December 30, 2014 (Toronto, ON) – The Centennial Park Pan Am BMX Centre being built in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke is being constructed to high standards and will remain an enduring legacy of the TO2015 Games, according to various sources.

The new BMX Centre will occupy 3.2-hectares within the park and the 350-metre track features a compact closed-looped design, with two start ramps – an eight-metre competition ramp and a five-metre ramp to serve younger and inexperienced riders – four straightaways, and three banked turns.

“The track will remain as a legacy facility and a club will be formed to host events and programs. In the future, hopefully a World Cup or World Championships will be hosted there,” Brendan Arnold, OHPSI head coach with the Ontario Cycling Association (OCA) told Pedal.

“They are finishing the start hills by Jan. 15 and the test event is June 13-14, but the plan is to have it all done by the end of April. I think it will be rideable by mid-May,” added Arnold.

The Centennial Park Pan Am BMX Centre will host a Canada Cup BMX Series event on June 13-14 next year that will “test the facility,” commented Greg Mathieu, the CEO of Cycling Canada.

At an October borough council meeting in Etobicoke, Arnold said he thought the new facility would be a “game changer” for the sport of cycling in Ontario.

Currently, Ontario has only 470 registered BMX athletes and seven BMX facilities where those athletes can train. But Arnold said he hopes the new state-of-the-art track at Centennial Park will boost the sport’s popularity in Ontario. Elsewhere in Canada, British Columbia boasts 2,200 athletes and 18 facilities; Alberta has 1,450 athletes and 14 facilities; and Quebec has 1,300 athletes and 25 facilities.

Arnold’s view seems to be shared by Todd Harper, head of Elite Trax Inc.’s Canadian office, that is building the BMX facility, as reported in the online newspaper, Inside Toronto. Harper, a BMX dad himself, adds that the new facility “will probably produce Olympic athletes.”

Ohio-based Elite Trax built the BMX course for the 2012 Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, the US Olympic Committee Training Facility in Chula Vista, California, the British Cycling Manchester Indoor Arena in Manchester, UK, and the Canadian Cycling High Level Training Facility in Abbotsford, BC. The company also has an office in China.

Not everyone at the October council meeting spoke well of the new BMX facility, however. Led by former councillor Doug Holyday, there were also allegations of “ballooning costs,” the project’s potential impact on nearby wetlands, safety concerns at the adjacent Toboggan Hill, a perceived lack of community consultation in the planning process, and the loud music often associated with BMX events.

According to Mathieu, the Centennial Park Pan Am BMX Centre will cost $4.4 million and another estimate puts it at $4.1 million. Earlier cost projections for a temporary structure were $1.5 million.

In 2012, Ontario Sports Solutions, a team that includes Bouygues Building Canada Inc. / Kenaidan Contracting Ltd., signed a $206 million contract to design, build and finance various venues for the Toronto 2015 (TO2015) Pan Am Games. This contract covered Hamilton’s soccer stadium, the town of Milton’s velodrome, York University’s stadium, and the city of Toronto’s tracks at the Toronto Track and Field Centre, Birchmount Park Stadium and Centennial Park Stadium, according to an archived article from The Daily Commercial News. An estimated 700 workers were employed on these projects.

“After the 2015 Games, the Centennial Park Pan Am BMX Centre will be owned by the City of Toronto. Cycling Canada, OCA and the BMX community are looking to develop a national training centre and club facility as well as community use,” notes Mathieu.

The 3.2-hectare Pan Am BMX Centre only occupies a small portion of Centennial Park, which has a total land area of 5,252 acres (2,125 ha) according to Wikipedia.

Read the TO2015 venue description here.

Read Inside Toronto‘s article here.

Read the Daily Commercial News article here.

Read the Wikipedia article on Centennial Park here.