In a year, 7,600 athletes from 41 countries will descend on Toronto for the 2015 Pan Am Games. We sat down with the head of it all, Saad Rafi, to find out how he plans to pull off a Games that are remembered for exciting athletic feats and fun instead of traffic chaos. Here’s an edited version of what he had to say:

A year out, what’s keeping you up at night?

Millions and millions of moving pieces.

You want to make sure not only that the field of play is ready and I think, generally, that’s a really good story but that every single piece is in place. That every official gets to where they’re supposed to be, the lines on the wheelchair rugby floor are the appropriate lines and not confused with basketball or badminton, right through to the instant scoring and that the broadcast centre works.

What if there’s a weather event? Can we postpone, move indoors, is there a Plan B? For some venues, there isn’t.

Those are all Games day concerns, does that mean you’re confident of everything between now and then?

From my perspective it’s in good shape. I would really hesitate to say I’m looking past my next opponent, but I feel really good about where we are on venue planning. Our sport schedules come July or August will be 90-95 per-cent (confirmed) and we’ll base ticket sales on that. We’ll start in a ticket lottery in September. Those are very imminent milestones.

The Pan Am Games are the third-largest multi-sport event in the world but there’s still not much buzz about them. What’s your plan to change that?

The chair (David Peterson) has a favourite word that he likes to use: ubiquity. He wants everyone, everywhere to know this is coming.

You’re going to see us on streetcar wraps, you’re going to see us on those pole banners, there are 5,000 of those . . . 15-30 second spots on CBC during World Cup. Principals will have Pan Am activity kits with programming for kids to allow them to learn about Para sport or to follow an athlete.

When I tell people Cirque du Soleil is doing the opening ceremonies you can hear the “oohs” in the audience. They’ve never done a Games opening before, this is going to be pretty special.

You know, don’t you, that, so far, most of what people are talking about is how bad traffic will be?

For sure. I talk to people here, including John Furlong (who ran the 2010 Vancouver Olympics) and he said, “Look, a week before our Games, a day before our Games, it was negative, negative or lack of knowledge.”

I agree we’re not in everyone’s front-of-mind consciousness but, by the same token, it is a year out and with the one-year countdown people will say, “Oh yeah, that’s happening a year from now. Save the date, save the month.”

Or will people put their place up on Airbnb (rental site) and leave town?

It’s our job to get people to stay.

So you aren’t imagining a traffic-gridlocked city?

No, I don’t think so.

Cirque du Soleil is your entertainment headliner, but what’s your plan to attract the international sports stars who have a tendency to give the Pan Ams a miss?

We’re trying to get as many of the (28) Olympic events as qualifiers, we sit at 15 or 16 and we want to get to 18 of the Pan Am sports, and all 15 of the Parapan Ams are Olympic qualifiers.

The Canadian Olympic Committee has said we want to be No. 1 or No. 2 overall and that’s saying to the Americans and the Brazilians bring your best and bring it.

What about household names like Usain Bolt or Michael Phelps?

That’s always the question. We hope to get Phelps because he’s making a comeback and this is a great way to do so. Will we get Usain? I don’t think anybody but Usain and maybe Puma and his agent can answer that.

Canada has committed to sending its “A” team in most sports, but is there a danger of it feeling like a failure without the big international stars?

I’d like to think not because it’s about an experience and there are many facets to that. There’s the crowd, the Canadian pride and there’s good and fierce competition. I think fierce competition is something that brings out people’s interest. I’ve talked to so many people who were not soccer fans before last week and that’s because it’s fierce competition.

There will be parties on Church St., by the Mattamy Athletics Centre . . . there’s CIBC Pan Am Park — also known as Exhibition Place — which will (sort of) be the Olympic park. And the Distillery District will be big, you can roll a ball down Cherry St. to the distillery from the athletes’ village. You want to see athletes? They’re going to be hanging out there.

What do you expect will be the hot-ticket sports?

We think there’s probably eight to 14 of them: aquatics, track events, basketball, beach volleyball, baseball, softball, boxing, wresting, and weightlifting, oddly enough, will be big. There are some X Games type sports that will be good — wakeboard fits this demographic and Rugby Sevens is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and it’s easy to watch. Soccer will be very popular.

What will tickets cost?

We’re still aiming to have 70 to 75 per cent of our tickets $45 and under. We’ve stratified the sports into five price categories and three for Paras, and each venue would have categories of seats. You won’t be able to pick row 17, section 119, but you can pick the (price category). We’ve been very realistic with ticket pricing to hit our revenue number — $38 million.

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TO2015 has undergone a series of leadership shuffles with former premier David Peterson coming in as chair last year and then you as CEO to replace Ian Troop. What’s changed under you two?

We’re leaner at the top. We are able to make more rapid decisions because the times call for that. . . . We’ve brought on more staff we knew we would need later in planning. . . . My own approach is to let people do what they know how to do.

How many staff do you have?

It’s tracking at about 380-ish now. We anticipate 480 at Games time and there may be some additional full-time temporary of about 200. That gets us close to 700. Glasgow’s (Commonwealth Games this summer) would be about 1,000 and Vancouver (Olympics) would have been 4,600.

Some sport federations feel like they’re being asked to do quite a bit, is that where you’re making up the numbers?

A conscious decision was made to not have a huge staff and to rely on volunteers and (some) of the first pre-Games volunteers were the sport operating chairs. Couldn’t do it without them, absolutely fantastic people and they bring a wealth of experience. We’re putting a lot of stock in volunteers. We’re probably going to be looking at 23,000 and that’s a strategy that the organizing committee adopted and I’m trying to execute on that.

When he was the Montreal mayor, Jean Drapeau, stated that the 1976 Summer Olympics “can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby.” Would you like to offer up a similar guarantee?

No. You don’t have to have put on a Games to know that, that’s not a guarantee that anybody should believe.

I know lots of people think this money could be spent elsewhere, but we’re not spending $14 billion to put on a soccer match. The decimal place is in a different spot. That’s what I joke with people — we’re spending the same as the World Cup, just move the decimal over one.

How much contingency planning is built into your $1.44-billion budget?

A few million.

That’s not a lot, so if something really big goes wrong will you need more money?

Yes. That only stands to reason.

Have you gone anywhere to see how big events are run?

Smaller events like Défi sportif in Montreal. I’m probably going to go to the Commonwealth Games (in Glasgow, July 23 to Aug. 3). It’s a more appropriate size Games to experience and I’ll go in the middle when the costs come down a bit. I’m trying to be frugal. I struggle with it a lot to be perfectly honest.

Why?

We live in a hyper-critical environment where, candidly, you’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. I was criticized for not having any Games time experience, and if I go get some I’ll be criticized for lavishly spending, which has never been my MO.

What does a successful Games look like for you?

It has several dimensions. It’s financially responsible. It’s well-run, not just on time, but really well run. Everything went as it should. It had great competition, with great outcomes — a few world records won’t hurt — and it was a good party. It was fun.

And as a Canadian and Ontarian you felt proud. I hope people are beaming with pride and I hope they say to our volunteers and staff, “Boy, I’m glad you did this for us.”

MORE ON THE GAMES AT THESTAR.COM

Pan Am Games countdown begins, but where’s the buzz?

Stay up-to-date at the Star’s Pan Am page

Timeline of the Games coming to Toronto and Southern Ontario

Interactive map: Pan Am facility sites

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