Hosting International Sport Events in Canada: Planning for Facility Legacies Cora McCloy* Introduction Hallmark or "mega-events" are large-scale, planned occurrences of limited duration which can have a substantial social, eco- nomic, political, environmental, and cultural impact on the host region (Essex and Chalkley, 1998; Hall and Hodges,1998; Roche, 2000). Multi-sport events such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and Pan American Games, as well as specialist world-level international sports competitions such as the World Cup of Soccer and World Championships in Athletics (WCA) fall within the rubric of mega-events. Recently emerging literature in the area of mega-events demonstrates that cities and nations pursue large-scale sporting events for a myriad of reasons including tourism and economic development, place marketing, infrastructural improvements, creation of an image of a "world-class" city, and the development of sport facilities. Canadian researchers, Macintosh and Whitson (1993, 1996) cite the latter, sport legacy - acquiring facilities that can cater to elite/high performance athletes as well as professional fran- chises — as one of the most compelling reasons for cities to host. Additionally, Whitson and Macintosh expand on the numerous impacts on host communities that have emerged in the area of mega-event research. Some of the early social impact research was compiled by Colin Hall (1992) and Syme, Shaw, Fenton, & Mueller (1989), who covered a range of sporting and tourist events throughout Australia, Canada, and other countries. These researchers stressed the need for an increased examination of the eco- nomic, social, and environmental impacts on host cities and regions as they posed important questions for researchers in the area of sport and tourism. Political issues have also emerged in the research on mega-events. It has been demonstrated that those individuals or groups who pursue sporting events are invariably composed of the political and economic elite (generally referred to as "civic boosters") and tend to proceed with little public input (Hall, 1992; Lenskyj, 2000; Owen, 2001). The growth coalition or growth regime con- cept utilizes similar civic booster themes and examines the entrepreneurial urban policies often pursued by local governments with influential business people closely involved. These "interested actors... use their political and cultural resources to intensify land use for profit" (Schimmel, 2001, p.264; see also Burbank, Heying, & Andarnovich, 2000; Eisinger, 1998; Owens, 2001; Wamsley & Heine, 1996; Whitson & Macintosh, 1993,1996). Purpose For the purposes of this paper I will focus on the legacy of sporting facilities from two major sporting events held in Canada combined with one prominent Olympic bid. This paper is part of a doctoral dissertation proposal focusing on legacy plans devel- oped in three case studies: 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, the 2001 World Championships in Athletics (WCA) staged in Edmonton, and the 2008 Toronto Olympic Bid. Preliminary comparisons will be drawn on issues that emerge from the Sport Can- ada Policy for Hosting International Sporting Events (hereafter "Hosting policy"). In addition, the proceeding literature review will provide strong evidence that previous host cities have not expressed an interest in extending post-event benefits for those outside the elite/professional realm of sport. In order to discuss user groups that do not fall within the rubric of elite/high performance I will use Chernushenko's (1994) description of community-centred sport. Chernushenko argued that most sport occurs at the com- munity level, "whether through schools, clubs or recreational programs.. .community-centred sport recognizes that it is not appro- * Cora McCloy is a doctoral student at The University of Toronto, in Toronto, Canada. The Global Nexus Engaged Sixth International Symposium for Olympic Research, pp. 135-142