After weeks of complaints about traffic restrictions and costs, it appears Torontonians are finally getting excited about the Pan Am Games.

More than 19,000 tickets to the sporting event were sold on Saturday—more than double the daily average leading up to the Games.

“We are knocking it out of the park,” Pan Am Games CEO Saad Rafi said. “Torontonians and people in this region are responding like the sports fans and the cultural fans that they are and that we knew they would be.”

Ticket sales have now reached a total of 850,000, already surpassing the previous Pan Am Games held in Guadalajara, Mexico in 2011.

“People are obviously getting behind the Games,” Rafi said. “It’s now time for everyone to come out and join the party because if you miss it, you will regret it.”

The lead up to the Games, however, was dominated by pessimism and controversy.

The use of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes to ease traffic congestion has caused growing backlash among frustrated Toronto commuters. The $2.5-billion cost of hosting the Games also received widespread criticism.

Early reports of lacklustre ticket sales also did not help boost enthusiasm for the event, although by Friday, organizers said that about 800,000 out of 1.4 million had been sold.

Before the opening ceremony, Toronto Mayor John Tory urged Torontonians to stop complaining and join the so-called “Panamania.”

"Come on down and have fun; let down your hair… buy some tickets," Tory told CTV News Channel. "It's summer in Canada. It's short enough as it is."

Tory said that Torontonians might have been more excited about the Games if the benefits of hosting the event had been better marketed to them -- benefits including new sports facilities, and a brand new athletes’ village, which will become a new residential neighbourhood after the Games wrap up.

But with opening festivities out of the way and Canada already up four gold medals from the first day of events, it seems that Pan Am pessimism is finally coming to an end.

With more than 6,000 competing athletes from 41 different countries, the Pan Am Games are the largest sporting event Canada has ever hosted.

With a report from Natalie Johnson