Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition

Monday, September 27, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #447
NO BIDS FROM NEW WEST, UBC FOR OVAL; MALASPINA LOOKING FOR C$1.25 MILLION...


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • New Westminster will not be providing a formal bid to build the troublesome Speed-Skating Oval. Instead, it has simply let the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee know that a site in its Queensboro district can be made available if a location is needed. UBC has also indicated it will simply make a backup site available too, if needed. That means the competition is expected to be between Simon Fraser University's location, VANOC's original choice, and Richmond's proposal, which will be large enough to accommodate four Olympic-size ice rinks and 8,000 spectators.

  • Malaspina University and College could receive $1.25 million for research into tourism in part connected with the 2010 Olympic Games. It won approval in principle from the Leading Edge Endowment Fund, a provincial government fund for research for the grant. But Malaspina has to come up with matching funds from the private sector before it gets the money. Liz Hammond-Kaarreemaa, the director of research at the college. indicates Malaspina would create a regional innovation chair for tourism research to expand tourism and sustainable development in rural communities. Olympic Games opportunities would be one of the focus topics. he endowment fund was established in 2002 to create permanent leadership chairs across B.C.

  • Sept. 13 is the tentative date that the Olympic 2010 Legacy committee in the B.C. interior town of Clearwater will be meeting for a presentation on Mike Wiegele's ski-team training proposal at the Skills Center. Wiegele runs a helicopter-skiing resort operation in nearby Blue River, and thinks the area could entice national teams to train in the area for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

  • August 3 is the City of Port Moody's go/no-go date for word from the provincila government for a $2 million infrastructure grant that would allow it to build a second ice-rink in the city, one that could allow 2010-bound Olympic athletes to train, should they be convinced to do so. If the money doesn't come through, they'll scale the size of the ice sheet down from Olympic size (200 feet by 100 feet) to standard (200 feet by 85 feet). The facility would be completed either way by the last quarter of 2005.


RESOURCES

Malaspina's website:
http://www.mala.ca

Wiegle's Heli-skiing site:
http://www.wiegele.com/winter/home.php


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 21, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #446
C$57+ GS FOR GUAGES; CAMPBELL TO ATHENS FOR 2010; ATHENS TO PUMP 2010 ATHLETES; HUMMING THE GAMES


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • Add at least another C$57,000 to the cost of real-time weather equipment being purchased in anticipation of using it for the 2010 Winter Games. Canada's Meteorological Service says it intends to buy at least six heavy-duty Pluvio-model snow gauges -- and it may double the order -- from a Vancouver company in a single-source tender because it believes it to be the only gauge that works with MSC's data-collection system. It's giving potential competitors until July 22 to prove it wrong. The equipment is to be purchased for delivery in September from Hoskin Scientific Limited, 239 East 6th Avenue, V5T 1J7, 604.872.7894, (http://www.hoskin.ca . Hoskins also has offices in Burlington, Ontario, and Montreal, Quebec.

  • Among those travelling to Athens for the Summer Games next month is B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell, who will be involved in some of the behind-the-scenes observing that will also be occupying the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee's senior staff. He'll be there from August 12th to the 15th.

  • Marion Lay, President of 2010 LegaciesNow, which is helping to identify and train the province's international calibre athletes through the PacificSport Training Centres around B.C., says she expects strong performances from the British Columbia contingent at the Athens Olympics. "Every year, the level of competition is stronger right across the board, and that raises the bar for everyone," she says, "including our athletes right here in British Columbia." Lay, an Olympic Swimmer who won a bronze medal at the 1968 Games in Mexico City, adds that the Athens Games should help with athletic focus on 2010, as well as the Winter Games in Italy two years from now, and the Summer Games in Beijing four years away, "Winning the right to host the 2010 Games has certainly inspired youngsters across the province to look at their own potential for 2006, 2008 and 2010."

  • One of the directors of VANOC carried Canada's flag in an Olympics. Charmaine Crooks, who was an Olympic sprinter, carried the flag during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia.

  • From the Things that Make You Go "Hmmmm..." Department: Budget for Athens Games: US$6.6 billion, including US$1.2 billion in security. Budget for 2008 Beijing Games: US$23 billion. Beijing sponsorship revenue budget: US$700 million. Venue spending budget of VANOC for the 2010 Winter Games: US$473 million. Athens ticket sales: 37% million of 5.3 million available; Sydney Olympics ticket sales at this point: more than 50%. Total budgeted ticket sales for Athens: 68% of available tickets. Net sales of Athens ad time by NBC: US$1 billion; amount of ad inventory sold: 90%. Number of hours of NBC programming: 1,210. Percentage more TV coverage than Sydney: 300. NBC promo budget: US$40 million. Number of NBC-related networks involved: 6 (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Brava, Telemundo). Number of guests by IOC sponsor Coca-Cola: 1,200 in five groups. Ambush marketing examples at Athens: Mariott is the official hotel sponsor; Choice Hotels paid US$10 million to be exclusive hotel advertiser during NBC coverage. Mattell, not an Olympic sponsor since 1996, is now selling American girl dolls with gymnastic uniforms, and soccer players with gold-medal accessories.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 20, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #445
OTTAWA UPGRADES 2010 MINISTRY, APPOINTS VETERAN CABINET MINISTER


Prime Minister Paul Martin has appointed an experienced British Columbian member of Parliament to take responsibility for the 2010 Winter Olympics in his new cabinet.

And Martin has identified the importance of the Canadian government's support of sport over the next few years by making it a full-fledged department. Until today, it was a junior segment of the Heritage department.

The new Minister of Sport, Stephen Owen, 55, has represented the riding of Vancouver-Quadra since he was elected more than three years ago, and knows well the people involved with the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, and has worked on several aspects of the Games as the Bid was developed and as VANOC moved into its implementation phase. For instance, just over a year ago, he was involved in development of a federal-provincial governments cost sharing program that contributed C$2 million to the City of Prince George under the Canada/British Columbia Infrastructure Program for improvements to three ice rinks and other facilities at the Prince George Exhibition Park.

He's a pragmatic, hard-working and well-regarded politician, even though he's only been one for a short time. He knows his way through federal and provincial bureaucracies because of his experience before being elected. Owen will also be in charge of a second department that dovetails with quite a bit of Olympics-related work, Western Economic Diversification, another area that was elevated in importance by Martin.

The federal government has provided a wide range of guarantees to back the 2010 Games, ranging from tax and customs treatment of goods and services used by the Games and its sponsors, to the way team members, coaches and other support staff are treated as they move in and out of Canada. Other arrangements involve finance and government subsidies, help with paying for facilities such as the Athlete Villages, Olympic logo protections and security. The administration and development of policies involved in those aspects, and many others, will come under Owen's purview.

The creation of a separate government department also reflects the focus the Winter Games has placed on large-scale noncommercial sports. As the International Olympic Committee franchise system has grown in sophistication in the last few years, its ability to raise funds that support an increasing number of international and national sports federations has given them increased organization and a stronger role to play in the development of sport in Canada, among other countries. As they have grown more organized and powerful, they are able to better command governmental resources, a portion of which are, in turn, directed, as in the case of the 2010 Winter Games sponsorships, to ultimately raise more funds for the IOC's use. As Minister of Sport, Owen takes over Sport Canada, a government branch with three divisions: Sport Programs, Sport Policy and Major Games & Hosting

Owen, a lawyer and former deputy attorney general and, later, ombudsman in British Columbia, previously served in Martin's cabinet as Minister of Public Works and Government Services and Receiver General for Canada. He was also a member of the Prime Minister's Task Force on Urban Issues.

BACKGROUND =

OWEN, Stephen

  • Liberal, first elected to the riding of Vancouver Quadra: November 27, 2000
     
  • Became Member of the Privy Council: January 15, 2002
     
  • Now responsible for two separate departments as of July 20, 2004:
    - Minister of State (Sport)
    - Minister of Western Economic Diversification

    Cabinet portfolios held previously:

  • Minister of Public Works and Government Services from December 12, 2003 to July 19, 2004

  • Secretary of State from Jan 15, 2002 to Dec 11, 2003
    - Responsible for Western Economic Diversification
    - Responsible for Indian Affairs and Northern Development

RESOURCES

Stephen Owen's website
http://www.stephenowen.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 20, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #444
CANADIAN 2010 TV RIGHTS BATTLE TO BE 'TITANTIC'; GILL TO CARRY CANADA FLAG AT ATHENS; VANCOUVER FUNDS OLYMPIC YOUTH PLAN


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • The sports columnist for national Globe & Mail newspaper, William Houston in Toronto, says in a July 17 column, "The battle for [Canadian] television rights to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics... is shaping up to be titanic. CTV covets the Games, but the CBC still looks to be the favourite." Houston says the CBC "does a terrific job of producing Olympic telecasts, and as an over-the-air network, it provides the International Olympic Committee with total consumer reach -- it is available to virtually everyone with a television set in Canada. But consider the enormous assets the BCE-CTV-Rogers Communications Olympic partnership will bring to the table: CTV's main network; TSN, the leading sports channel in Canada; Rogers Sportsnet, the four-feed regional channel; CTV's suite of specialty services, including CTV NewsNet and Outdoor Life Network; Sympatico and Rogers Internet services; Bell ExpressVu; Rogers Cable; Rogers and Bell wireless; and the Rogers radio network." Houston agrees that the CBC will counter with "its main network, CBC Newsworld, its radio network and perhaps a sports cable partner, such as The Score." The negotiations are expected to begin in the fall.

  • The Canadian Olympic Committee today named two-time Olympic medallist, Nicolas Gill, as Canada's flag bearer for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. Gill, a Montreal native and sixth-degree black belt in judo-ka, is currently in Belgium, and is heading to his fourth Olympic Games. Gill's career includes 10 national championships, a bronze medal at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona and a silver medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. Gill will be leading Canada's team into the Olympic Stadium in Athens for the 2004 Olympic Games opening ceremony on August 13. Canada's team includes 266 athletes (134 women and 132 men) competing in 28 disciplines.

  • Vancouver City Council has approved up to C$400,000 over the next couple of years for the Olympic Youth Legacy Framework that was outlined last month in a staff report called "Olympic Youth Legacy for Physical Activity, Sport, Culture and the Arts", and it amended the the program to allow it to be used for people up to the age of 24. C$200,000 was approved to implement Phase One report's plan, and it approved another C$200,000 in 2005 for Phase Two of the Legacy Action Plan, subject to a report back on Phase One. The idea is to get things going until the City can add a referendum item to the November, 2005, civic ballot asking for voter permission to set up a C$10 million endowment fund to implement a long-term strategy of investing equally in sports and the arts. The first thing that Parks Board started to think about in connection with the Fund wasn't the 2010 Winter Olympics, or winter sports. It began thinking about building a rubber running track. RESOURCES: The staff report detailing the Olympic endowment plan is here:
    http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20040708/csb6.htm

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 19, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #443
VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL TO WORK ON LANDS INCLUDING 2010 ATHLETE'S VILLAGE TOMORROW


The City of Vancouver's Director of Current Planning, Larry Beasley, will present a policy report to City Council tomorrow on strategic choices and further directions to staff for a 50-acre swath of old industrial land known as Southeast False Creek, which includes the Vancouver 2010 Athlete's Village.

Among a wide range of strategies and polices Beasley is asking Council to approve is a request that City staff work with the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee to develop a security policy for the Athlete's Village, "in regard to development, and review it with local stakeholders, for example, setbacks and development phasing." VANOC is responsible for developing the security plan, and the City of Vancouver has agreed to work on the plan, "within our regulatory authority and providing services only within our normal budget." In short, it will go through the city's usual policing approval processes, since the hard-core security is being handled by the RCMP and military.

He's also asking council to "approve the work program for development of the Southeast False Creek Official Development Plan and sub-area rezoning of the Olympic Athlete's Village, as well as staffing and budget, as set out in this report, at a total cost of $155,250." The money is to come from the City's Property Endowment Fund. According to the schedule, the rezoning process for the Village will start in November, with implementation decisions expected to begin being made by next April.

Both proposals are expected to be approved, probably without discussion.

Although most 2010 sporting venues will be finalized by 2007 or 2008, the plan is to build the Athlete's Village so it will be ready just before the games, so that the buildings aren't sitting empty, and its attendant commercial and athlete services, won't be without customers for any longer than necessary. But Beasley says, "Timing is a concern because decisions need to be made for the Olympics Athlete's Village by spring." The project timetable shows that he expects to be holding the required public hearings on the Athlete Village's portion, which is an area just east of the Cambie Street Bridge, by next spring.

The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee has been involved in on-going discussions with city planners and architects about the development of the Athlete's Village, and some of the development in the area is being driven by VANOC's timetable, but CEO John Furlong says he is not yet concerned about the delays, measured in a few months at the moment, involved in the development's progress.

The status report asks council to make some decisions on how some of the public amenities envisioned for the project, which is much bigger than the the Athlete's Village, be funded, although the official development permit, which is necessary for work to begin, won't be brought to council for decisions until September at the earliest.

One of the new policies Council is being asked to adopt, known as C2 in the Beasley report, deals with architectural excellence as being one of the area's requirements, and it offers oblique references to the LEED standard of environmentally sensitive construction, which is the standard required by the International Olympic Committee and promised in Vancouver's Bid Book, thus incorporating it into the Southeast False Creek planning.

A portion of the policy also says, "Hosting a design competition at the CD-1 stage of the Olympic Village sub-area is one idea that could result in innovation and architectural excellence." Another, known as C4, which deals with energy-management and conservation policies, notes, "The City is working on an emission-free neighbourhood energy system based on renewable resources. A variety of alternative energy supply options are being explored for SEFC, including ground-source heating for the Olympic Village area as a demonstration project."

BACKGROUND =

  • The Athlete Village's component of the project's work plan:

    PHASE 2: CD-1 REZONING (Olympic Sub-Area)
    Rezoning Application: November, December 2004
    Public Consultation: January, 2005
    Referral Report to Council: February, 2005
    Public Hearing: March, 2005
    Enactment Phase: April, 2005.

  • The Beasley report says the City is valuing the land, currently zoned industrial, at C$50 million, and that it would cost C$56 million to service it for its new role as residential housing and local commercial operations. The City has owned most of the land since before World War I, but spent about C$26 million since 1990 acquiring the remaining privately held properties.

  • The city has a Steering Committee for dealing with the complexities of the SouthEast False Creek project. It includes the City Manager and Councillor Raymond Louie as co-chairs as well as Councillor Peter Ladner, the Directors of Current Planning, Real Estate Services, the Housing Centre, and Finance, the General Managers of Engineering, Community Services, and the Park Board, and the Deputy City Manager.


RESOURCES


Beasley's full 32-page report is available in PDF format (652k) here:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/ctyclerk/cclerk/20040720/rr2.pdf

A site and ownership map of the area is here:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/southeast/documents/SEFCsitemap.pdf

The City of Vancouver has prepared a number of reports connected to the South East False Creek area, including environmental and transportation consultant studies. They are in PDF format and are available for free from this page:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/southeast/background.htm

A couple of artist's impressions of what the area could look like, along with some demographics of the potential populations in the new neighbourhood, is here:
http://www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/southeast/vision.htm

A specific e-mail address has been set up by the city for those interested in contact the Southeast False Creek area team: sefc@city.vancouver.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 19, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #442
BC CHOOSES HIGHWAY SEGMENT OVER TUNNEL TO IMPROVE 2010 WINTER GAME ACCESS


The British Columbia government, in a controversial move, has decided that it will build a four-lane section of the Sea-to-Sky highway at its south end to improve the highway connecting Vancouver and Whistler for the 2010 Winter Games.

Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon said he was making the choice, partly for financial reasons because the highway segment would be less expensive than other options, partly for safety, saying that the projected fatality rate on the highway segment was half that of the options, and partly for longevity, saying the highway option would handle traffic growth far longer than the options.

At an estimated cost of C$130 million, he said, the overland route will cost C$40 million less than the tunnel option and C$6.5 million less to operate and maintain over 25 years. The overland route will accommodate traffic growth for 50 years compared to 25 years for the tunnel.

