The opening ceremonies of the Pan Am Games will be held July 10, 2015, at the Rogers Centre, TO2015 officials announced Thursday.

“That’s the one the Cirque du Soleil will be producing for us,” said Katherine Henderson, senior vice-president of marketing and revenue, after the TO2015 executive team presented its quarterly report.

A second opening ceremony will be held for the Parapan American Games, for athletes with physical disabilities, on Aug. 7 at the York Athletic Stadium, Henderson said in a teleconference.

With 7,666 athletes competing in 51 sports, the 2015 Games will be the largest international sporting event ever held in Canada and will be seen by hundreds of millions of people across the Americas and the Caribbean.

TO2015’s budget for the Games — less than 600 days away — is $1.4 billion and CEO Ian Troop insists it will make history by being within budget, which critics scoff at.

“No international multi-sport Games has ever met a contrived bid book budget and TO2015 is no exception,” Toronto’s Paul Henderson, a former member of the International Olympic Committee, said in a strongly worded letter to David Peterson, chair of the TO2015 board.

Certainly, figures at some events have climbed for any number of reasons since the original bid books, but Troop said the Games are on track to come within the budget.

“We are quite proud of the work we have done. It is coming in well under budget at this point,” he told reporters. “That’s why I call it an unprecedented accomplishment.”

Meanwhile, the province has acknowledged that taxpayers will be on the hook for much more than that — at least $2.5 billion — when other things are factored in like the athletes’ village as well as security and transportation for the athletes who will be participating in events at 50 venues in 14 communities.

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