How successful were the Pan Am Games?

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It was a great success. Things ran smoothly and everyone had a wonderful time. That pretty much summarizes the presentation by Hamilton Pan Am organizers to members of the city’s Pan Am committee. But with no data to back up those claims, the question remains: just how successful were the games?

One month after the men played their gold medal game at Tim Horton’s Field we still don’t know how many tickets were sold, how many people used public transit or how much money was pumped into the local economy. We do know that traffic flowed and people had plenty of places to park their cars. In fact, parking lots were only half full.

So the question is: did the games run smoothly because of solid planning? Or because the crowds simply didn’t show?

“No I wouldn’t say that. I would say there was a lot of planning that went in to making sure that things would run smoothly.” says Coralee Secore who worked on the games.

The final two Pan Am soccer games were sold out but earlier matches drew crowds of less than a third capacity. Cultural events were held across the downtown core but planners admit more should have been done to connect to the off site festivities such as the Ottawa Street food trucks.