The City of West Vancouver had opposed the idea, preferring a tunnel in the area instead to protect a forested area in the path of the highway, and it is currently suing the federal government over the validity of the environmental assessment process that helped clear the way for the construction of the highway option.

West Vancouver mayor Ron Wood said the concept of hosting the 2010 Winter Games was based during the bid phase in part on them being the most environmentally sensitive ever held, "And here we are, right out of the box, making a decision that will destroy a pristine forest."

West Vancouver had offered the necessary land, which it owned, to the government for the tunnel for C$1, but the land required for the highway, he said, would be valued at C$10 million. And, he said, the British Properties owner of the privately held land that would be needed, owned since 1937, was valued at C$58 million, but that the owners said they would initiate legal action to fight expropriation as well.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 16, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #441
VANOC REPORTS AUGUST 12; RICHMOND HAPPIER ABOUT OVAL THAN BROADCAST CENTRE; MERRITT TALKS 2010 HALL


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • The Vancouver 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee will be providing its next formal report to the full International Olympic Committee on the morning of Thursday, August 12. That's the last day of the IOC's four days in session spread over a week as its members gather for the opening of the Athens Summer Olympic Games. John Furlong will be in Athens, along with members of his senior executive team, to provide VANOC's second full briefing, and to observe the behind-the-scenes activities that are relevant to their positions. They won't be going over in a pack, though. They'll be flying over staying for varying amounts of time, and then straggling back. The IOC's session that day starts at 9am and is being held in the Divani Caravel Hotel's Olympic room. The meeting is due to adjourn about 6pm.

  • If Richmond municipality gets the nod from VANOC about building the speed-skating oval on city-owned property along the middle arm of the Fraser River, River Road will be realigned to jog around the complex, and give waterfront access to the public. The word is that both Richmond and Simon Fraser University, the original location of the oval, will have bids heard by July 30. Bids from New Westminster and Coquitlam are possible but unconfirmed; geographically though, they may be too far away from the Athletes Village in the south-east corner of False Creek. The Richmond and SFU bids are within a rough circle of the yet-to-be-built village, but New Westminster and Coquitlam locations are likely too far away for ease of travel. The International Olympic Committee prefers shorter, rather than longer travel times. Meanwhile, Richmond officials off the record are showing more enthusiasm for the oval project than for the International Broadcast Centre, where the proposed Richmond land is tied up over Musqueam Indian land claims issues in the courts, and noting the Oval would work better as a convention hall after the Games because it's much closer to the municipality's hotel district than the IBC, also touted to become a convention building after the Games.

  • Officials in Williams Lake, a town in British Columbia's Cariboo region, have been brought up short in their attempt to develop a Tourism Discovery Centre to help, in part, take advantage of increased tourism expected to occur as a result of the 2010 Games. They need to borrow about C$1 million of the C$3 million necessary to build the Centre, with the federal and provincial governments covering the rest, but a divided community, unsure of the project and worried about the size of the debt, blocked by 900 votes the a long-term borrowing proposal, about 150 more than needed to stop the plan. Mayor Rick Gibson is awaiting now a staff report that will offer options for raising the money, which will probably include a referendum on the project during October or November.

  • David Laird, the mayor of Merritt, a town northeast of Vancouver, and John Les, the provincial government's Small Business and Economic Development minister with responsibility for the Olympics, have been talking. The subject is the possibility of Merritt having an Olympic Live Site, a hall with a capacity of 300 to 400 people that could show the Olympic Games via broadcast links as they happen. The site would then become a mini-conference centre, and possibly a theatre for plays and other cultural events after the Games, as part of the government's Olympic Legacy projects. Plans are quite preliminary at this stage.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 15, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #440
AT LEAST FIVE SOPHISTICATED WEATHER STATIONS TO BE BOUGHT AND IN PLACE BY NOVEMBER


The program manager for Sport at the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee confirms VANOC intends to buy at least five sophisticated weather stations and have them in place in October or November to increase forecast reliability during the Winter Games.

Tim Gayda says the discussions are still in the early stage with the federal government department of Environment Canada and its Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) about the details of the stations, which VANOC will buy. "We have some specific weather requirements for the sport aspects," Gayda says.

Each station is estimated to cost about C$16,700, for a total purchase of about C$84,000. Although they'll belong to VANOC, Gayda says they'll be getting the specifications for them from Environment Canada, which in turn is buying them from Campbell Scientific of Edmonton, apparently the only company in Canada which makes the equipment to MSC's specifications.

Gayda says one of the stations will be placed at the base of Whistler Mountain at the level of the Olympic stadium, and one near the top, at the level of where the men's and women's downhill events will begin, so that MSC can get detailed, instantaneous and constantly updated information about wind speed, snow depth and condition, temperature and other data.

Another will at the base of Blackcomb Mountain, for conditions affecting the giant slalom, one will go near the Nordic Centre in the Callaghan Valley near Whistler, where the Nordic events and the sliding sports events, such as bobsled, luge and skeleton will be held. The fifth one will be placed atop Cypress Mountain, where the freestyle moguls and aerials, snowboard halfpipe and snowboard parallel giant slalom will be held.

"We've already got three years of data from some rudimentary stations in a couple of those places, but [the new stations] will take that to a whole new level. We'll be tying the new stations into the MSC's network," says Gayda, so its big weather-forcasting computers can begin incorporating the information.

Gayda says the rationale for the purchases is simple. "If you have 15,000 people who are going to be attending an event, and the forecast predicts the winds will be too high to stage the event, you'll be able to tell them so they can make other plans." Alpine events are always staged depending on the weather, and the Meteorological Service of Canada will be providing detailed services to VANOC during the Games on a variety of conditions that could affect how the Games are run.

Gayda says at this stage it's undecided whether VANOC would sell the weather stations to Environment Canada after the Games are concluded. "That's really up in the air right now, because the venues might want to keep them in place for their own uses afterward." The Nordic and Sliding Centres, for instance, will be used for commercial purposes after the 2010 Games are over.

MSC has ordered six stations, with an option to buy another three, but Gayda says he expects Environment Canada to install stations along the coast to the west of the Olympic venues to get better advance warning of incoming weather conditions.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 15, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #438
PRIESTNER ALLINGER REPORT FINISHED; BEIJING'S 2008 PARALYMPIC LOGO UNVEILED


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • Cathy Priestner Allinger, Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee senior vice-president of Sports, has finalized a review of Canada's winter sports organizations for the country's "Own the Podium" program, whose goal is to make Canada the top winter Olympic sport nation by 2010. Priestner Allingerm who won a silver medal in speedskating at the 1976 Winter Olympics, was working on the report when she accepted the VANOC job. The project began in Calgary last February when winter national sport organizations met with the Olympic and Paralympic sport funding partners. They include VANOC, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Calgary Olympic Development Association, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the B.C. government's 2010 LegaciesNow. The meeting was held to assess the potential success of Canadian athletes at both the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, and to plan for the support and funding required. To be successful, though the group felt that "a sustainable sport framework" would have to be developed and funded. For Canada to be the number one Winter Olympic sport nation in the world in 2010, Canada would have to win about 35 Olympic medals. That's double what Canada won at the 2002 Winter Olympics, where it received 17 medals, and nearly triple that of the 2002 Paralympics. Priestner Allinger's report, not yet released, is expected to flesh out the framework.

  • The Beijing 2008 Organizing Committee has unveiled its Paralympic logo on the third anniversary of Beijing winning the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee has yet to do anything about a Paralympic logo for the 2010 Games. The 2008 emblem - you can see it and others in the links below - presents an athlete in action. The three colours translate the message of harmony into visual language: red represents the sun, blue the sky and green the earth. There's a bit of old Chinese calligraphy in the shape of the athlete, which is the Chinese character "zhi." "Zhi," most frequently used in ancient written Chinese language, means birth, life, arrival and achievement. International Paralympic Committee president Phil Craven, in what can only be described as a moment of zen, said: "This is an excellent mix, with the target of making Beijing the centre of the universe in 2008." RESOURCES: Photo of Paralympic logo ceremony in Beijing earlier today: ; Paralympic logos for other Games: http://en.beijing-2008.org/92/19/article211621992.shtml.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #437
QUESTAIR TO PURIFY FUEL-CELL FUEL FOR 2010 HYDROGEN HIGHWAY PROJECT


QuestAir Technologies of the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby says its involvement in the BC Hydrogen Highway, a 2010-related project, involves supplying hydrogen-purification equipment to a vehicle fueling and power generation project in North Vancouver.

Targeted for full implementation by the 2010 Olympic Games, the BC Hydrogen Highway is intended to be a showcase for visitors about sustainable transportation, creating a hydrogen highway that will allow visitors to travel in hydrogen-powered vehicles between Victoria, Vancouver and Whistler.

Jonathan Wilkinson, president and CEO of QuestAir, said a QuestAir H-3200 system will convert hydrogen from a North Vancouver sodium-chlorate plant so the gas can be used in fuel-cell vehicles.

QuestAir is one of six companies in a consortium developing the project. Once contracts are signed, the federal government's Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) is expected to cover C$5.8-million dollars towards the estimated C$18-million cost of the project, which will be operational in 2005. The project will become one of seven fueling and demonstration depots on BC's so-called Hydrogen Highway, announced by Prime Minister Paul Martin in April.

"By-product hydrogen from existing industrial processes, such as sodium chlorate plants, has the potential to provide an important supply of low-cost hydrogen to support the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles," Wilkinson says.

The project consortium is led by Sacre-Davey Engineering of North Vancouver, and also includes BC Hydro subsidiary Powertech Labs, Dynetek Industries, Clean Energy, Westport Innovations.

Chris Sacre, President of Sacre-Davey Engineering, says that the recovery process from the plant poses significant challenges, since the raw hydrogen contains a number of impurities including oxygen, chlorine and water.

The North Vancouver project will involve the development and demonstration of a hydrogen fuel purification, storage, distribution and infrastructure program. It will show off fuel cells in power generation, heavy and light-duty hydrogen burning vehicles, and vehicle refueling technologies.

QuestAir is a private company whose shareholders and strategic partners include Shell Hydrogen, Ballard Power Systems and The BOC Group.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #436
WEATHER OFFICE BUYING C$100,000 WORTH OF STATIONS TO IMPROVE 2010 ALPINE VENUE FORECASTING


The Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) is in the process of purchasing at least C$100,000 worth of automated weather-stations from an Alberta company to help the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee get better forecasts for its alpine venues.

And it may spend quite a bit more. MSC is providing itself a legal option to purchasing 50% more for additional stations if they're needed.

The six new weather stations, which are about to be purchased from Campbell Scientific Canada of Edmonton, will be integrated into Environment Canada's grid of weather stations operated by MSC, and they will be placed in strategic locations in the the atmosphere's weather flow as it comes off the Pacific Ocean and heads for the Callaghan Valley, Whistler/Blackcomb and Cypress Bowl.

Although agreements with VANOC about covering the cost of their operation and use have yet to be finalized, the concept is to have the equipment installed by this winter. That's so base-line data can be collected as senior alpine events are scheduled for the venues between now and 2010. At the moment, the equipment is being stockpiled - an unusual move for the agency - pending the outcome of negotiations with VANOC.

Dave Watson, MSC's manager of Atmospheric Monitoring for Environment Canada's Pacific Region, says the area that will be covered, from Ocean Falls to Vancouver, is "terribly difficult" to forecast because of the tumbling effect that occurs as the onshore winds hit the Sunshine Coast mountains. The new equipment, once it's installed, will provide weather forecasters with real-time data transmitted directly to Environment Canada's regional network, significantly improving MSC's ability to forecast conditions for the 2010 Games.

At the moment, VANOC is renting by the month a few rudimentary weather stations in the area from a private contractor -- there is a station at Cypress Bowl, for instance -- and maintenance personnel have to regularly go to the stations to change tapes, and then later analyze the data collected. Watson says the data collected from them is sparse compared with what will be provided once the new equipment is in place. "They [VANOC] is only getting it on a monthly basis... but the need for real-time forecasting data for those areas is great. We'd like to get it in place before the snow flies this year."

The weather station components will be purchased without tender because Environment Canada is moving toward automated, real-time weather stations and Campbell Scientific is the only company that provides the equipment and software that integrates the data logged into MSC's networks. Thus, the purchase is being made "for reasons of data consistency, maintenance, archive [sic], etc.," according to federal purchasing documents. The closing date for the advance award notification window is July 19.

The documents also say the "purpose of this core or primary Olympic Autostation Network at this time is not to monitor winter sporting events, but rather to obtain data from this previously sparse area for climatological studies, develop MSC forecasting techniques and the development of computer forecast modeling to a specific grid."

That's not all the equipment will be used for. The purchasing documents indicate that the VANOC equipment will be integrated into a major reference network laid out in a grid pattern across Canada to provide information "for determination of global warming and general world climatological change."

And, according to the documents, "Some or all of these six primary sites may continue to be fully operational and supported by MSC after the 2010 Winter Olympics."

BACKGROUND =

The equipment being purchased:

12 RM Young Aerovane Wind Sensors, plus

Six each of the following:

HMP45C-L temperature and humidity sensors and gill shields
SB270, Pressure Sensor,
SR50-45-L, Snow Depth Sensor
TB4, Tipping Bucket Rain Gauge
YSI 44212EC, Temperature Probe

--
RESOURCES

Campbell Scientific's website:
http://www.campbellsci.ca/CampbellScientific/Index.html


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #435
LAW FIRM, PET FOOD MANUFACTUER FIRST FIRMS TARGETED FOR TRADEMARK CHALLENGES


The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee has begun filing challenges to the trademark plans of at least two B.C. companies apparently because the trademarks they want to use contain the number "2010."

VANOC is using the law firm of Borden Ladner Gervais as the agent of record to challenge the Whistler Law Corporation of Whistler and Taplow Ventures, a pet food manufacturer headquartered in the Vancouver suburb of North Vancouver.

The managing partner of Whistler Law, Nicholas Davies, who was elected to Whistler's municipal council seven years ago, says he understands what VANOC is trying to do, so he's "not taking any umbrage" because it wants him to stop the process of registering the slogan "Your 2010 Whistler Law Offices."

"The core issue," says Davies, "is that the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee needs to protect its intellectual property so that it can sell t-shirts and sponsorships to help pay for the Games. The major pitch that it makes, though, is that the Games are an economic benefit to communities, and some of those benefits are with companies that want to take advantage of those benefits in ways that have nothing to do with putting the Olympic rings on things." Davies says it's a question of where the line is drawn between the idea of VANOC's protection of intellectual property, and the idea of economic benefits of others.

Davies says he intends to use the slogan to position his law firm so that people will understand that the firm is involved with Whistler and has expertise about what is going on in the resort municipality.

Davies says he has spoken to VANOC's legal services department about its opposition, pointing out that he has a legal opinion that VANOC doesn't have the ability to possess intellectual property rights to a number, except for its expression in a particular typeface and colour. He said he asked if VANOC had a legal opinion that they could claim such rights and, he said, "they told me they didn't because they didn't have their tackle in order, and that was because there are only three people in the [legal services] office."

Davies notes that a number can't be protected any more than the word "ski" or "downhill", adding, VANOC would be able to trademark '2010 Olympic Downhill Ski Race' because it's descriptive, but only in such a combination. "I think [VANOC] is probably objecting to the word combination '2010 Whistler' in my slogan, rather than the number itself, but I think a judge would dismiss their challenge, saying that I'm not holding myself out to be the legal representative of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee in Whistler."

Davies says that he that he will probably follow the formal disputes process that the federal trademarks department has for resolving such concerns. It would require Davies to file further documentation, and wait for a hearing on the matter to be scheduled. "I haven't made up my mind yet, to tell you the truth," he says.

Meanwhile, VANOC has also filed an objection to Taplow Ventures's use of the phrase "FirstMate 2010," which the North Vancouver-based company intends to use as a trademark for its pet food.

The company does business under the names Taplow Feeds and FirstMate Pet Foods. FirstMate Pet Foods owns and operates a manufacturing operation in Chilliwack, a city east of Vancouver, and a feed mill in Armstrong, a town located in B.C.'s Okanagan region. It also has an aquaculture division that it uses in part to provide fish components for the dog, cat and fish food it makes, and it has operations in the Czech Republic, where it distributes pet foods and n Venezuela, where it sells Rottweiler dogs. These two divisions also operate under the name FirstMate.

