Once considered a long-shot, Toronto’s chances of hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics are suddenly on the rise.

In fact, the success so far of the 2015 Pan Am Games now underway across the Greater Toronto Area is prompting international Olympic organizers to take a long, hard look at the city again as possible host for the 2024 Games.

That’s great news because, despite the incessant groaning by critics about traffic delays and poor ticket sales for some of the relatively more obscure sports, the Pan Am Games have been good for Toronto.

And the truth is the Olympics could be even better for the city.

Winning an Olympic bid would result in improved transit infrastructure, development of underused parts of the city and the city’s waterfront, a revival in economic development and a showcasing of local arts and culture to the world.

At the same time, the gross overspending and mismanagement that have plagued recent Olympics, most notably at the 2008 Beijing Games and the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, appear to be over. Olympic organizers have learned hard lessons and last December instituted sweeping reforms designed to control costs and make it easier to bid for the Games.

With that in mind, Toronto city council, with help from Queen’s Park and Ottawa, should move quickly to submit a bid for the 2024 Olympics. The deadline for bids is Sept. 15, barely two months away. The International Olympic Committee will select the winning city in the summer of 2017.

Tokyo will host the 2020 Olympics. Already bidding for the 2024 Games are Boston, Paris, Rome, Budapest and Hamburg.

IOC president Thomas Bach told the CBC last week that Toronto could be a good candidate for the 2024 Games, but he wanted to see how the Pan Am Games work. “A successful organization of such a big multi-sport event like the Pan Am Games can give a boost to a candidate,” Bach said.

Preparing a full bid would require a lot of fast work, but it could be done.

The initial step would be for Toronto’s economic development committee to reverse a decision it made in early 2014 against spending money to do a detailed pre-bid analysis of the pros and cons of hosting the Games.

The next move would be to update the formal proposals for the Pan Am Games as well as the city’s failed 2008 and 1996 Olympic bids. Those in-depth documents included details of all the proposed Olympic venues, from basketball at the Air Canada Centre to boxing in Hamilton and skeet shooting in Oshawa.

The biggest expenses would be for a new stadium, likely in the Toronto Port Lands area, a new athletes’ village and the inevitable security costs.

Obviously, though, Toronto should bid for the Olympics only if it makes sense on several levels.

First, the bidding process must be fair. That hasn’t been the case in some past years. When Toronto bid for the 2008 Games, it was clear the IOC was leaning heavily toward Beijing because China had never hosted the Games. The same is true when it came to the 2016 Olympics, with Rio de Janeiro becoming the first South American city to host the Games.

However the bidding for 2024 appears to be truly open. The Summer Olympics haven’t been held in North America since the 1996 Atlanta Games. That could mean either Boston or Toronto, if it decides to join the bidding, could be the top front-runners.

Second, the bid must make economic sense. The easy answer to that can be seen by taking a look at the impact the Pan Am Games have had on southern Ontario.

The Toronto area has never experienced a boom in infrastructure and development as it has over the last five years. A total of 10 new sports facilities have been built and 15 existing sports facilities have been improved or renovated.

In addition, Union Station has been modernized, a rail link has been built to Pearson airport, an athletes’ village built, the waterfront and Queens Quay improved and a subway to York University and Vaughan is nearing completion.

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As the Toronto Star said in an editorial on July 10, “the result is an extraordinary legacy that will serve Toronto residents, and those in surrounding regions, for decades to come.”

Indeed, Toronto has accomplished a lot with the Pan Am Games. We can accomplish even more with the 2024 Olympics.