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Vintage Vancouver 2010 Bid Video

So maybe it's a stretch to call 7 years ago "vintage" but it's still a ways back in history.

This was the original Vancouver 2010 Olympic bid video.

Summa Donna Vancouver 2010

If there's one thing Vancouver is known for it is certainly NOT for partying.  

Yes we had considerable excitement in 1994 when the Vancouver Canucks made it to game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals versus the New York Rangers, but other than that, we're actually pretty boring.  I mean take a look at the scenery... we're too busy chilling at the beach, mountain biking down the coastal mountains, golfing year round, and dodging rain drops to do too much partying.  

Yet the IOC has somehow gotten a different perspective than "No Fun City" as is often touted.  So they've encouraged VANOC to tone down the partying side of the 17-day Vancouver 2010 Olympics, especially considering the current global economic climate.

Read there full article here.

p.s. Simma Donna refers to Simmer Down Now, an SNL sketch.

Johnson & Johnson Passes on IOC Renewal

The current financial meltdown continues to claim casualties, the most recent is one of the top-level IOC sponsors, Johnson & Johnson.

Read more here.

Vancouver's Turn to Step into the Spotlight

Members of the IOC have just finished up there seventh visit to Vancouver and have confirmed their belief that VANOC is well on there way to hosting a spectacular Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in 2010.

Commenting on the visit, IOC Coordination Commission Chairman René Fasel said, “With the Beijing Games now over, it is Vancouver 2010’s turn to step into the spotlight and I am confident that Vancouver 2010 can also raise the bar for the Olympic Winter Games. Our Canadian friends learned many important lessons during their stay in Beijing as part of the IOC’s Observer’s Programme, and this can be seen in their planning, which is being fine-tuned as VANOC moves into its operational phase.”

More on Vancouver's turn to step into the spotlight can be found here.

Source: Cirque de Soleil Won't Be Apart of 2010

Although there's been much speculation that Cirque de Soleil, arguably Canada's best export next to Maple Syrup, would play an exciting role in both the Opening & Closing Ceremonies.

Unfortunately a source has laid that rumour to rest for now citing creative control restraints by VANOC and the IOC as the main reason though officially both sides are claiming that scheduling conflicts of committment as the reason.

Read more here.

No Fun City to Party Central

Vancouver is notoriously known as a no-fun city with countless fun events eventually reaching their demise with the loss of sponsorships, the finding of new politicians, etc. 2010 will see all that go to the wayside and Vancouver & Whistler will see the biggest parties they could ever imagine.

People from all over the world will come to Vancouver for the Winter Olympics and since the city is so relatively small the party will be amplified. Vancouver for example has approx. 2M people whereas Beijing has more than 17M, Whistler has merely 10,000. People will be everywhere; coaches, athletes, spectators, celebrities, and IOC delegates.

Vancouver will go from a typically quiet February to a scene straight out of one of its biggest annual parties, the Celebration of Light, on a nightly basis. T-shirts, painted faces, jolly visitors, and more will be everywhere. Business will likely be at a stand-still during the games. Many schools will not hold classes, instead opting for early spring breaks. Vancouver will be partying.

More from the Vancouver Sun.

Chilly Reception from IOC re: VANOCs Ticket Sales Ideas

I don't the the IOC is every really seen as the friendliest body and this is not exception as their alottment of tickets, typically around 30% to every event, is being questioned by VANOC. As a result of the empty seat epidemic visible in nearly every Olympic games the Vancouver Organizing Committee has a novel plan to try to cure the problem... give less tickets to the IOC and sell more to the paying public.

Sounds like a good plan, right? "Wrong!" says the IOC. Not surprisingly they're giving this Vancouver attempt a chilly reception as it could be a slippery slope loosening the death grip they currently hold on the organization of everything Olympic.

David Cobb, VANOC executive vp, revealed the unique idea to the Vancouver Sun last week and it had not yet been discussed with the IOC.

Fortunately the disagreement on the forward thinking plan seems to far to only be with the reduction and relocation of media vs. the IOC on the whole. We'll have to monitor where this goes from here as empty seats have made most recent Olympics a failure, at least on some levels.

Beijing 2008 Comes to a Close

16 days of amazing athletic performances have now come to a close in Beijing. As always, the athletic performances were wrapped up with the Closing Ceremonies held once again in the Bird's Nest stadium for some 90,000 spectators.

More than 43 new world records were set during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. 7 by American Michael Phelps who once again dominated the pool. Some other unique occurrences unfolded as well, including the Tae Kwon Do athlete from Cuba who was not impressed with his disqualification after taking more than the allowed for 1-minute and promptly kicked the referee in the head leaving him with a bloodied lip and most certainly a significant headache. The Swedish wrestler also stunned onlookers when he threw an Olympic hissy fit and threw his bronze medal to the ground in protest of the judging.