Neither Taplow Ventures President Michael Florien, nor his trademark lawyer, John Uren of West Vancouver, have yet returned calls.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #434
VANOC NEEDS RICHMOND LAND-CLAIMS ISSUES TO BE BYPASSED WITHIN MONTHS


The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee venue is urging the federal government and a Vancouver-area aboriginal band to figure out a way by this fall to bypass a land-claims dispute threatening to prevent VANOC's C$15-million International Broadcast Centre from being built in Richmond.

A portion of the claim by the Musqueam Indian Band to the 55 hectares -- known in Richmond as the Garden City lands and located adjacent to Garden City Way, No. 4 Road, Westminster Highway and Alderbridge Way -- is due to be heard in B.C. Supreme Court this fall. The Band is attempting to prevent the federal government from selling the land to Canada Lands in order to make way for trade-and-convention centre proposed by Tourism Richmond. The Broadcast Centre, which would be used by international television and interactive companies covering the 2010 Games, would be converted to a convention hall after 2010.

Light was thrown on the land-use issue during discussions about Richmond's proposal to build the 2010 Speed Skating Oval, tabled yesterday. The land proposed for the speed-skating oval in Richmond is also covered by the Musqueam land claim.

There is a back-up plan for the Broadcast Centre if the Richmond deal falls through or isn't resolved in time. They include a considerable expansion of the area required by VANOC at the main media centre for non-broadcast journalists slated for the new Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre, which is now at the point where contracts for site preparation are now being let and much of the design and planning for it has already been done. All three parties involved -- the federal and Richmond governments, and the Musqueam band -- all claim they are supportive of the Olympic Games.

BACKGROUND =

Musqueam is pronounced: Muhs-KWEE-uhm

RESOURCES

The Musqueam are in stage 3 of a six-stage process in resolving a land claims, a process involving the band, the federal government and the provincial government that has been underway for about a decade, and is nowhere near completion. The process is supervised by the British Columbia Treaty Commission. Here's the commission's outline of what happens in stage 3:


The following link is to a small PDF file that shows officially the land claimed by the Musequeam in their negotiations with various governments:
http://srmwww.gov.bc.ca/dss/initiatives/treaty/Images/IndSOI2003/indsois/musqueam.pdf

Background of Canada Lands:
http://www.clcl.ca/en/home.htm


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 14, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #433
(FEATURE) POLITICAL POSTURING GREETS DEBUT OF RICHMOND BID FOR OVAL VENUE


The decision by the Vancouver suburban municipality of Richmond to be the first of three bidders off the mark with a formal bid to build the 2010 Olympic speed-skating oval has prompted a flurry of political positioning.

The other bidders are expected to include New Westminster and Simon Fraser University, but both are still working on their proposals, and in this report, we provide more details of the Richmond bid.

Since it's Richmond's proposal, it gets the honour of first spin, telling its taxpayers, "The rare privilege of becoming part of the Olympic movement and history offers many exciting opportunities for Richmond. Richmond’s proposal is to develop a showcase multi-purpose facility on a prestigious site that will include an Olympic speed skating oval and international short-track rink. Post Games, the multi-use facility will provide an active venue that brings together a wide variety of summer and winter sports, recreation, culture and business, harmoniously in one pristine location. The Oval will be the premier competition venue of the Games and provide a significant legacy."

The complex, if it is chosen by VANOC, will be constructed on property along the north side of the middle arm of the Fraser River, between the Dinsmore and Number #2 Road bridges, on property "adjacent to our town centre." It will be part of a C$68-million project.

Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan, whose municipality contains Simon Fraser University and is where the C$60-million speed-skating oval was originally contemplated by VANOC during the Olympic Bid phrase, was decidedly unhappy with the competition, though he had known the Richmond bid was in the works. As he put it, "I'm surprised and shocked that Richmond would submit their bid when VANOC is still negotiating with Simon Fraser University about the Oval." Corrigan added that he felt it was "totally inappropriate for municipalities to compete against universities for projects", and that it was "selfish and petty." He added, "the cost between building the Oval in Richmond or at Simon Fraser is essentially the same, the only question is how much Richmond is putting up of their citizen's money for the facility."

Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie countered immediately with "the idea that it's something inappropriate is laughable."

Richmond confirms that it will submit the proposal to the Vancouver Organizing Committee later this month. Only if the proposal is approved, it says, will Richmond begin "a public consultation process" within Richmond. It expects this to begin in September, assuming the bid is accepted by VANOC by the end of August. The process, it says will allows groups to provide "input on and participate in developing uses and programming of the venue."

In addition, Richmond will set up a "building committee of community representatives... to guide the design and construction."

Richmond hired the firm of Grant Thorton Consultants to work out the economic impact of building the oval in the municipality. During the construction phrase from 2005 to 2007, it suggests, will be a "regional impact" of between C$148 million and C$169 million, gross domestic product of $C63 million and C$75 million and employment ranging from 1,256 and 1,458 person years. During the Olympic and post-Olympic phases (2008-2011), benefits from tourism, training-team visits -- which implies that Richmond would be seriously in the market to encourage such visits -- Olympic events and those following, Grant Thorton predicts 1.78 million overnight visitors in 2010 alone, GDP of C$142 million and almost 4,000 person-years of employment.

Richmond's George Duncan, its chief administrative officer, and Lani Schultz, Richmond's director of Corporate & Intergovernmental Relations, also say the oval "provides an opportunity to develop an Olympic Plaza and precinct that can be marketed and attract international sporting and exhibition events."

VANOC communications director Jane Burnes welcomed the bid, saying, "it looks like their proposal is very exiting," added that one of the things her organization will focus on is, "we want to be sure the legacies they put forward are real and lasting legacies."

That's hard to assess. Richmond is in a competitive process, and so it is playing its plans for post-Games uses close to the chest but it expects it would be able to be more open if their proposal is accepted. "Staff are recommending a multi-use concept... which envisions a balance of high-performance sport, community wellness and exhibition/special-event uses.... options include all or combinations of aquatic, ice and indoor-sport facilities, along with exhibition and special event uses." Richmond councillor Rob Howard, however, added during a separate interview that track & field and football could be involved as well.

Richmond also intends to set up an Olympic Venue Project Office within the City's organization "to effectively manage all of the activities related to the Olympics." The office, which Richmond intended to set up further down the line when the International Broadcast Centre was built, will essentially occur sooner, rather than later, if VANOC accepts its proposal. It would be set up within days of the proposal being accepted, and will report to the Chief Administrative Office, work in parallel to the Richmond 2010 Community Opportunities Task Force, and deal with the logistics and project management of the building design and construction processes of the Oval, including the public-discussion aspects, and deal with community relations aspects, including public relations, communications and -- here comes the spin -- "the creation of community energy and excitement around the Oval."

The new office would also deal with spin-off economic-development programs, sponsorships, partnerships and related land-development programs. Richmond intends to deal with the costs that aren't going to be covered by the C$60 million in Olympics venue-construction grants by negotiating with sponsors, offering branding rights such as names and the like. It would also deal with VANOC, do specific event co-ordination for the Oval, and do the necessary master planning and related implementation work of the River Road-area locations.

BACKGROUND =

Key Richmond administrative contacts:

Chief Administrative Officer: George Duncan
Phone: 604-276-4336
Fax: 604-276-4222
Email (to Exec. Assistant):
administratorsoffice@city.richmond.bc.ca

Executive Assistant to the CAO: Aida Sayson
Phone: 604-276-4205
Email: aida.sayson@city.richmond.bc.ca

Director, Corporate Planning & Intergovernmental Relations: Lani Schultz
Phone: 604-276-4286
Fax: 604-276-4222
Email: lani.schultz@city.richmond.bc.ca

Manager, Economic Development: Marcia Freeman
Phone: 604-276-4133
Fax: 604-276-4222
Email: Marcia.Freeman@city.richmond.bc.ca

Manager, Policy Development & Corporate Programs: Shawn Issel
Phone: 604-276-4184
Fax: 604-276-4222
Email: Shawn.Issel@city.richmond.bc.ca

Manager, Corporate Communications & Public Affairs: Ted Townsend
Phone: 604-276-4399
Fax: 604-276-4222
Email: Ted.Townsend@city.richmond.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 13, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Sports, Business| #432
(FEATURE) CROSS-COUNTRY CANADA SHORT MONEY, TIME FOR 2010 ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT


The president of the national Cross Country Canada skiing federation, Leopold Nadeau, says in a wide-ranging interview that "it is almost too late" for financial commitments to organizations such as his for the proper development of Canadian athletes for the 2010 Winter Games.

He says training has to take place year-round, and while the 2010 Games may seem like they are years away, for training Olympic alpine athletes, who take years to develop, it's not that far way.

He points out that Becky Scott, who was recently awarded a gold medal for cross-country skiing during the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, started to train when she was just a girl, and achieved her first national championships in 1988. "It took all that time to grow that champion."

Cross-Country Canada has about 42,000 members in every province of Canada, including 25,000 members of cross-country clubs in British Columbia, and it is the biggest sports federation in the country.

Nadeau says his organization is "an order of magnitude" under the necessary funding when compared with European teams, such as those of Germany, Italy and the Scandinavian countries. "Compared to the Americans, we may not be in such bad shape, but compared to the people who win medals in our discipline, we are well below."

Nadeau says that his organization has an immediate need "for something on the order of C$250,000" in additional funding. "I could show you the detailed lists for using it," he adds, "and that's just for this year. It would be the same for the next year and the next year." But he doesn't feel governments should do more. "The federal government is committed, and the provincial government is committed, but the corporations and true philanthropists, should be doing more. The people on the street should realize that if they want to feel pride in 2010, they cannot wait until 2008 to make their commitment. The commitment has to be done now."

Sponsors of CCC currently include Heywood Securities, AuClair, Nanowax, the federal government and Brooks.

He says that Canada can't afford to train a large pool of athletes and "cherry pick" it's team once the Olympics nears. He said he could name only 20 or 25 skiers who have the potential for being in the 2010 Olympics. "I would say that if we started now to develop the systems and the training necessary, we might be able to see results in 2014 and 2018... in alpine sports, it takes a long time to develop athletes."

For example, he says, it's now winter in the southern hemisphere. "We will have a few athletes going to train in New Zealand, but we don't have the money to send the whole team. It would be extremely desirable to have the whole team there."

He says simple logistics favour the Europeans when they train or compete on their home mountains, because it's a short plane trip or a train ride back home to rest. "We have to fly people on trips that take hours, and they have to stay in hotels for months, because we can't afford to bring them home. Our costs are much higher, and our flexibility is much lower."

Nadeau says the Europeans also have an advantage because their sports support system has a long tradition "and our system could be in much better shape."

Nadeau says that the reason why Canada had some success in cross-country skiing at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics was because Canada had a small team. "We did not have the money to field a big team." Nadeau said that additional people wanted to be part of the team, but the federation was forced to oppose their participation because of a lack of resources.

Even last winter, he notes, Canada only sent four people to the World Cup competition, instead of a full team, which is 10. "We need to send a full team this winter to gain experience [for the 2010 Games], but if we do that, we need to double the budget."

Nadeau says he's quite satisfied with the level of planning that's gone into the cross-country venue in the Callaghan Valley's Nordic Centre near Whistler, and that his organization, Cross-Country British Columbia, and other experts are being consulted on its development.

"It's going to be a world-class site, and its going to be a world-class designation for people to come after the Games," he says, of the cross-country facilities and the involvement of Cross-Country British Columbia. "We are perfectly confident of the capacity of these people on the [Organizing] Committee to deliver. We are totally comfortable on that side. The development of the facility is in good hands. But you need to have more than good will. It's extremely difficult for the Organizing Committee to sort out who has good will, who has ability and who has expertise. The focus is going to have to be on keeping it cheap and simple."

Nadeau adds, though, that "If we are able to continue building the sport support system, then we are going to have a chance to make a major change in sports culture, not only with that Centre, but with the opportunity given by the 2010 Olympics. We can make it as important as ice hockey to Canadian sport, if we want."

Nadeau also says that once the Whistler Nordic Centre is completed in 2006, that leaves only three winter seasons -- those of 2007, 2008 and 2009 -- to bid and win World Cup and Junior World Cup championships at the facility to provide local training for Canadian skiers before the 2010 Games. The 2005 World Cup cross-country will be held in Vernon, B.C. "The clock is running."

Nadeau, an engineer and geologist by training, says that VANOC, when it begins the Games, will be running what he calls "a prototype." And, as an engineer, he says, he knows that prototypes never quite work right. There's no way around that." VANOC, he says, doesn't have the leisure to make a second prototype, "and the only way around that is to be very open and communicative, and not being stubborn about correcting the mistakes as soon as you realize there is a problem."

He notes that a winter Olympics is not likely to be held in Canada for years to come after the Vancouver-Whistler Games, so, he says, "I'm 55, so I think of it as the most important opportunity for developing the sport that I'll have in my lifetime."

RESOURCES

Background of the development of the national cross-country ski team:
http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=cat&ID=163&lan=0

Background to CCC's "Countdown to 2010" calendar fund-raising program, launched today:
http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=2339&lan=0

Dan Roycroft, a member of the senior 2010 ski team, has prepared a report, sponsored by B.C.'s Heywood Securities, about a trip he made to inspire athletes. The report was issued last week:
http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=2337&lan=0

CCC's 2004/2005 business plan:
http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=2298&lan=0


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #431
WHISTLER CHOOSES LOWER CHEAKAMUS AS LOCATION FOR 2010 ATHLETE'S VILLAGE


Whistler Resort Municipal council has unanimously decided on the Lower Cheakamus property just south of Whistler as the place to locate the second 2010 Olympics athlete's village. It was the location preferred by the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee and municipal staff.

The choice was between the Lower Cheakamus site at the south end of town and the Rainbow lands in the north. The property is just east of the municipal landfill opposite Function Junction and it was the backup site for the Olympic village in the Bid Book's planning. The first choice, outlined in the Olympic Bid Book, was in the Callaghan Valley, but the community rejected that several Callaghan Valley locations in the winter during a consultation process.

The Valley is also the location of the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Sliding Centre, so it would have put the athletes close to their competition areas. But Whistler, in the long view, felt it could not properly service or control development what would become, in essence, a separate community after the Games.

The C$63 million village, during the Olympics and Paralympics, is to provide living quarters for about 2,200 athletes and coaches. It will also have an athletes’ centre including a gymnasium and other fitness facilities which could become a recreation centre after the Games. Afterwards, it would provide about 600 units of residential housing. About C$25 million is to be provided by government grants.

The decision also means the municipality will now have to close the municipality's only garbage land fill, and tackle that issue, since it is unlikely that it will get permission from provincial authorities to establish a new one in the area, for various environmental reasons, and that garbage may need to be trucked to the Cache Creek landfill, where the a number of municipalities now dump their garbage, or to landfill sites in Washington State.

A number of factors favoured the southern site: it's closer to the Olympic venues that the alternative and it was preferred by the International Olympic Committee’s Co-ordination Commission when it toured the area last March because it was concerned about the distance of the Rainbow lands to the venues, which it felt could result in some athletes choosing private accommodation over the athletes' village. The Lower Cheakamus property is owned by the B.C. government, which means Whistler can use all or part of its 120 hectares (300 acres) land-bank legacy, negotiated during the Olympic bid phase. The B.C. Government promised to provide Whistler with the land prior to the Games, to be used for resident-restricted housing.

The Rainbow site would require some private land to be purchased to be joined with some government land. However, an administrative report to council said, "The owners have indicated that they would be willing to sell at a price that is well in excess of the assessed value."

Whistler Municipal councilor, Nicholas Davies, says he thinks the initial layout of the village will likely change as planning gets underway. "It's OK," he says, "but we think we can do better."

