Organizers of the 2015 Pan Am Games are searching for a Toronto stadium to host the showcase track and field events after scrapping plans to hold them in Hamilton.

Ian Troop, chief executive of the organizing committee, confirmed a change in location of the venue, required to hold at least 15,000 fans, in a conference call with reporters Thursday afternoon.

The track events are “going to be in Toronto. We’re looking at a couple of options, finalizing some details there but that’s probably where it’s going to end up.”

Troop said it appears Hamilton will get soccer games instead.

Plans to host track events in a purpose-built Hamilton stadium were shelved after a furious debate in that city over where it should be located, with city hall at loggerheads with the eventual tenant, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Pan Am organizers had given them until Aug. 12 to agree on a site, but the final straw appears to have been strong opposition from Athletics Canada which, the Hamilton Spectator reported Thursday, asked for the move amid the stadium uproar and concerns the track facilities would be ripped up to make way for football.

The Star’s Dave Perkins reported Thursday that Pan Am track was coming to Toronto and that York University is the leading candidate to host it. Other options include Downsview or the construction of a new, small stadium, he said.

York University is open to hosting the track events but there is currently no facility anywhere near big enough, said Keith Marnoch, the university’s associate director of media relations.

“We’ve consistently said that if York can be part of a solution we would be open to talking about it,” Marnoch said.

He noted that York hosts major tennis tournaments at the Rexall Centre. The main venue holds about 12,000 people.

The City of Toronto operates the 32-year-old Metro Toronto Track and Field Centre on the northern edge of York’s campus, with an outdoor facility that can hold 2,500 people.

Troop said requirements include that the track venue be in the GTA, close to mass transit, have the infrastructure to accommodate the events and spectators and that it leave a legacy in terms of sports facilities.

Organizers are looking at either an existing facility or one to be built, Troop said, adding: “There is certainly a lot of interest so part of the process over the next little while is to work through that to get the right decision.”

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Later Thursday, the Ticats proposed at a news conference that a Pan Am park, rather than a stadium, be built on the West Harbour site, and promised to pay part of the construction and upkeep costs. The team says the waterfront site doesn’t have enough parking for a stadium and favours a suburban location.

The Ticats say the new park could include the Pan Am velodrome and a 3,500-seat ampitheatre that would be used for about two dozen concerts and religious gatherings, says a report on the Spectator’s website, thespec.com.