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The 16th Pan American Games are to take place in October 2011, in Guadalajara, Mexico. It will be the largest multi-sport event held in Mexico outside Mexico City.

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 Host City Election
PASO selected the city by unanimous acclamation as the host for 16th Pan American Games on Sunday, May 28, 2006. Guadalajara was the only city to officially bid for the 2011 Pan American Games.[1] This may have been in part due to no announced/open candidature period for the event. Guadalajara initially bid for the 2003 Pan American Games which were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[2]
Other potential bids could have come from:

• San Antonio, Texas (USA)--bid for the 2007 Games, ultimately were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil[1]
• Cali (Colombia)--previously hosted the Games in 1971
• Detroit, Michigan (USA).

 Overview
Inspired by the Santo Domingo 2003 Pan American Games, Guadalajara is using the Games as a cost-effective way to build sports infrastructure, according to Ivar Sisniega, Guadalajara 2011 international relations and sports director. Guadalajara is a metropolitan area of five million people known as the "Pearl of the West," and known for culture, theatre, museums and as Mexico's No. 1 destination for business tourism.[3]
The Games have boosted plans to build new hotels, re-engineer the downtown area, and build a second terminal in the airport. Horacio de la Vega, marketing director for Guadalajara 2011, also cites the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona as inspiration. "Barcelona wasn't Barcelona before it got the Olympic Games. In a more modest sense, we are doing the same in Guadalajara," says de la Vega. Dr. Carlos Andrade is the Head of Organizing Committee for the XVI Pan American Games.[4]
 Infrastructure and Budget
Sisniega estimates the budget at $180 million to $200 million for the sports infrastructure. The overall budget will be approximately $250 million. Some of the funding will go to general street improvement and public transportation.
As part of an urban renewal project, Mayor Alfonso Petersen Farah convinced owners to sell their downtown property (at up to 200% of its assessed value) to the city. A team of well known architects in Latin America, such as Carme Pinos and Rick Joy, have been recruited to design the Villa Panamericana, which has 12 towers on those lands. The design of half of the buildings in the project were assigned to local architects through a public contest. The buildings will serve as the 8,000 capacity athletes village, and after the games, they will became housing to redensify downtown of the city. The Villa will be built around the historic Parque Morelos.
A Guadalajara reporter said "The area is rough. It's just this side of being on the wrong side of the tracks. But it's not far from the theatre area or the downtown with some of the nicer, old colonial hotels, and the city hopes that the Villa Panamericana can rejuvenate the downtown historical area." The $300 million Guggenheim Guadalajara will also be nearby.
As per the city's official bid book, there are many plans for environmental initiatives to clean lakes, monitor drinking water, and revitalize the downtown.
Other plans include a new convention center, a Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta highway, and a bypass for southern Guadalajara. The city will have 22,000 hotel rooms by 2011, a new bus rapid transit system, Macrobus, that will run through the Calzada Independencia, and the Centro Cultural Metropolitano, an ambitious project of the Universidad de Guadalajara, which includes a 10,000-seat performing arts auditorium (Auditorio Telmex), the new public library of the state of Jalisco, among other buildings.
 Criticism
Social activists have criticised the plans as displacing the poor as well as middle-class businesses, such as seven establishments serving the traditional nieve raspada (shaved ice) around Parque Morelos.
 Sports
Besides the 26 sports held in the Olympic Games, the sports of rugby, Basque pelota[5] and racquetball will be added at these Games.[6]
 Venues
As a sub-site for the 1975 Pan American Games, the 1968 Summer Olympics and soccer FIFA World Cups in 1970 and 1986, Guadalajara already has 10 Olympic-size pools.
Most of the new facilities are modest with temporary seating, intended to be utilized in future as training sites and teaching facilities for elite athletes or for community use. The aquatic centre will seat 6,000 and have two Olympic-size pools and a diving level. The athletic facility will seat 15,000 during the Games and then go back to a 5,000-seat arena. The 2011 Games will be shared throughout the state of Jalisco and as far away as Puerto Vallarta. Puerto Vallarta was host sailing, triathlon, and beach volleyball, the last most likely at Playa Flamingos.[7]
10 new venues are being planned including a volleyball arena, covered velodrome, shooting range, and a basketball arena. The $5.5-million, 3,500-seat gymnastics stadium opened in March 2008. The 60,000-seat soccer stadium Estadio Jalisco will also host opening and closing ceremonies.

• Complejo Panamericano de Gimnasias
• Complejo Panamericano de Voleibol de Sala
• Estadio 3 de Marzo
• Estadio Jalisco
• Foro de Halterofilia
• Pabellon de Tiro
• Velódromo Panamericano