Councillors, however, praised VANOC for working with staff throughout the decision process to provide the community with plenty of information to help them make the choices.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this feed is delayed for two months or more to protect our subscribers. For timely news that comes to you, please subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #430
RICHMOND TO HEAR SPEED-SKATING OVAL CONSTRUCTION BID TONIGHT


The City Council of the Vancouver suburb of Richmond is expected to hear tonight at 7pm about its bid to build the C$60-million speed-skating oval, which was originally proposed to be located adjacent to Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.

If the proposal is approved by council, it will be sent to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee by the end of this month, and backers hope to have a decision from VANOC by the end of August.

A detailed geophysical examination by consultants to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee of the land on which the oval was to be built has raised some complex issues last spring that has VANOC looking at the possibility the venue may have to be built elsewhere, but no decision has yet been made on whether to move the facility.

The Richmond Review newspaper, which is also following the story, said it received an unsigned letter, questioning a trip that senior administrators took to Europe recently. It says that Richmond's chief administrative officer George Duncan, "explained that the trip allowed senior city staff to study first hand how other similar major sports facilities were designed, built and operated in other cities. The trip allowed city staff to meet with Olympic Games officials in Europe."

The newspaper reports that Duncan told it the "venue would be unlike any other in North America and would cater to the entire community, from recreational user to elite athlete. "There's no facility in North America that meets the scope of what we're trying to do," Duncan was quoted as saying.

Richmond, which includes the Vancouver International Airport and will be part of the new Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line that is to be constructed by 2010, is also to be the home of the International Broadcast Centre inside the city's proposed convention centre. Planning is underway for it to be built on lands currently owned by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, east of Garden City Road and north of Westminster Highway.



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #429
WIKIPEDIA 2010; THE MAGNIFICENT 11 HOPING TO BE FILMED


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • The Internet's Wikipedia, and the Internet's Free Encyclopedia are both now offering entries on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The offerings are fairly eclectic, providing information on everything from what the Games are about, to why the Canadian dollar isn't a Spanish franc. A Wikipedia is composed of wikis, which means that anyone can edit the articles. The Free Encyclopedia is a production of Farlex Inc., of Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania.
    On Wikpedia, the article is located at:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Olympic_Winter_Games
    At the Free Encyclopedia, the material from Wikipedia is generally duplicated, but that's acknowledged.
    http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/2010%20Olympic%20Winter%20Games

  • Eleven winter Canadian athletes recently had plaques with their names and faces mounted around what's called the "Carving Turns" podium in what is currently called the World Cup Plaza in Whistler. It's destined to become the location of the 2010 podium for awarding Olympic medals when the Games are on, and images of 2010 athletes receiving medals will be broadcast to hundreds of millions of people. The athletes -- including skiers Steve Podborski and Nancy Green Raine, along with snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, among others -- were chosen for their outstanding careers and dedication to skiing and snowboarding, and others will be added in coming years. The best line of the presentation speeches came from Olympic medal winner John Smart, who is also a Canadian Ski Hall of Fame member. He said, "It is a great honour because we are going to have our names in 2010 Olympic pictures without having to compete."



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Labour| #428
NON-UNION CONSTRUCTION LOBBY GROUP OK WITH VANOC CHOICE FOR VENUE V-P


The 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce is comfortable with the choice of Steve Matheson as senior vice-president of Venue Development for the 2010 Vancouver Organizing Committee.

Philip Hochstein, the chair of the 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce, says "They couldn’t have picked a better candidate. Steve is homegrown and has a distinguished track record in the BC construction industry."

The 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce involves executives from 20 of BC’s non-union construction companies. It's a subset of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, which claims a membership of about 500 companies.

Hochstein says the construction of the games facilities "begins to bring an Olympics to life," and with more than C$600 million in facilities construction and upgrading scheduled, "the success of the 2010 Games will depend to a great degree on getting the construction done on schedule and within a tight budget."

"One of Steve’s biggest challenges will be striking the right balance between the practical requirements of the facilities and designs that will enhance the community," adds Hochstein. "But we have every confidence that Steve’s experience in both the development and construction side of the business will stand VANOC in good stead."

Hochstein, on the other hand, is also determined to ensure that VANOC doesn't do any bulk deals with the B.C. Building Trades Council or other union representatives that would tend to shut non-union construction companies from being involved in the venue-construction process.

Vancouver Sun newspaper reporter, Jeff Lee, suggested in a story earlier this month that VANOC CEO John Furlong was "signalling" his interest in discussing agreement concepts with construction unions when Furlong said, "We have spoken to some people at the Building Trades Council -- they're preliminary discussions only -- and we have reason to believe they will support the staging of the Games, and they will support us..." Furlong later said that he and his senior staff - including Matheson, senior planning v-p Terry Wright and senior Human Resources v-p Jeff Chan - would hold further talks "before the year is out." And, he added, "We will see what might end up in an agreement... it may be possible to have something unique here; we'll see."

Hochstein was prompted to send a letter to the Sun's editors, published today, urging VANOC not to take such a route.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004

Friday, September 10, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Sports, Business| #432
(FEATURE) CROSS-COUNTRY CANADA SHORT MONEY, TIME FOR 2010 ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT


The president of the national Cross Country Canada skiing federation, Leopold Nadeau, says in a wide-ranging interview that "it is almost too late" for financial commitments to organizations such as his for the proper development of Canadian athletes for the 2010 Winter Games.

He says training has to take place year-round, and while the 2010 Games may seem like they are years away, for training Olympic alpine athletes, who take years to develop, it's not that far way.

He points out that Becky Scott, who was recently awarded a gold medal for cross-country skiing during the Salt Lake City Games in 2002, started to train when she was just a girl, and achieved her first national championships in 1988. "It took all that time to grow that champion."

Cross-Country Canada has about 42,000 members in every province of Canada, including 25,000 members of cross-country clubs in British Columbia, and it is the biggest sports federation in the country.

Nadeau says his organization is "an order of magnitude" under the necessary funding when compared with European teams, such as those of Germany, Italy and the Scandinavian countries. "Compared to the Americans, we may not be in such bad shape, but compared to the people who win medals in our discipline, we are well below."

Nadeau says that his organization has an immediate need "for something on the order of C$250,000" in additional funding. "I could show you the detailed lists for using it," he adds, "and that's just for this year. It would be the same for the next year and the next year." But he doesn't feel governments should do more. "The federal government is committed, and the provincial government is committed, but the corporations and true philanthropists, should be doing more. The people on the street should realize that if they want to feel pride in 2010, they cannot wait until 2008 to make their commitment. The commitment has to be done now."

Sponsors of CCC currently include Heywood Securities, AuClair, Nanowax, the federal government and Brooks.

He says that Canada can't afford to train a large pool of athletes and "cherry pick" it's team once the Olympics nears. He said he could name only 20 or 25 skiers who have the potential for being in the 2010 Olympics. "I would say that if we started now to develop the systems and the training necessary, we might be able to see results in 2014 and 2018... in alpine sports, it takes a long time to develop athletes."

For example, he says, it's now winter in the southern hemisphere. "We will have a few athletes going to train in New Zealand, but we don't have the money to send the whole team. It would be extremely desirable to have the whole team there."

He says simple logistics favour the Europeans when they train or compete on their home mountains, because it's a short plane trip or a train ride back home to rest. "We have to fly people on trips that take hours, and they have to stay in hotels for months, because we can't afford to bring them home. Our costs are much higher, and our flexibility is much lower."

Nadeau says the Europeans also have an advantage because their sports support system has a long tradition "and our system could be in much better shape."

Nadeau says that the reason why Canada had some success in cross-country skiing at the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics was because Canada had a small team. "We did not have the money to field a big team." Nadeau said that additional people wanted to be part of the team, but the federation was forced to oppose their participation because of a lack of resources.

Even last winter, he notes, Canada only sent four people to the World Cup competition, instead of a full team, which is 10. "We need to send a full team this winter to gain experience [for the 2010 Games], but if we do that, we need to double the budget."

Nadeau says he's quite satisfied with the level of planning that's gone into the cross-country venue in the Callaghan Valley's Nordic Centre near Whistler, and that his organization, Cross-Country British Columbia, and other experts are being consulted on its development.

"It's going to be a world-class site, and its going to be a world-class designation for people to come after the Games," he says, of the cross-country facilities and the involvement of Cross-Country British Columbia. "We are perfectly confident of the capacity of these people on the [Organizing] Committee to deliver. We are totally comfortable on that side. The development of the facility is in good hands. But you need to have more than good will. It's extremely difficult for the Organizing Committee to sort out who has good will, who has ability and who has expertise. The focus is going to have to be on keeping it cheap and simple."

Nadeau adds, though, that "If we are able to continue building the sport support system, then we are going to have a chance to make a major change in sports culture, not only with that Centre, but with the opportunity given by the 2010 Olympics. We can make it as important as ice hockey to Canadian sport, if we want."

Nadeau also says that once the Whistler Nordic Centre is completed in 2006, that leaves only three winter seasons -- those of 2007, 2008 and 2009 -- to bid and win World Cup and Junior World Cup championships at the facility to provide local training for Canadian skiers before the 2010 Games. The 2005 World Cup cross-country will be held in Vernon, B.C. "The clock is running."

Nadeau, an engineer and geologist by training, says that VANOC, when it begins the Games, will be running what he calls "a prototype." And, as an engineer, he says, he knows that prototypes never quite work right. There's no way around that." VANOC, he says, doesn't have the leisure to make a second prototype, "and the only way around that is to be very open and communicative, and not being stubborn about correcting the mistakes as soon as you realize there is a problem."

He notes that a winter Olympics is not likely to be held in Canada for years to come after the Vancouver-Whistler Games, so, he says, "I'm 55, so I think of it as the most important opportunity for developing the sport that I'll have in my lifetime."

RESOURCES

Background of the development of the national cross-country ski team:
http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=cat&ID=163&lan=0

Background to CCC's "Countdown to 2010" calendar fund-raising program, launched today:
http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=2339&lan=0

Dan Roycroft, a member of the senior 2010 ski team, has prepared a report, sponsored by B.C.'s Heywood Securities, about a trip he made to inspire athletes. The report was issued last week:
http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=2337&lan=0

CCC's 2004/2005 business plan:
http://canada.x-c.com/main.asp?cmd=doc&ID=2298&lan=0


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #431
WHISTLER CHOOSES LOWER CHEAKAMUS AS LOCATION FOR 2010 ATHLETE'S VILLAGE


Whistler Resort Municipal council has unanimously decided on the Lower Cheakamus property just south of Whistler as the place to locate the second 2010 Olympics athlete's village. It was the location preferred by the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee and municipal staff.

The choice was between the Lower Cheakamus site at the south end of town and the Rainbow lands in the north. The property is just east of the municipal landfill opposite Function Junction and it was the backup site for the Olympic village in the Bid Book's planning. The first choice, outlined in the Olympic Bid Book, was in the Callaghan Valley, but the community rejected that several Callaghan Valley locations in the winter during a consultation process.

The Valley is also the location of the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Sliding Centre, so it would have put the athletes close to their competition areas. But Whistler, in the long view, felt it could not properly service or control development what would become, in essence, a separate community after the Games.

The C$63 million village, during the Olympics and Paralympics, is to provide living quarters for about 2,200 athletes and coaches. It will also have an athletes’ centre including a gymnasium and other fitness facilities which could become a recreation centre after the Games. Afterwards, it would provide about 600 units of residential housing. About C$25 million is to be provided by government grants.

The decision also means the municipality will now have to close the municipality's only garbage land fill, and tackle that issue, since it is unlikely that it will get permission from provincial authorities to establish a new one in the area, for various environmental reasons, and that garbage may need to be trucked to the Cache Creek landfill, where the a number of municipalities now dump their garbage, or to landfill sites in Washington State.

A number of factors favoured the southern site: it's closer to the Olympic venues that the alternative and it was preferred by the International Olympic Committee’s Co-ordination Commission when it toured the area last March because it was concerned about the distance of the Rainbow lands to the venues, which it felt could result in some athletes choosing private accommodation over the athletes' village. The Lower Cheakamus property is owned by the B.C. government, which means Whistler can use all or part of its 120 hectares (300 acres) land-bank legacy, negotiated during the Olympic bid phase. The B.C. Government promised to provide Whistler with the land prior to the Games, to be used for resident-restricted housing.

The Rainbow site would require some private land to be purchased to be joined with some government land. However, an administrative report to council said, "The owners have indicated that they would be willing to sell at a price that is well in excess of the assessed value."

Whistler Municipal councilor, Nicholas Davies, says he thinks the initial layout of the village will likely change as planning gets underway. "It's OK," he says, "but we think we can do better."

Councillors, however, praised VANOC for working with staff throughout the decision process to provide the community with plenty of information to help them make the choices.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #430
RICHMOND TO HEAR SPEED-SKATING OVAL CONSTRUCTION BID TONIGHT


The City Council of the Vancouver suburb of Richmond is expected to hear tonight at 7pm about its bid to build the C$60-million speed-skating oval, which was originally proposed to be located adjacent to Simon Fraser University in Burnaby.

If the proposal is approved by council, it will be sent to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee by the end of this month, and backers hope to have a decision from VANOC by the end of August.

A detailed geophysical examination by consultants to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee of the land on which the oval was to be built has raised some complex issues last spring that has VANOC looking at the possibility the venue may have to be built elsewhere, but no decision has yet been made on whether to move the facility.

The Richmond Review newspaper, which is also following the story, said it received an unsigned letter, questioning a trip that senior administrators took to Europe recently. It says that Richmond's chief administrative officer George Duncan, "explained that the trip allowed senior city staff to study first hand how other similar major sports facilities were designed, built and operated in other cities. The trip allowed city staff to meet with Olympic Games officials in Europe."

The newspaper reports that Duncan told it the "venue would be unlike any other in North America and would cater to the entire community, from recreational user to elite athlete. "There's no facility in North America that meets the scope of what we're trying to do," Duncan was quoted as saying.

Richmond, which includes the Vancouver International Airport and will be part of the new Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line that is to be constructed by 2010, is also to be the home of the International Broadcast Centre inside the city's proposed convention centre. Planning is underway for it to be built on lands currently owned by the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans, east of Garden City Road and north of Westminster Highway.



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #429
WIKIPEDIA 2010; THE MAGNIFICENT 11 HOPING TO BE FILMED


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • The Internet's Wikipedia, and the Internet's Free Encyclopedia are both now offering entries on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. The offerings are fairly eclectic, providing information on everything from what the Games are about, to why the Canadian dollar isn't a Spanish franc. A Wikipedia is composed of wikis, which means that anyone can edit the articles. The Free Encyclopedia is a production of Farlex Inc., of Huntington Valley, Pennsylvania.
    On Wikpedia, the article is located at:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_Olympic_Winter_Games
    At the Free Encyclopedia, the material from Wikipedia is generally duplicated, but that's acknowledged.
    http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/2010%20Olympic%20Winter%20Games

  • Eleven winter Canadian athletes recently had plaques with their names and faces mounted around what's called the "Carving Turns" podium in what is currently called the World Cup Plaza in Whistler. It's destined to become the location of the 2010 podium for awarding Olympic medals when the Games are on, and images of 2010 athletes receiving medals will be broadcast to hundreds of millions of people. The athletes -- including skiers Steve Podborski and Nancy Green Raine, along with snowboarder Ross Rebagliati, among others -- were chosen for their outstanding careers and dedication to skiing and snowboarding, and others will be added in coming years. The best line of the presentation speeches came from Olympic medal winner John Smart, who is also a Canadian Ski Hall of Fame member. He said, "It is a great honour because we are going to have our names in 2010 Olympic pictures without having to compete."


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Labour| #428
NON-UNION CONSTRUCTION LOBBY GROUP OK WITH VANOC CHOICE FOR VENUE V-P


The 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce is comfortable with the choice of Steve Matheson as senior vice-president of Venue Development for the 2010 Vancouver Organizing Committee.

Philip Hochstein, the chair of the 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce, says "They couldn’t have picked a better candidate. Steve is homegrown and has a distinguished track record in the BC construction industry."

The 2010 Construction Leaders Taskforce involves executives from 20 of BC’s non-union construction companies. It's a subset of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, which claims a membership of about 500 companies.

