Tuesday, November 27, 2001

Toronto to get the world's first interactive Olympic Spirit Centre

By LORI EWING - Canadian Press

TORONTO - While Toronto failed in its bid to host the 2008 Summer Games, a taste of the Olympics is coming to town.

Toronto will be home to the first Olympic Spirit Centre, an interactive centre dedicated to celebrating Olympic athletes.

The centre, announced Tuesday and scheduled to open in the fall of 2003, is part of the regeneration project at the downtown corner of Yonge and Dundas Streets under development by PenEquity Management Corp.

It will include a visual display tower and 4,645 square metres of theatres, interactive elements and displays. The price tag is an estimated $32 million, all coming from the private sector.

The centre is expected to draw 500,000 visitors a year, with admission costing up to $18.

Fans will be able to relive various Olympic moments, such as Percy Williams' gold-medal run in the 1928 100-metre race or Canada's 1964 gold-medal performance in the four-man bobsled through interactive and virtual reality displays.

"Olympic Spirit is the closest you can get if you never have the chance to go to the Games," said Markus Jerger, CEO of the International Spirit Development Organization.

Landmark Entertainment Group, creators of attractions such as Terminator 2/3D for Universal Studios in Florida, Star Trek: The Experience for Paramount Parks and the Hilton in Las Vegas, will design the attractions.

"It's not a museum. It's also not a theme park," said Gary Goddard, Landmark's chairman and co-founder. "But it will inspire you. The core of the attraction is one that will entertain you and inspire you with the ideals and triumphs and tragedies of the Olympics."

While the project is being licensed by the International Olympic Committee, it being awarded to Toronto has nothing to do with the city losing the 2008 Olympic bid to Beijing.

"I actually don't even associate the two in my own mind," said John Bitove, who was head of Toronto's Olympic bid. "This is something that is going to be housed and based in Toronto for a long time. It's going to be something for Canadians and Torontonians, especially school kids to understand more about the Olympics. It has nothing to do with where the 2008 Games are."

IOC marketing manager David Aikman said the decision came down to the right location, the right partners and timing.

Canadian Olympic Association president Michael Chambers said he was thrilled that Toronto was chosen to house the centre.

While it is a privately-run business venture -- the other partners involved are Toros Entertainment and local businessman Bobby Sniderman, the son of Sam (The Record Man) Sniderman -- a percentage of the proceeds will go to the COA and the IOC.

"At the corner of Dundas and Yonge, with the development that's going in there -- it will be kind of a Times Square of Canada -- to have an Olympic part in that particular location... excited is understating my initial reaction," said Chambers.

"We're bringing the Olympic spirit to Canadians, every day, every year."

> BACK