The Closing Ceremonies were one last opportunity for China to wow the world. Fireworks, upon fireworks, led the way and of course concluded the show. Star performances from Jimmy Page and David Beckham were somehow mixed into the performance. Lip-syncing again reined supreme, although the lip-syncers could have maybe used a bit more practice for this ancient art. Jacques Rogge of course deemed Beijing 2008 "truly exceptional".

All Olympic ceremonies to follow... Vancouver 2010, London 2012, and Sochi 2014 ...truly are now in a tough spot with a very tough act to follow. Hopefully with creativity they can also put on some great shows because the other cities almost surely won't have the funds or manpower that the People's Republic of China was able to throw at the 2008 Olympics.

Photo Credit: Martin Dougiamas.

VANOC Missing Chinese TV Rights Deal

Last year VANOC secured an unprecedented broadcasting rights payments deal with the IOC. The IOC had told VANOC that they would receive approx. $450M US in television rights payments, but Dave Cobb, VP of Marketing, and John Furlong, VANOC's CEO, negotiated that up to a figure reaching almost $600M CDN.

However, a deal between the IOC and China has just been signed for the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Broadcasting Rights reportedly in the three-figure multi-million dollar region. Prior to this China has been broadcasting under an existing licensing arrangement for a reported $18.5M.

This late rights deal may not benefit Vancouver 2010 though, in terms of contribution to the budget in light of the previously negotiated contract with the IOC. The contract could potentially be renegotiated though or at the very least the payment VANOC has to make to the IOC for the rights of nearly $200M could possibly be reduced or the one-time payment from the IOC of $35M to the $100M VANOC Contingency could possibly be increased.

The IOC negotiates rights broadcasting for 2 Olympic sets at a time. The previous set which included the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics and the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics has generated approximately $2.6B in revenue. The 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and 2012 London Summer Olympics are expected to fetch close to $4B.

More from the Calgary Harald.

VANOCs Cure for Empty Seats

If you've paid any attention to the current games in Beijing or previous games in Turin, Athens, or Sydney, you've no doubt seen an epidemic of empty seats despite supposed "sell outs".

The problem stems largely from the large number of seats given to the IOC and individual NOCs. The number given to them is typically 30% for every event. But, as IOC members are very important they have better things to do than attend early rounds of competition, especially in some of the less popular events. Despite many empty seats inside the venues, people are still unable to acquire tickets.

VANOC wants to cure this empty seat epidemic and is going to use some novel methods to do so. First and foremost they plan to automatically cancel all tickets given to an individual countries NOC if they are found to have sold their tickets to ticket brokers. This is an often practised underhanded revenue practice that will not be tolerated. Barcode technology will allow VANOC to stem this problem.

Secondly, VANOC is pushing hard to minimize the number of tickets IOC members receive, especially in early round competition and to less popular events.

Third, VANOC will be trying to relocate IOC seats at events to less desirable locations to allow the paying customers to purchase the choice seats.

Fourth, VANOC plans to try to limit Press seats, at least in prime locations, as every press table will take up at least 3 paying seats.

Lastlyl, VANOC will be working towards allowing last minute purchase of un-used seats. Not sure how this will work, but it would be great if they could liquidate empty seats, sort of like Tickets Tonight, to those that want to fill them instead of just leaving have the venues empty like in early round Beijing competition.

The ticket sales process starts October 3, 2008.

Venue : GM Place to Not Be GM Place

That's a strange title but hopefully you understood it.

John Furlong, the chief 2010 organizer, announced today in Beijing that GM Place will undergo a quick name-change for the 2010 Olympics in light of IOC policy that states that no venue can bare the name of a corporation.

The name to be finalized, may be Canada Hockey Place, as most of the ice hockey games of the Olympics will be held there.

What do you think they should re-name General Motors Place? I guess they could officially re-name it 'The Garage' for the period required.

Torch Relay Update

BEIJING - The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics will not stage an international torch relay to avoid any potential worldwide protests, Vanoc CEO John Furlong said on Wednesday.

"The torch relay will be announced at the end of this year. It will only be in Canada," Furlong said of the 35,000 kilometre domestic relay that will last 106 days.

"We see this as a way for every Canadian to come face to face with the Games," he told an IOC session.

The IOC have decided to review the torch relay after the Beijing 2008 Games international leg turned into a weeks-long demonstration by activists against China's human rights record and its policies in Sudan's Darfur region and Tibet.

Major violent demonstrations marred the London and Paris legs of the relay while protests were also held in several other cities.

Source: Reuters.com