Hochstein says the construction of the games facilities "begins to bring an Olympics to life," and with more than C$600 million in facilities construction and upgrading scheduled, "the success of the 2010 Games will depend to a great degree on getting the construction done on schedule and within a tight budget."

"One of Steve’s biggest challenges will be striking the right balance between the practical requirements of the facilities and designs that will enhance the community," adds Hochstein. "But we have every confidence that Steve’s experience in both the development and construction side of the business will stand VANOC in good stead."

Hochstein, on the other hand, is also determined to ensure that VANOC doesn't do any bulk deals with the B.C. Building Trades Council or other union representatives that would tend to shut non-union construction companies from being involved in the venue-construction process.

When The Vancouver Sun newspaper's reporter, Jeff Lee, suggested in a story earlier this month, that VANOC CEO John Furlong was "signalling" his interest in discussing agreement concepts with construction unions when Furlong said, "We have spoken to some people at the Building Trades Council -- they're preliminary discussions only -- and we have reason to believe they will support the staging of the Games, and they will support us..." Furlong later said that he and his senior staff - including Matheson, senior planning v-p Terry Wright and senior Human Resources v-p Jeff Chan - would hold further talks "before the year is out." And, he added, "We will see what might end up in an agreement... it may be possible to have something unique here; we'll see."

Hochstein was prompted to send a letter to the Sun's editors, published today, urging VANOC not to take such a route.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 12, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #427
PGX MASCOT MEDALS; C$2.4 MILLION IN 2010 POTTIE BUCKS; OCEANSIDES' 12


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • Probably one of the weirdest 2010 Olympic promotional events in British Columbia is the 2010 Mascot Olympics, to be held each year in Prince George over the next few years and starting this year. Winners -- we use the term loosely -- will receive medals for gold, silver and bronze wins at the PGX Fair this summer (The "PG" stands for Prince George; the "X" has something to do with the slogan "putting the 'X' back in excitement.") The medals, however, will be made of wood, since Prince George thinks of itself as a forestry city. The idea is to have a batch of people dressed in full-size costumes that resemble their choice of what ought to be the 2010 Games mascot, and have them compete in several events, some of which actually involve athletics. Mascot wannabes have until August 9 to get their entries into the PGX office. The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee isn't expected to choose a mascot for the Games until 2007 at the earliest. The PGX contact is Kelly Morris, (250) 563-4096.

  • This year's nominee for the award of stretching the concept of an otherwise mundane project to link it with the 2010 Games goes to Ministry of Transportation minister Kevin Falcon, who says his department will spend C$2.4 million this summer to improve more than 100 rest stops throughout the province, "in preparation for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games." As he puts it, "As we lead up to the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, our aim is to ensure our visitors are receiving gold-medal service throughout B.C., including our provincial rest stops."

  • The Oceanside Spirit of 2010 Community Committee, 30 people who live in Qualicum Beach and Parksville on the east coast of Vancouver Island, have released a list of 12 areas where they will focus their efforts at tapping into the 2010 Games in the next few years. These areas include tourism, employment, support for local athletes and various community events have been examined since the committee started work about six months ago. In October, the Oceanside group plans to meet with similar Olympic committees in Port Alberni and Nanaimo to talk about collaboration, with public workshops after that. The organization is now looking for membership. They'll will charge a fee of C$20.10, and the money will go towards the costs of events later put on by the committee. Barry McWha is the chair of the Committee. His contact info: bmcwha@premiergolf.ca or (250) 954.8788.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 8, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #426
SUMMERLAND 2010 OLYMPIC GROUP TO FUNDRAISE FOR FREESTYLE SKIER


The 2010 Olympic Committee in the town of Summerland, in B.C.'s Okanagan area, is warming up its 2010 development machinery by focusing on fundraising for Canada's freestyle skier, Kristi Richards, to help her compete in the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics.

Janice Perrino, chair of the committee. says they need to raise about C$25,000 per year to get Richards, who lives in Summerland, first to the 2006 Olympics in Turino, Italy, and then to the 2010 Games in Vancouver and Whistler. It's an expensive sport, she notes. The committee is asking the local business community to help it raise some of this money; at least one promotional event is expected this fall and other businesses are likely to get involved. Willowbrook Lane, for instance, announced a fudge variety as a fund-raiser for the skier.

The Summerland Olympic committee is also working to help the community benefit from the 2010 games in other ways. It's applied for funding to improve the Summerland Arena, but no decision on the application has yet been made. It will also try to help local businesses become suppliers to the Games once the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee is ready to consider that.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 8, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #425
WHISTLER OLYMPIC ARTS FUNDING APPROVED FOR NEXT TWO WINTERS


Whistler Resort council says it will provide up to C$50,000 for supporting "Celebration 2010" during February of 2005 and 2006. The money would come from a fund set up to support Olympic-related events.

The first "Celebration 2010" was held last February to showcase B.C. performing and visual artists during the winter as part of Whistler’s lead-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The money will be used by the Whistler Arts Council, which thinks that there will be support from the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee after the 2006 Games in Turin, Italy. For contractual reasons, the Vancouver-Whistler Olympic cultural support can't begin before then. If more funding is confirmed, the Arts Council hopes to increase the number of free performances outside during 2005's Celebration 2010.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 8, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #424
2010 CONSTRUCTION A FACTOR IN FORECASTED GROWTH OF B.C. CONSTRUCTION, ENGINEERING


The initial venue construction projects of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee are a factor in an expansion of engineering on non-residential construction in B.C. this year and next, according to a B.C. Central Credit Union economic forecast released today.

And, says economist David Hobden, "Construction costs are forecast to rise by 4% this year and 3% in 2005." Rising construction costs in the non-residential sector are one of the main worries for VANOC, because of its tight budgets. The document, "BC Non-Residential Construction Forecast 2004-2005," only deals with the near term.

Hobden adds that "Our forecast is for construction spending on engineering projects to rise by 2.9% this year and 3.4% in 2005. Spending growth is expected to accelerate to typical or above-average rates after 2005 as political uncertainty [related to federal and B.C.'s elections] settles down and capital spending on engineering construction related to the 2010 Winter Olympics reaches peak volume."

But, he points out, major engineering on new projects only contributes about a third of the overall engineering volume; the rest is taken up by maintenance on existing structures. "Regionally, most of the spending on major engineering construction projects through 2005 will be in the Mainland/Southwest region." That's where the 2010 venues are to be built.

The forecast notes that construction of Vancouver’s expanded trade and convention centre, which will be a major news media site for the 2010 Games, is proposed to begin late this year, with completion scheduled for 2008, at a total cost of over C$500 million. "Next year will also see groundbreaking for several special-purpose buildings, mostly arenas, in Greater Vancouver and the Whistler area, directly related to hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics. Construction of most Olympic venues is not expected to begin until after 2005."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 7, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |General| #423
PRINCE GEORGE'S "FIVE RINGS OF OPPORTUNITY" APPROACH SETS ORGANIZATIONAL BENCHMARK


A "Year in Review" document published by 2010 North Prince George shows conclusively that the northern B.C. city has the most organized and structured community task force in the province outside of the venue communities when it comes to tapping into the 2010 Winter Games.

More than 1,000 Prince George residents gathered in a community area a year go to celebrate the Vancouver award as host city for the Games, and the city has tapped into that interest ever since.

According to the review, "During the past year, 2010 North has been working to establish itself as Prince George’s 2010 Committee, while developing a framework for leveraging the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games for true sustainable economic and community development."

As the Chair of the organization, Prince George Mayor Colin Kinsley puts it, "The benefits won’t be handed to us on a silver platter. We have to position ourselves to take advantage of the opportunities presented."

The document says the organization's strategy is for "Prince George to define its strengths in the face of 2010 and position itself to benefit accordingly in the lead up and follow through. It is also networking with other 2010 Communities in the north to explore opportunities to work together regionally."

The group of 20 community leaders who comprise 2010 North Prince George now meets regularly to discuss strategy, roles of various participants and to develop a community plan. But it's already achieved five major themes, which it calls the "Five Rings of Opportunity," and it's developed sub-committees to focus on them. Each working group also has an agency connection with Initiatives Prince George, an economic development organization:

  • Olympic Action – National teams from about 80 countries around the world will take part in Olympic and Paralympic sports, and some of them are expected to look for areas in BC for pre-Olympic training and events, both for acclimatization and because some significant lead-up events are expected to be held in the province. According to the review document, "This committee is linking up with 2010LegaciesNow and sports organizations to promote Prince George as a training and events destination in key sports it has capacity in such as hockey, cross-country ski and biathlon, curling and others." As part of this work, an agreement-in-principle between 12 local, regional and Provincial organizations (including Cross Country BC, Biathlon BC, 2010 LegaciesNow, City of Prince George, University of Northern BC, and the College of New Caledonia) was announced by 2010 LegaciesNow President Marion Lay last April, and the 2005 Cross-Country Nationals will be held in Prince George from February 27 to March 6, which the Review document says, marks "the first cross-country ski event on the schedule leading up to 2010."

  • Sport & Legacy – Community representatives, educational institutions and sport organizations have been working on a Northern Sport Centre (NSC) at the University of Northern British Columbia. The review document says, "A business plan is nearing completion. The NSC would be located at UNBC and include a gym, field house, indoor track, coaching offices and various services geared to supporting sport development. The vision is for a national-calibre training centre that will build on Prince George's strengths and provide northern athletes with the opportunity to pursue their education and sport at the same time."

  • Goods & Services – The 2010 North Procurement Committee is aimed at ensuring that businesses have the networks and the information needed for the marketing necessary to "capture new direct and indirect purchasing that will take place in years leading up to and following 2010 Games." The subcommittee intends to hold workshops "and other educational opportunities" this fall for Prince George area businesses.

  • Tourism – Business, leisure and sport tourism will increase around 2010, and this segment of the organization intends to do its best to capture some of that increase.

  • Winter Cities – Part of the Olympic focus is cultural and this section will use Prince George's reputation as a winter city, and those of the surrounding communities, to develop cultural aspects that can take advantage of B.C. government Olympic funding in this area.

BACKGROUND

The 2010 North Steering Committee steering committee is:

Mayor Colin Kinsley (Chair)
Councilor Don Bassermann (ViceChair)

Scott Bone
-- Chair of Goods & Services subcommittee, Supply and Services Manager for the City of Prince George

Tracy Calogheros
-- Chair of Tourism subcommittee; Chair, Northern BC Tourism Association

Bill Lynch
-- Chair of Sport & Legacy subcommittee, Co-Chair Progress PG

Dale McMann
-- Chair of the Olympic Action subcommittee

George Paul
-- (chair of Winter Cities subcommittee, Prince George City Manager)

Gordon Borgstrom
Bob Cooper
Todd Doherty
Garth Frizzell
Ray Gerow
Dr. Charles Jago
Lance Morgan
Gerry Offet
Geoff Paynton
Kathie Scouten
Rob VanAdrichem
Dr. Terry Weninger
Paul Zanette


RESOURCES

Contact info:

Kathie Scouten
Initiatives Prince George
201-1300 First Avenue
Prince George, BC
V2L 2Y3
Phone: 250.564.0282
Fax: 250.649.3200
Email: scouten@initiativespg.com
http://www.initiativespg.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 7, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #422
FIRST VANOC SENIOR STAFF MEETING; TALKS WITH IOC NOW REGULAR; LABOUR PROPOSES "SECURITY" CARDS


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • The new senior management team of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee met for the first time in a staff meeting today, including Human Resources senior vp, Jeff Chan. One of Chan's first roles is to decide how many people of the transition team, which has been working on month-to-month contracts since the beginning of the year. He's also going to have to have a look at the benefit program structure for VANOC. CEO John Furlong says the review of transition staffing still has to take place. "I have no idea how long that's going to take, yet, but it's reasonable to think there may be a few who will not be continuing, and quite a few who are [staying]. But that's a process we have to do very carefully. Everybody here has been waiting quite a long time to find out whether they're going to have a role to play, what that role will be and what the conditions will be." Chan is still not officially relocated to Vancouver. He's moving from Toronto at the end of this month, but he's here today and tomorrow for VANOC meetings. "I'm actually not sure of my schedule tomorrow. Every time I turn around, there's another meeting being set up for me," he says.

  • John Furlong says that he and some of his senior people have a conference call every two weeks now with the members of the International Olympic Committee Co-ordination Commission that oversees the 2010 Games. "Once in a while it gets cancelled if the agenda is thin, but if its abandoned, there's usually a call between Gilbert Felli [the executive director] and myself, which we did yesterday."

  • The British Columbia and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council, which represents construction unions in the areas where VANOC will be constructing venues, is expected to propose that it issue security certification for workers in the form of cards that can be scanned at work sites, and ensure that the worker has the required skills or is part of the requisite trade for the particular job. Furlong, however, is careful to be neutral whenever the concept of the labour movement being involved in venue construction is raised. He confirms that at some point before this year is out, he and his management team -- including the senior vps of Planning, Venues and Human Resources -- will meet "with the broad labour movement" about labour's role, if any, in the construction of the Games. "We have spoken to some people at the Building Trades Council -- they're preliminary discussions only -- and we have reason to believe they will support the staging of the Games, and they will support us... We will see what might end up in an agreement... it may be possible to have something unique here; we'll see." No talks are yet scheduled.

  • The view of things from the Building Trades Council, however, is somewhat less neutral. "The Building Trades have had discussions with government and VANOC officials towards application of an agreement that would cover training and new opportunities for minorities traditionally excluded from construction, labour relations and venue security. Says Wayne Peppard, Executive Director of the Council, "An agreement can provide certainty of labour supply in the highly competitive construction marketplace. Without an agreement, training and security issues will be left to free-for-all bidding and cost cutting measures. It only makes sense to sit down and work out a collaborative approach to these issues." Peppard likes the idea that at least one VANOC senior vice-president, Jeff Chan, is from out of town. "Coming from Ontario, as Mr. Chan does, is a plus for the Senior Vice-President of Human Resources," according to Peppard. "Mr. Chan has no bias with any BC stakeholders. In the BC context, past political baggage may have been a complication," Peppard said. He's OK with the man in charge of venues, even though he's a Vancouver resident, saying, "Steve Matheson as Senior Vice-President of Venue Development is also an excellent choice. Mr. Matheson is respected throughout the BC construction industry. He is a team player. We look forward to a positive working relationship with Mr. Matheson."


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 6, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #421
MARKETING AGREEMENT TALKS WITH IOC NOW UNDERWAY


The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee has begun negotiating its significant marketing agreement with the International Olympic Committee. Such an agreement is hammered out with each organizing committee because it has to deal with a wide range of issues unique to each country, and to the evolving role of the IOC in marketing.

The agreement needs to be in place before January 1 so that VANOC can begin dealing with sponsorships and various other major fund-raising concepts, but it also will constrain VANOC's marketing efforts until after the 2006 Winter Olympics are held in Italy, so the international public isn't confused about which games are where.

"We're moving along quite quickly... I'd like to have that completed in the fall," says VANOC CEO John Furlong. "A lot of companies want to talk to us [about sponsorship and marketing] and so we're trying to foster those relationships, and at the same time move all of the agreement negotiations along." The new vice-president of Revenue, Dave Cobb, will be Furlong's point man on the negotiations.

"It's an agreement that will take a substantial amount of time to negotiate," says Furlong, because it involves issues between the TOP sponsors, which are those which deal directly with the IOC, and the kind of access they will have to the Canadian market through VANOC, as well as the kind of marketing relationship VANOC will be able to have with sponsors inside Canada.

"It's very complex, and it involves the various rights that are awarded to companies," he says.

One aspect that has to be negotiated is the interaction between international, national and local sponsors on the Internet. Rights have been traditionally offered within national boundaries, but national websites are, by definition, international.

Furlong points out that the first time VANOC people met with the IOC to discuss the marketing agreement overview, it took more than three days for them just to understand it. "It's tricky, it's very technical -- so it has to be gone through quite carefully, and some things could be in and some things could be out. We'll just have to see where it goes."


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 6, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #420
FURLONG SAYS SPEED-SKATING OVAL'S LEGACY A PRIME ROLE IN ITS IMMEDIATE FUTURE


The CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, John Furlong, says no decision has yet been reached about the future of the C$60-million speed-skating oval, now that its location is under reconsideration because of escalating construction costs.

