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Always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

That has been the Toronto region's fate for 79 years as it has tried and failed to win the planet's top sporting and cultural events.

But a major international sporting organization may finally succumb to Toronto's charms today when the Pan American Sports Organization crowns a host city for the 2015 games.

“The stars are aligned this time in a way they haven't been before,” said Toronto Mayor David Miller before heading to Mexico this week to join a 50-member bid team led by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. “I'm going with full enthusiasm and a lot of hope,” Mr. Miller added, “but with that little caution at the back of my mind because of Toronto's previous experience.”

The last time the region played host to a multi-sport competition was in 1930 when Hamilton was host of the Empire Games, forerunner to the Commonwealth Games.

But this time, Toronto's bid has advantages which could vault it past competitors Bogota, Colombia and Lima, Peru.

Against the backdrop of a still-shaky global economy, Canada's sound banking system and reputation for staging successful events such as the Calgary Olympics give local organizers the ability to pitch a “risk-free” option, says Toronto businessman John Bitove, who led the 2008 Olympics bid that lost to Beijing.

Toronto's bid committee can also argue that it is Canada's turn. Canada last held the Pan Am Games a decade ago in Winnipeg. Since then the event has been held in Santo Domingo (2003) and Rio de Janeiro (2007), and in 2011, Guadalajara is due to be the host. The fact that Rio de Janeiro won the 2016 Summer Olympics only reinforces the point that a North American city is due a major summer sporting event.

Unlike the World Expo 2015 bid, which died because Ottawa and Queen's Park couldn't agree who would backstop financial losses, senior levels of government made early pledges to the Pan Am bid.

The two governments have promised to put up $500-million each for the $1.4-billion event, with the balance from Toronto, Hamilton and area municipalities selected for sporting events over the August 7-14 schedule.

An additional $1-billion has been pledged for construction, including a new $150-million track and field athletics centre in Hamilton and a $170-million aquatic and sports training facility at the University of Toronto's Scarborough campus. The province has pledged to cover cost overruns.

Still, Toronto needs to win 27 of 52 votes from the Pan American Sports Organization, which is dominated by Latin American members. So far, Toronto has known public support from officials in Jamaica and Barbados.

“Does Toronto have a shot? Yeah,” says former International Olympic Committee member Paul Henderson, who organized the 1996 Olympic bid and urged a run for the 2015 Pam Am games. “Is it a slam-dunk? Hell no.”

Senior bid adviser Bob Richardson said rehearsals for today's official pitch to PASO have gone well.

“Things have been good so far,” Mr. Richardson said from Guadalajara, but warned the other two cities had shown up “with their game faces.”

Some sniff at the Pan Am Games as a second-tier event, but others see the potential for a legacy of new sports facilities for the GTA and Hamilton.

“We have gone through a 40-year drought of virtually no capital investment in new facilities in the GTA and southern Ontario for summer Olympics sports,” said Bruce Kidd, a gold medalist at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games and dean of the faculty of physical education and health at the University of Toronto.

“This will not only create important new investment in key parts of the Greater Golden Horseshoe but hopefully will prompt further investment.”

Victory would be sweet for runner Charmaine Crooks, a Jamaican-born Canadian Olympian and member of the bid team. She moved to Toronto in the 1960s and attended Regal Road Junior Public School, where she learned to run track on the grass.

“It's Toronto's time,” she says. “Toronto is deserving.”