the baseball team got its name from...the last Expo was in Japan and it was in 2005...the last one I remember was the one in Spain in 1992, but only because my sister was living there at the time).

So the question remains, why host a World's Fair in Toronto in 2015? And even if they win the bid, where are you going to host it? Most of the land in Downtown has been developed and there is not a lot of undeveloped land close into the city that is situated to be easy to use. So you then have to start talking about infrastructure and other financial and logistical issues that the residents have to be convinced are a good thing. Toronto is not as cynical as New York, but that does not make it an easy sell at all.

More information on the World's Fairs