Proposals are still being prepared, he says, and they may be ready before the end of the month.

One of the considerations is the building's legacy, its future after VANOC is finished with it. "The legacy aspects have to be a draw for the sport interests of the country and the community," he says. "We will have to reconcile the legacy issues with the [International Olympic Committee]... and the [international sports federations involved], and so we'll have to see what comes out of those discussions. But of paramount importance will be looking at the legacy for what it is, and what it will do for the sports system."

Furlong said that if the concept was simply to duplicate the role of the Calgary speed-skating oval, which is, relatively speaking, geographically close to Vancouver, that might cause concern, "within the sports system."

Furlong said that each of the entities now involved with reviewing the proposed Simon Fraser oval, "will be reviewing it, thinking about what will be the best legacy proposition for the country. There's a lot of serious work going on about it."

But adds Furlong, even when the proposals are offered to VANOC, "it won't be the end; we'll just have a sense of where we're going. We'll still have to talk to the IOC and the sports federations." Furlong also confirmed that if there is agreement on what will become of the oval after the games, the legacy funding would still be available.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 6, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #419
(FEATURE) COBB CONFIRMED AS CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER FOR 2010 GAMES


Dave Cobb has been officially confirmed as the chief marketing officer of the Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee.

His title is senior vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications, and for any organization interested in making money off the games other than construction, Cobb and his staff will be the ones to convince.

Cobb, who is leaving Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment to join VANOC on August 1, will be responsible for managing an estimated C$600 million in revenue generation, as well as marketing and communications activities of the Games. Primary amongst these responsibilities are sponsorships, television revenues, ticketing, licensing merchandise, marketing, communications and media relations.

Cobb joined Orca Bay in 1992 as comptroller and moved through finance, marketing and revenue generation before his appointment there as chief operating officer in 2000.

VANOC CEO John Furlong says that "as a member of VANOC's senior management team, Dave will have a shared responsibility for the leadership of the organization and for the ultimate success of the Games."

A number of the questions in the news conference to announce Cobb's appointment centred over the process of his hiring, since he had to be persuaded to apply. Furlong said that Cobb won a competition against "well over 200" applications from 20 countries, and that the 10-member short list, which he personally interviewed was about 75% applicants and 25%, including Cobb, recruited. They included, he said, people from outside Canada.

"The executive search team worked extremely hard to get Dave interested in the Games," confirmed Furlong. Cobb said that he was first contacted by Kyle Mitchell, the managing partner of the recruitment firm VANOC hired to oversee the application process, Ray & Berndtson/Tanton Mitchell. The contact was made after applications has begun to come in, but before the short list was compiled, according to Furlong. He said it was necessary to do some recruitment for this position because, "we wanted to make the final decision a tough one."

Cobb said that he at first turned Mitchell down, but Mitchell, he said, made two more phone calls before Cobb was persuaded to meet and discuss the possibility of applying. Cobb said he really enjoyed his job with Orca Bay, and had turned down other job offers from other firms over the years but this time, he said, he was faced "with two perfect jobs," the one he had and the one he was urged to join. "This one was just a little bit better... Had I been in any other job than the one I was in, I would have aggressively pursued a job at the Games," Cobb says.

"After all that," said Furlong, "the best man was only a few blocks away. We're thrilled."

Furlong said that Orca Bay president Stan McCammon phoned him shortly after Cobb agreed to take the VANOC job. Furlong said McCammon told him "he always thought that we would come looking for David Cobb." Furlong said he also was told that Cobb had "built a team [at Orca Bay] in such a way that he though was fairly sustainable."

A resident of Vancouver, where he was born, Cobb is a graduate of Simon Fraser University in suburban Burnaby, where he received a Bachelor of Business Administration, and he is a member of the B.C. Institute of Chartered Accountants. Cobb was in Prague a year ago when Vancouver was confirmed as the 2010 host city, and he met with the IOC's Vancouver Commission last spring when he did a presentation to them during their facilities tour of General Motors Place, which Orca Bay owns.

"I think my experience with the Canucks [hockey team] will be valuable in this role," says Cobb. "There are a lot of similarities [between the two jobs]; the revenue streams are areas that I'm really familiar with, the sponsorships, the ticket sales, television, merchandise. All of that is part of what I've done at the Canucks. I know how important it is when you sign up a sponsor that they get as much value as they possibly can for their cheque. I know that when you sell a ticket to somebody, that if they don't have a first-class experience at that event, we've failed."

Cobb says his first job is simply to begin the intensive briefing needed to understand the complexities of the marketing arrangements between the International Olympic Committee - both traditionally and specifically to do with VANOC. "I have a lot to catch up on. I know things have gone really well over the first year, but I also understand there are some pressing matters that have to be dealt with very quickly. It'll be a few weeks before I get over here [to VANOC's offices] full time, but I'll be asking people in various areas to put together binders, and we'll probably take a box of material away to read and learn as much as I can, and I expect I'll sit down and talk with John as quick as I can to learn what the real urgent matters are." Furlong agreed, noting that, "Anybody in our organization knows that it takes a long time to understand and assess it all."

One of Cobb's first priorities will be to assess how VANOC will be able to negotiate a larger percentage of the broadcast revenues than traditionally assigned to a winter Olympics. "I think Dave is going to play a leadership role in helping us get to that right number, whatever that is," says Furlong. Cobb will also have to prepare for going to Athens, and, added Furlong, "The Canadian marketplace is warming up to the idea that the Olympics are coming and what that opportunity means, and there are all sorts of communications stuff that we have to get going on. We have to start building the marketing and communications entity at VANOC. We have to do some significant and serious planning done while we can."

Part of that planning is for sponsorship strategy as of January 1, 2005, when VANOC's eight years in possession of Olympic marketing permissions begins to run. "There will be lots of stuff that he will begin to pick up almost immediately."

Recruitment is still underway for executive positions responsible for Olympic Services and legal services. Furlong says he expects the Olympic Services chief, who will be responsible for such diverse areas as security and technology support, is expected to be named before Furlong's team leaves to inspect the Athens Summer Olympics in August, and that the organization is just beginning the short-list phase of that competition. But, he says, VANOC's chief counsel won't be named until September at the earliest because of the Athens Games interruptions to operations and various holidays schedules, and the Board's recruitment committee is still sorting through applications.


RESOURCES

Kyle Mitchell's CV:
http://www.rayberndtson.ca/kylem.html

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 6, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #418
MOLSON SIGNS WITH COC; ATHLETES CAN UNHAPPY WITH 2010 RULES; CALLAGHAN VALLEY GOES TO MATS


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • Molson, one of Canada's largest breweries and one of the sponsors of the 2010 Winter Olympics Bid, has just signed with the Canadian Olympic Committee to be a sponsor of the Canadian Olympic Team for the Summer Games in Athens. The value of the deal was not released, but it includes cash and value-in-kind. In addition to its financial support of the team, money will go to the COC's Excellence Fund for coaching, and the company will provide all the beer found at Canada Olympic House, which is the COC's hospitality headquarters in Athens, as well as for official COC events in Canada.

  • The association of national team athletes known as Athletes CAN is critical of the Canadian Olympic Committee's selection policy. In a recent white paper, it says the COC is favouring winter sports, allowing qualifying standards for the 2006 Turin Games that are much looser than those for the 2004 Summer Olympics. The reason, it claims, is so more young people can be exposed to the Olympics before the 2010 Games in Vancouver. The organization wants international standards to be adopted in Canada for all Olympic events, summer and winter. The full position is here:
    http://www.athletescan.com/e/archives/2004/0629_top12_position.htm

  • It's been decided that the British Columbia Ministry of Transport will be the agency responsible (and thus paying for) for upgrading the eight-kilometre Callaghan Valley access road and the upper level access road to the 2010 Whistler Nordic Centre (WNC).

  • The specifications for the jump hills connected with the WNC includes plastic matting and ceramic rails. Why? They will allow for summer training and Grand Prix-style competitions. The specifications call for the hills and runs to range all the way from neophyte recreational use to compatibility for high-performance athletes.

  • As the Whistler Nordic Centre, the companion Sliding Centre and the Whistler Athlete's Village are completed and no longer required by VANOC, they'll be turned over to a new, non-profit organization, the Whistler Legacy Society (WLS). The Society will be provided with an endowment from 2010 funding provided by the Canadian and B.C. governments to run the day-to-day operations of the facilities. The WLS's board of directors will include representatives from the Canadian and British Columbian governments, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and the Lil'wat and Squamish First Nations. It's not yet decided whether the Resort Municipality of Whistler will be involved, but it has such an option.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 6, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #417
EUROPEAN BROADCAST RIGHTS SALE A LITTLE RICHER THAN FIRST REPORTED


The International Olympic Committee (IOC) today confirmed the contract for the Olympic broadcast rights for Europe for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Games, and it is slightly richer than the rumours at the time of the deal said it was.

The agreement with the European Broadcast Union, covering 51 countries except for Italy, and a wide range of media categories including, for the first time multi-media and mobile telephony, is officially valued at e614 million (C$999 million). Original reports suggested it was C$991 million.

Negotiations with Italy are expected to resume in the fall. The deal was officially ratified by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) during its General Assembly held on 1 and 2 July in St Petersburg, Russian Federation.

In addition to the contract value, the IOC says EBU "committed to major additional Olympic programming and promotional efforts to support the Olympic brand and promotion of the Olympic ideal outside Games time which the IOC values at a further e125 million [C$203.3 million]."

That brings the total value of the package to e739 million ($C1.2 billion), however, it was not immediately clear whether the additional funding would be shared with Vancouver and the winner of the 2010 Games, which won't be announced until next July, as the additional does not appear to be a cash payment.

Now that European and American broadcast rights have been completed, the IOC figures that it is likely to achieve its goal of C$4 billion in broadcast revenues after completing negotiations with Canada, Asia and Australia. The IOC currently earmarks 49% of those funds for its own use and for distribution to the world of sport via its network of national Olympic committees and the international sports federations.

The official value updates the rule-of-thumb share of funding expected to go to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee to C$590,205,000. This assumes that the IOC's cut remains at 51% of the total broadcast contracts, and that a third of the remainder goes to the smaller 2010 Winter Games. Those calculations also bring the 5% holdback the IOC retains for 2010 to at least C$30,510,250, which includes the C$1 million Vancouver paid into the fund when it was awarded the Games a year ago, but doesn't include interest, which is kept in the Fund.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 6, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #416
WOMEN'S SKI JUMPING FOR 2010?; PICTURE A ROOTS HAT; VANOC, THE SUB-KILLER


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • Ski jumping, you'll be intrigued to know, is the only winter Olympic sport that doesn't -- yet -- include women. That may be rectified by the time 2010 rolls around. Two dozen of the world's top female ski jumpers will compete in the first Continental Cup of Ski Jumping for women, which will be held July 23-24 in Park City, Utah, where the 2002 Winter Olympics were held. The Salt Lake City Tribune quotes Olympic champion Jim Shea, whose family foundation is the major sponsor of the event, as saying, "This is a historical event, It's the first leg of a journey which we hope will lead to the acceptance of women's ski jumping as a medal event in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics."

  • Much is made of Olympic sponsors promoting their own brands by hooking them up to the Olympic logo, but what about the brands of others? Roots Canada and Kodak are both sponsors of the 2004 Athens Games (VANOC isn't expected to start offering sponsorships until next year), and they're doing a cross-promotion. From now until the end of September, (with redemptions accepted until October 8 if quantities last), consumers can get a C$30 Roots Canadian Olympic Hat via mail by buying marked Kodak film and single-use cameras and filling in a request form and paying about C$4 for shipping and handling. "This promotion allows us to further leverage Kodak's global sponsorship with the Olympic games," says Paul Dillon, director of marketing communications for Kodak Canada. "Additionally, we get to do so with another highly regarded brand, which is also strongly associated with the Olympic games." Support includes national free-standing inserts to 5.4 million Canadian households, photo-finishing stuffers during the promo period, header cards on all participating product displays at retail, and support at Kodak's Canadian website. The promotion was created for Kodak Canada by B Street Communications in Toronto, Ontario.

  • VANOC, the acronym of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, is not a word that normally appears in English, and one of the main values of the Olympics is "peaceful", but Vanoc was the name of a British destroyer. The HMCS Vanoc was built in 1917, just before the First World War, but its main claim to fame occurred during World War II. In November, 1941, it was doing escort duty in the north Atlantic when the convoy was attacked by German submarines. The Vanoc gave chase, raising U100 after it was hit with depth charges. When the sub turned to fight, the Vanoc rammed it at full speed, sinking it with all but five hands, whom it rescued. A first-hand account of that attack is detailed here: http://www.mikekemble.com/ww2/merchantnavy.html [Once you're at the page, Find "A signalman aboard" (without the quotes).] The ship was refurbished to make it a long-range escort in 1943, but was badly damaged again when it sank U392 on March 16, 1944. It was scrapped a year later.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 5, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC, Business| #415
HOTELS IN VANCOUVER, WHISTLER OFFERED DEAL FOR BULK BUY OF ROOMS DURING 2010 GAMES


Several large Vancouver and Whistler hotels are in the process of decided whether to take part in a agreement to ensure the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, and perhaps visitors to the 2010 Games, will not be overcharged in the run-up and during the Games.

In general, the formula appears to be that the room rate VANOC would like to get from a hotel involved in the package arrangement would be the average room rate for a hotel during the years 2005 to 2007, plus various goodies and premiums that add almost 20% to that rate. VANOC would pay for the rooms, and it would recover some of the funds from the IOC, and some from various other funding sources.

VANOC, however, is having to work hard on the negotiations, and not every hotel approached jumped at the opportunity, in part because of natural competitiveness, and in part because they, too, are good negotiators for bulk purchases of their rooms. However, VANOC has considerable leverage and, as they put it, "the International Olympic Committee is the best client" these hotels could have. The hotels and staff will also be able to use aspects of Olympic marketing as part of their agreement, if they decide to sign onto the deal being negotiated. VANOC is focusing its approach on emphasizing the benefits of participating in the deal, as opposed to nay-saying properties that are reluctant to be involved.

About 250,000 visitors are expected to arrive in Vancouver and Whistler to see and support the Games in February and March, 2010. One of the major issues, at least as far as VANOC is concerned, is ensuring that it can bargain as low a room rate as possible for the estimated 19,500 people it estimates will be closely involved with the Games, such as International Olympic Committee executives, sponsors representatives, media, and close friends, family and other close supporters of the athletes.

Yvonne Curry, the project manager of accommodation for VANOC, has been quoted as saying, "I think it would behoove us to try not to gouge. So we are going to work closely with them [the hotels with which VANOC is negotiating] to keep the pricing fair, not only in the hotels and the bed-and-breakfasts, but also in the restaurants and the gift shops. It is a matter of communication. We are going to work very closely with the properties that have remaining inventory and say to them that is is a good opportunity for Whistler to really maximize the benefit of bring a huge production like this to town." About 16,000 rooms-days in Vancouver are needed, and about 3,500 rooms-days in Whistler will be required.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 5, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #414
COBB REPORTEDLY TAPPED FOR SENIOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE JOB


2010NewsWatch

The sports departments of the Vancouver Sun and Vancouver Province newspapers are both reporting that David Cobb, the chief operating officer of the company that owns the Vancouver Canucks and General Motors Place, will join the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee in a senior capacity tomorrow.

Neither Orca Bay Sports & Entertainment, Cobb, nor VANOC will confirm or deny the reports, however the newspapers both have strong informant ties within the organization and seemed to have picked up on the rumours and were able to get a back-channel confirmation of the move by Orca Bay president Stan McCammon in Lake Tahoe, California.

The position of senior vice-president in charge of Revenue, Marketing and Communications is a position that is still unfilled, although a competitive process to fill that job has been underway for about two months, and The Province reports Cobb was "approached a few weeks ago and initially declined, saying he was content to remain at Orca Bay. But once Cobb understood the magnitude of the [job]... the 41-year-old Vancouver native and Simon Fraser University business grad was willing to end his 12-year association with Orca Bay."

VANOC CEO John Furlong has set up his senior management team both by competition and by appointment, however the appointments so far deal with key inward-facing administrative jobs - Terry Wright as his ongoing chief planner and John McLaughlin as his senior finance officer, for instance - while the competitions have been looking for significant outward-facing expertise, such as marketing, human resources and legal. If Cobb is an appointment, as The Province's sources seem to indicate, then it may be in a chief-operating-officer type of role.

During his tenure, Cobb increased corporate sponsorship of the Canucks, negotiated a lucrative pay-per-view operation, successfully convinced the B.C. government to provide lottery assistance to the hockey team and various other significant changes that helped keep the company profitable.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 5, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |General| #413
(FEATURE) FIRST 365 DAYS PASSES SWIFTLY FOR VANCOUVER OLYMPIC ORGANIZING COMMITTEE


The first year of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee's official mandate passed swiftly, and today marks its first anniversary; 365 days down, and 2,051 to go before the Games opening ceremonies take place.

In some ways VANOC has accomplished quite a bit. In other areas, it has a lot of work yet to do. It's accomplishments and challenges:

  • A full and competent Board of Directors has been formed that allows for a useful dynamic tension to peacefully exist between the 20 representatives of the major stakeholders - the Canadian, British Columbian, Vancouver City, Whistler Resort Municipality and the two aboriginal governments who control all the permissions, land, guarantees and funding fail-safes, and the representatives of the International Olympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee. All of the people in the mix have a good deal of connections and expertise in business, government, union or sports. Most are people of firm convictions and none are shy about making their opinions known, and while there is some scattered evidence of alignments forming, it has not yet hindered the Board's operations or oversight. The Board has also chosen as its chair a respected, competent and affable business executive and developer who is intimately familiar with the power brokers of Vancouver, B.C. and Canada, Jack Poole. The Board has also formed a governance task force, and set up committees for dealing with executive hiring, audit and operational-finance reviews, and renewed the agreement originally done by Furlong as head of the Bid Corporation with a retired judge to continue his work as ethics commissioner for the Board and VANOC. The Board committees meet regularly and, from various reports, work hard.

  • On the other hand, it took the stakeholders about five months -- nearly half of VANOC's first year -- just to choose that Board. And the Board itself missed several self-imposed deadlines announced by Poole before it chose VANOC's Chief Executive Officer, John Furlong of Vancouver, on February 20 -- nine months into the mandate. And he was hired despite an extraordinary and surprising fight between the various Board backers of the several contenders for that job; a fight that, as it turned out, came down between the British Columbia government, which wanted Furlong, and a senior IOC official, Dick Pound, who backed an as-yet unnamed eastern Canadian candidate.

  • On the operational side, each government and each Olympic organization has formed secretariats and assigned staff that are generally competent to deal with the multitude of issues, paperwork and other daily gruntwork necessary to deal with the existence, cashflows and other machinery necessary to allow VANOC to operate. Combined, they have established the necessary spider web of links, communications and relationships in which VANOC is suspended. On occasion in the past year, some (but not all) of these links have been tested and some (but not all) have been found wanting, but changes or repairs have been made in fairly short order when there has been problems. On the whole, the external bureaucratic machinery appears to be working. And VANOC has reacted well to the idea of grafting onto its side 2010LegaciesNow -- a purely provincial-government program primarily set up to distribute 2010 benefits and funding within British Columbia beyond the Vancouver/Whistler area. In fact, it has even incorporated some of VANOC's volunteer and community goals into the program. And the beginnings of a policy of making it easier for businesses in particular to deal with VANOC via a B.C. government-operated website have been developed and will begin to bear fruit this fall. On the other hand, all of these organizations have yet to be significantly strained by the requirements of money that will grow exponentially faster than the relentless decrease in time before the Games begin. VANOC's relationships with the City of Vancouver and Whistler, and their respective regional districts, over a number of land-use issues appear to be in good working order.

  • Internally, John Furlong and his "Wright-hand man", Terry Wright, continued to work indefatigably behind the scenes as the political oversight aspects swirled above and around them. From all reports, they simply wasted no time at all. They initiated a considerable amount of consultant studies -- geo-techncial, financial, hydrological, meteorological and the like -- for all of the venue construction areas. And even before the Board had decided who would be in charge of those venues, they compiled a sophisticated, professional and detailed RFP process for the first two venues, the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Sliding Centre, attracting some of the biggest names in architecture and engineering in western Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the United States to indicate interest and many of those made the short lists. VANOC has also held, with provincial government assistance, a major briefing seminar for the business, arts and culture communities about its general plans and time frames. Furlong has also finally seen the Board confirm his appointment of four senior vice-presidents and a vice-president of finance who is also comptroller, who can start to take some of the heavy portions of the detailed workload off his shoulders; they, too, are a mixture of people who have been with him all along -- such as Wright and vp Finance, John McLaughlin -- and new blood with extensive experience and competence. A couple more senior-vp appointments are expected to be announced in the next few weeks. Furlong has also drafted an organizational plan with about 50 segments to it, and personally guided, with Wright and some of his major consultants and Board members, the IOC's commission in charge of overseeing its new Vancouver franchise through two concentrated weekends of tours, reports and backgrounders during the year. VANOC has also, in the midst of all this, moved its operations several blocks to two large floors of a major downtown Vancouver office building, and has set up the beginnings of a policy of hiring some mid-level help.



STUMBLES: On the other hand, there have been at least three stumbles and a couple of challenges, all so far involving communications, primarily:

  • The first dealt with how VANOC approached the concept of financing the games. When the Bid Book was compiled, in 2002 and 2003, construction and the B.C. economy were somewhat sluggish. Since then, the outlook has brightened considerably as several billion dollars worth of large public and private construction projects for the greater Vancouver area are now slated to proceed between now and 2010, and revised calculations by VANOC to take into account the increases in various construction commodities and labour shortages prompted public worries that the construction budgets originally established will probably not be sufficient. The concept that VANOC could ask for more money was quickly, firmly and publicly shot down by the governments that agreed to act as financial backstops. Furlong and the Board should have reasonably expected just such a reaction and it was a communications error to force it into the public domain. In any event, VANOC is now turning its attention on raising additional funding from non-governmental sources, such as negotiating with the IOC for an increased share -- above the usual 49% -- of broadcast fees, and this attitude shift will also likely put increased pressure on extracting additional funding from sponsorship and other revenue-generation aspects of the Games. It is also likely that VANOC will put pressure on holding construction bids tightly to quotes, and Furlong has set up contract language and a volunteer committee to help deal with that, and is expected to hire a consulting contractor to help staff lean on contractors. Contractors, in turn, will pass some of that pressure downward to their suppliers. Other areas of cost control, such as staffing, salary levels and controls over marketing expenses, can also be expected since the only way to come in on time and budget is to raise revenues or control costs, or both.

  • The second stumble was Furlong not recognizing that when his financial review of construction costs for venues prompted the possibility that Simon Fraser University's C$44 million speed-skating oval could be moved, it would create considerable consternation and a plethora of negative news stories. They very fact it was even newsworthy took Furlong by surprise, and he still considers it to be a case of reporters fueling an artificial story. The existence of the oval at Simon Fraser, however, has a great deal to do with advanced-education politics and its integration with Simon Fraser's Kinesiology department, and long-term goals of SFU's board of directors and senior staff. The story was almost immediately coupled with the concept that the University of British Columbia might be the venue's new location, and several other Greater Vancouver areas also indicated that they would gladly host the venue. The story continues to simmer under the surface; it will again make headlines in July or August, once VANOC comes to a decision about what it will do regarding the site. Furlong should have been in front of the issue from the start, in order to garner positive publicity as the story was told, and he wasn't.

  • The third stumble came when Furlong and his senior communications staff were blindsided by ethical objections from the organization that represents corporate image designers across the country when VANOC's logo competition, a C$250,000 project aimed at the major design firms, was launched. The issue erupted when the then-president of the Canadian Design Council, Matthew Warburton, who has a more confrontational style than the incoming president, Peggy Cady, was about to step into the CDC's official Past-President role. The CDC, via Warburton, had only one week's notice of the competition, and the mid-level communications worker who made the phone call to discuss aspects of it and invite Warburton to the news conference announcing it, didn't pick up on the significance of Warburton's objections voiced during that call. Nor did the VANOC observers at the CDC's annual general meeting last February apparently communicate the similar objections it heard from the CDC's Salt Lake City counterparts who spoke during that meeting. Because the logo competition primarily involved professional designers, major news media did little with the story, but it had a strong ripple effect within the marketing community, culminating, so far, in a blistering full-page editorial condemning VANOC's competition in one of the Canadian industry's leading national publications.


Communications -- in the organizational transparency sense -- has not yet been VANOC's strong suit. The public has a major interest in how VANOC conducts its affairs and VANOC has a real and significant interest in keeping the public onside, particularly in this Year of Planning, as Furlong calls it. Furlong has been repeatedly asked over the last two months if he will release at least an executive summary of his reports to the IOC's Vancouver Commission. He has specifically declined to release the actual reports, citing confidentiality issues with the IOC. He has indicated that he might make sanitized summaries public, but has not yet done so, saying that he needs to ask the IOC's Vancouver Commission for formal permission to do so, and that will not occur until he next reports to the IOC, in August, just before the Athens Games (although he also has a meeting scheduled this month with Rene Fasel, the Commission's chair). He has also been requested to release the minutes of VANOC Board meetings, but has so far declined, saying that he will have to ask formal permission to do so, and that will not occur until the next Board meeting, which has not yet been set. It's expect that, if they agree, the Board will need to begin holding portions of its meetings in-camera, so, for instance, negotiating positions and human-resource discussions involving specific people are not made public, but other topics may also end up in the closed-door portions of such meetings. At the moment, reporters are optimistic that Furlong will eventually accede to both requests, since he has, so far, seemed to be in favour of doing so, but there are valid reasons why reporters are usually cynical.

Interestingly and somewhat surprisingly, virtually nothing has been said of the Paralympic portion of the 2010 Games during VANOC's first year. Whenever it appears that it would be obvious that VANOC could include the Paralympic Games in with what it's doing on the Olympic side, such as during the logo competition, it has specifically not done so. When asked, for instance, why, Terry Wright said simply that the Paralympic Games logo competition would be addressed later, or perhaps, he mused, the Paralympic logo might be chosen out of the designs submitted for the Olympic Games. On the other hand, the RFPs for the first venues specifically deal with access for the disabled, and the City of Vancouver is working on establishing plans for a much better access for the disabled in a wide range of city venues, not just Olympic and Paralympic venues, as a nod to the arrival of the Paralympic Games.

Although a lot was accomplished this first year, it pales in comparison with that which must be accomplished by this time next year: the beginning of major venue construction, observations of the Athens Games and continued growth of the organization. With a great deal of luck and work, VANOC, Furlong, his executive team and the Board can keep the coming year's challenges down to the same level as those of this year. And perhaps we'll begin to hear about the Paralympic Games.


BACKGROUND

Here's a list of what VANOC thinks are its highlights in its first year:

Below is a summary of the key Vancouver 2010 activities in the last year:

  • Vancouver 2010 was incorporated as the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games on September 30, 2003

  • Board of Directors appointed October 2003 - 20 Member Board: all Games partners represented. Chairman: Jack Poole

  • IOC Orientation Seminar held in Vancouver - November 2003

  • 2010 Games web site renamed Feb. 2004 -
      http://www.vancouver2010.com


  • John Furlong named as Vancouver 2010 Games Chief Executive Officer on
    February 20, 2004

  • VANOC/COVAN approved as Games acronym on April 1, 2004 (COVAN is the French version)

  • Vancouver 2010 Design Conference held June 9 and 10, 2004 - national competition launched for 2010 Emblem

  • Search conducted for five Executive Vice Presidents: Sports, Human Resources, Revenue and Marketing, Venue Development, Olympic Services

  • VANOC leadership team announced on June 22, 2004
    • Terry Wright, Senior Vice President, Olympic Planning
    • Cathy Priestner Allinger, Senior Vice President, Sport
    • Jeff Chan, Senior Vice President, Human Resources
    • John McLaughlin, Vice President and Comptroller
    • Steve Matheson, Senior Vice President, Venue Development

  • Executive team appointments expected in Summer 2004: revenue and marketing, Olympic Services, legal, services

  • IOC appointed 11 person Coordination Commission - Chaired by Rene Fasel

  • VANOC relationship established with Olympic Games Knowledge Transfer Services - regular meetings and visits

  • First full visit of IOC Coordination Commission completed in April 2004.

  • Next full visit of IOC Coordination Commission in April, 2005



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 2, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |IOC
Business| #412
MARKETING VALUES AND KEYWORDS OFFERED BY IOC FOR SPONSORS LISTED BY STRATEGIST


Christy McLeod, vice-president of marketing strategy for Meridian Management in Atlanta, Georgia, says that in-depth surveys done in 16 languages for the IOC since 1988, including one last February in Canada, are consistent in the values consumers ascribe to the Olympics around the world.

McLeod is responsible for the IOC's marketing strategy development as well as brand management and marketing communication activities.

These are the words that McLeod and the Olympics provide to sponsors, along with other marketing materials, to help them draft strategies for developing sales tools and events to tie their marketing into the Olympics, in order of importance:

  • Being the best
  • Respectful
  • Trustworthy
  • Dynamic
  • Striving
  • Friendship
  • Participation
  • Eternal
  • Heritage
  • Peaceful
  • Celebration
  • Dignified
  • Honorable
  • Unity
  • Inspirational
  • Fair competition
  • Modern
  • Patriotic
  • Global
  • Tradition


She says that the eight most closely associated brand attributes are:

  • Being the best
  • Dynamic
  • Participation
  • Striving
  • Friendship
  • Eternal
  • Respectful
  • Trustworthy


She says that the Olympic Brand derives its power in the minds of consumers from combining dynamic and altruistic values -- excitement and inspiration, plus social & ethical values -- to make the Olympic symbols, such as torches, medals and the Olympic rings logo a "powerful, emotive brand."

The essence of Olympic marketing attributes, according to her material, are captured in four "communication platforms":

  • Hope - as in "hope for a better world using sport competition for all, without discrimination, as a lesson for humanity"

  • Dreams & Inspiration - as in "the inspiration to achieve personal dreams using the striving, sacrifice and determination of the athletes as a model"

  • Joy in Effort - as in "the universal joy in effort to be the best you can be"

  • Friendship & Fair Play - as in "examples of how humanity can overcome political, economic, religious and racial prejudices through the values of friendship and fair play"


BACKGROUND

A graph showing Olympic image key attributes and their degree of association with the Games is available for download as a small PDF file from:
http://www.morgan-news.com/2010/SupportFiles/2004-06/OlyMarketValues.pdf


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #411
SURVEY SHOWS THAT PRIDE, LOVE OF COMPETITIVE SPORT, CHIEFLY MOTIVATE CANADIANS OLYMPIC SUPPORT


A brief summary of a consumer study of Canadian Olympic values done by Ipsos-Reid between February 17 and 24 this year and provided by the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee shows that Canadians support the Olympic Games because of their national pride, and their love of sport competition.

But, says the study, they don't tend to think of the Games is much in terms of the arts, culture the environment or peace — they simply see it as a multi-national sporting event.

The study, done in French and English and averaging about 20 minutes per participant, involved 1,570 people 18 and older, plus booster samples in B.C. and Alberta, and is accurate to 3.17%, 19 times out of 20 for Canada, and 4.9%, 19/20 for B.C. residents.

VANOC also says in another summary that research done by the International Olympic Committee during the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games showed that 40% of Canadians surveyed — the number was not released — used the Internet to follow the Games. The same research showed that 94% of Canadians watched ice hockey overall, including 25.5 million, or 85%, watched the Canadian Men's team win gold on Feb 22, 2002.

The Committee, at the urging of Morgan:News:2010 compiled the summaries, but declined to release detailed information on either survey, citing contractual constraints.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #410
HOPKINS SIGNS ON WITH PARIS 2012; 70 APPEAR FOR KAMLOOPS 2010 MEET


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • One of the technical team that worked on the 2010 bid has just been hired to help Paris 2012, the organization behind Paris’ Bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2012. Brett Hopkins, 37, was the chief financial officer for the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games for more than three years, responsible for budget, accounting, risk management, value-in-kind management, procurement and logistics for those Games. An American, Mr. Hopkins spent about eight months helping Vancouver 2010 in developing its financial plan.

  • Interest in the 2010 Winter Olympics continues to be strong in British Columbia's interior communities; more than 70 people, including senior dignitaries from Kamloops attended a meeting sponsored by the provincial government. The public presentation was to prepare the area for what the 2010 Olympic Games meant for business and sport in the city, as Bruce Dewar of 2010LegaciesNow Society and Gordon Goodman, the director of business development from the B.C. Olympic Games Secretariat helped the group discuss four main sectors: business, culture, sport and tourism. Randy Hedlund, the economic development officer for the North Thompson was there, along with John Dormer, chair of the Kamloops 2010 Regional Committee as well as Kamloops Mayor Mel Rothenburger and two members of the provincial legislature - Claude Richmond and Kevin Krueger, The workshop notes are being collected and presented at a follow-up meeting in Kamloops, to be held in October.

  • Surrey School District trustee Mary Polak says the Board will submit a report this fall to the 2010 Olympic Organizing Committee to suggest that the Vancouver suburb become formally involved in training volunteers for the 2010 Games, as one way of the community getting involved. About 40,000 will be needed, according to VANOC's latest estimates. "You have to get in on these things early to benefit from them," she says. Surrey's continuing education department has been providing Super Host training since 1986. The tourism training program covers all aspects of customer service, with certificates supplied by local Chamber of Commerce offices.



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #409
LANGLEY GROUPS ASKED TO THINK ABOUT HOW TO SUPPORT OLYMPIC-BOUND ATHLETES


The Greater Langley Chamber of Commerce, the Langley Parks and Recreation Commission and the Langley Youth Commission have been asked by Langley Township Council to see if there are ways they can help athletes heading for Olympic Games.

They took the action after receiving a letter from Gilian Pinette. Her daughter, Monica, will compete for Canada in the pentathlon in Athens in August. "However," adds Pinette, "unless they are fortunate to have a major sponsor, it seems to me that most athletes are all struggling along financially, and only be able to get to where they are thanks to over-mortgaged parents, small fundraisers, and supportive community and businesses.... In the competitive world of high performance sports, athletes are rarely home, travelling around the world. Most are self-supporting and competing against countries where there is often a lot of national money. For most, finances are a nightmare."

Pinette wrote said that while there is some funding from sports federations for high performance athletes, she also thought that the Fraser Valley community east of Vancouver, "might use their connections and put on a major fundraiser for needy athletes."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #408
(FEATURE) THE FIRST VENUE: AN OVERVIEW OF THE WHISTLER NORDIC CENTRE


Here's what we have gleaned about the work to be done once the first major venue contract to be issued by the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, for the C$61 million Whistler Nordic Centre (WNC), moves from the promise-to-the-IOC stage to the start of construction. The design contract is expected to be awarded in July.

The general timeline: ground preparation begins this fall, construction will begin next spring and the Centre will be completed by the fall of 2007. That will give two winter seasons -- 2007/8, 2008/9 and possibly late 2009 -- for the facilities to be used for trial runs and training by various teams. [See BACKGROUND, below, for a detailed timeline - ed.]

Although the specific design of the Centre, to be built in the Madley Creek area of the Callaghan Valley just west of Whistler, isn't yet known -- it's what the first contract will be involve, after all -- we know that the general shape of the WNC building is likely to be that of a horseshoe, to maximize athlete viewing, and it will face south. Why south? So that athletes will start and finish with the sun in their faces -- a requirement of television.

And, because the building will also be used for the Paralympic Games, all the physical aspects of the building are to be designed to readily accommodate athletes, coaches, support staff and those in the audience with disabilities.

The competition courses will generally run south from the stadium (training and other areas will run in the other directions.) The WNC Olympic events include biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and ski-jumping. The Paralympic events are biathlon and cross-country only.

In addition, the overall pattern of the complex in relation to the various hills and areas used by it will be star shaped, with the stadium in the centre of the star. All of the runs will be within walking distance of each other, particularly so as far as the spectators are concerned.

The heart of the Centre complex will be eight kilometres from the access road's junction with Highway 99. At the moment, it's just a forest service road that goes into the area. The B.C. Ministry of Highways is to construct a four-lane paved road for the first four kilometres, and a three-lane paved road for the remaining four kilometres. It will terminate in a parking lot at the Cross Country station. The MOT is in the process of retaining a consultant now to work on preparations for the new road. A power-line right of way will also be constructed beside the road. Some existing rough trails will be upgraded and some new trails will built through the old North Air Mines property to the top of the ski-jump venue.

We also know that VANOC expects there will be 1.8 million event tickets available throughout the weeks of each set of Games, that it expects about 80,000 visitors for the Olympic events, and about 40,000 for the Paralympic events all told.

However, VANOC expects that there will be between 10,000 and 12,000 spectators that actually show up at the Centre during the Games, and so the planning will be dealing with those capacities at each of the venue's public areas, and that will mostly be done using what VANOC terms an "Olympic overlay". Essentially, that means that VANOC plans to install temporary seating and other services to deal with those sizes of crowds at the finish lines and along the necessary trails -- starting in June 2009, to be completed by January 2010 -- and that the Centre won't need to permanently plan to deal with that many people. In fact, there is an entire binder dealing with the Olympic overlay requirements that will be made available to the design firms that win the WNC and Sliding Centre contracts

The contractor will be under various major restrictions in its approach to the design and construction: cost, sustainability, environmental and aboriginal. How the proponents of the bids, which include engineering and architecture, handle these aspects will be weighed in determining who gets the contract.

VANOC is expected to be difficult to deal with when it comes to budget overruns, and it's building a considerable amount of details about this concept right into the contract, right down to the design phase. "If there is a cost overrun," says the bid document, "the consultant will be required to adjust the design concept at no additional cost to VANOC, to meet the construction-cost budgets provided." VANOC also says it will hire a general contractor "to provide an independent check on the quantities and unit prices" of materials that will be going into the venue construction.

VANOC also expects the design contractor to understand it means business when it wants minimal impact on the environment, during construction and in the design of the runs and the buildings. In part, that's because it's one of the major conditions placed on VANOC by the International Olympic Committee -- and that, too, will be built into the contract.

VANOC is expecting to see "high-performance green buildings and systems" emerge from the design process. Interestingly, the bid documents walk a tightrope about the ratings systems to be used in judging just how 'green' the building will be. The IOC uses the LEED standard of judging this quality, and that's the promise the Bid Corporation made in the Bid Book, but that's an American-based standard which competes -- in the true business sense -- with other standards in use in Canada, and in particular, British Columbia. These competing rating systems are not happy about the concept of giving LEED a beachhead in British Columbia. VANOC intends to judge who gets the contract by how 'green' the building will be in proponent's concepts by using rating systems that equate to LEED, but it does not seem to be making it a mandatory requirement. [See BACKGROUND section for previous stories on the LEED controversy - ed.]

Also in the bid documents: "Sensitivity to First Nations interests and aspirations will be important in the design of the venues and Games planning activities... proponents should consider whether there are opportunities for social procurement and training in the context of services." These two concepts are a nudge in the direction of VANOC wanting to see extra consideration given to aboriginal hiring and training without making it a specific requirement of the contract. The Lil'wat and the Squamish native Indian bands, whose lands are near the area, are represented on VANOC's board of directors.

The contact will specify that not just the main contractor will be expected to be environmentally, aboriginally, socially and budget-friendly, but all of its suppliers will be required to operate under the same umbrella, which implies similar contract wording will be incorporated into sub-contractor agreements as work is farmed out.

PREPARING THE SITE: VANOC has done quite a bit of site preparation, even as it was making the transition from the Bid Corporation to that of the Olympic Organizing Committee. Since last fall and into this spring, VANOC staff and consultants -- using hydrological studies by Kerr Wood & Leidl, environmental studies by Enlean and preliminary geotechnical studies by Golder & Associates -- identified the functional areas of both the WNC and its companion Sliding Centre, a C$31 million project that will start shortly.

They also flagged the sizes of the space needed, the general broadcast media requirements, the judging areas, the medical support and anti-doping requirements, the general requirements for food services, spectator seating, and areas for athletes, coaches, teams and their equipment storage. And some preliminary construction work has already begun on the ski-jumps.

However, more geotechnical, hydrological and environmental work must yet be done, and that's underway now. For instance, Piteau & Associates are due to report about now on its search for potable water that can be used by WNC, and Dayton & Knight are looking at the ramifications of on-site sewage treatment and disposal, which is part of a major environmental-review process. A draft report is expected by VANOC from the firm shortly as well. And not everything has gone smoothly in this preparation process, either. For instance, the contour mapping that was done last fall had to be redone early this year because it wasn't done with sufficient detail.

BUREAUCRACIES: The environmental studies are being used for the baseline information that will be needed for the provincial government's formal Environmental Assessment application, and that'll be underway until the end of July this year. It will also be used for various VANOC internal reporting to the IOC.

The B.C. Environmental Assessment process is expected to generally satisfy the federal government's environmental assessment requirements, which also covers aspects of VANOC's venues. A provincial EA certificate is required by the designers before the project can be built, and the federal environmental aspect needs to be completed before the federal portion of the funding for the venue can be released. The B.C. process include environmental assessments of social, economic, health and heritage aspects of the venue.

In addition, the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District will also go through a rezoning process to allow the area where the facilities are to be built to become a commercial zone.

BACK TO THE FUTURE: VANOC is not just building the centre for the Games alone. A major part of its over-all goals, and that of the IOC, is to figure out an ongoing use for the facilities which, in VANOC's terms, are known as 'legacy' aspects. It also calls it "a major challenge" for designers.

That means the entire design and concept has to be based on what would make commercial sense to a large degree, although an endowment fund is planned -- assuming there's enough money left over after mounting the Games to do so -- to help subsidize the legacy uses. Here's how, in part, VANOC specifies the concept: "The goal is to make the site a world-class destination for all the Nordic sports, and to maximize year-round use of compatible outdoor recreational sporting activities..."

The provincial government is in the process now of developing a long-term plan for the Callaghan Valley in conjunction with the development of a Nordic Centre business plan.

The legacy uses are to include opportunities for Nordic sport development at the Centre itself and be able to deal with, and compete for, regional, provincial, national and international competitions. At a minimum, VANOC expects the facility to be able to host World Cup events, and in the non-winter seasons, to be able to encourage "training opportunities" such as mountain-biking, mountaineering and snowless ski-jumping.

The Centre is to include athlete and recreational support facilities, along with various temporary and permanent facilities. These include a Nordic day lodge, sport operations areas and a maintenance facility, and some of these might be in separate buildings.

The requirements for the design of the Centre, besides the buildings and its support facilities, also includes construction of trails for the skiing and biathlon events, as well as some recreational trails. The detailed design is to include 65K, 90K and 120K ski jumps, along with the space provisions of development jumps.

SPORTS CONSULTING: International sports federations covering the various events at the WNC have also given their approvals for the preliminary venue design and the conceptual design for the things that affect their sports and the recreational trails related to them, in order to come up with the documents given to the short list of firms interested in the project. And quite a few sports technical consultants have been hired by VANOC to oversee both the preliminary plans and review the on-going development of the WNC's plans.

VANOC hired John Aalberg and Don Gardner, both world-famous experts in their industry, to determine the ski-trail course layout for competition as well as for recreation. They did much of their on-site work from camps set up during a week last April. The design elements from the course layouts to the stadium layouts have been, and will be, technically reviewed by Jurg Capol, the International Ski Federation (FIS) race director and Uri Wehling, the FIS Nordic Combined race director. Also involved in reviewing plans will be Georgia Manhard, Cross-Country Canada's representative (and said to be the driving force of the WNC since its inception), and John Heiling, the Canadian representative for the Nordic Combined sports organization. Torgeir Nordby has been hired by VANOC to do technical designs reviews of the ski jump hills and its facilities, and all the ski-jump facility design elements will be reviewed by FIS ski-jumping race director Walter Hofer.

The International Biathlon Committee's vice-president of sport, Vladimir Smirnov and Norbert Bailer, the chair of the IBU technical committee will also be involved in the review of designs, and Biathlon Canada will have Ray Kokkonen, who worked on the Biathlon venue during the Bid phase.

TV OR NOT TV: VANOC will also be paying extremely close attention to media requirements, particularly those for TV broadcasting, since they pay for such a large portion of the Games.

For instance, it will be keenly interested in the plans the WNC design firm creates for the locations and sight-lines of TV cameras along the various jumps and runs. The idea is to get maximum coverage for a minimum number of cameras that satisfies the requirements of the IOC, and the various broadcast crews, such as those of NBC, Europe, Canada and Asia -- and still keep the number of trees to be cut and other environmental damage to a minimum.

Camera positions will have to be in the master site plan, along with the underground conduits required for their power and communications cabling.

TV signals will be relayed from the WNC to satellite, and much of it will be processed by the Broadcast Centre venue VANOC will be building in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond. But the designers will also have to account for on-site communications and broadcasting, such as that required for scoreboards, timing systems, multi-media, paging, radio, info-messaging (such as cell-phone text messaging), signage, and whatever else technology will come up with by the time 2010 rolls around.

PREP WORK TO DO: In order to prepare the area for construction to start next spring, tree clearing and harvesting is to begin this fall. It's already been settled which company will be doing the harvesting: Western Forest Products owns the tree licenses in the area, and it will be doing the work, starting in mid September and finishing by the end of October this year.

The specific areas to be cleared will have to be known by then to give the company sufficient time to do the work, but the general areas are already known: besides the hills and location for the WNC and its companion Sliding Centre and the accompany parking lots and trails, WFP will also be clearing the areas alongside the access road so that power and communication lines can be constructed.

POWER: There are two parts to the electrical requirements of the WNC and the Sliding Centre: permanent and temporary. The temporary aspects involve the power facilities that will be needed during construction, and the permanent aspects will be for both the Olympic overlay and the legacy aspects.

The construction load, VANOC estimates, will be no more than one million volt amps (MVA). The permanent load is estimated to be no more than three MVA.

B.C. Hydro, the province's electrical utility, will construct a new high-voltage substation on the south end of Whistler near Function Junction in the next two or three years. Electrical loads will then be redistributed between Whistler and the new substation. The power lines from the new substation will go south along Highway 99 on the existing 25-thousand-volt pole lines that terminate near Daisy Lodge. A new 25KV line, to carry electrical and communication cables, will then be built along the new access road; they're to be installed by the fall of 2005. Construction power should be on site from then to the middle of 2007, but they'll only have a third of the lines energized. Full power will be turned on in the summer of 2007. VANOC says it expects to tender the work for the new 25KV line.

SECURITY: Some of the security aspects for the facility -- and the kind that can be expected at other venues -- is also taking shape. The RCMP will manage the security aspects, working with VANOC supervision and co-operation, and the RCMP will provide security details to the design contractor as the planning proceeds.

Each Olympic venue will be protected by a "secure perimeter." All operational and support functions for the facilities are to be included within the perimeter.

The visible part of the perimeter will be comprised of temporary fencing during construction and as part of the Olympic overlay, and also permanent fencing. There will be infra-red sensors, motion detectors, security cameras or closed-circuit TV, as well as security personnel monitoring the areas inside the perimeter. The on-site security force is expected to involve the military, RCMP and local police (depending on the venue's location), as well as paid civilian security personnel and voluntary personnel. Once a venue has been enclosed, a "search-and-secure function [will be] performed by law enforcement. Access [will be] allowed only to personnel and vehicles that have passed the security clearance."

MORE TO DO: The major task of the company that is awarded the WNC contract is to provide a Project Definition Report quickly, with the design work to be done in stages and provide to VANOC in presentations as the benchmarks are cleared, with the first part of the report to be turned in within three months of being awarded the contract.

There are several things that VANOC will do on its own as the Nordic Centre is being designed and built. For instance, it will be managing the transportation plans for all Game-related aspects, such as moving athletes and their coaches and trainers between venues and the athlete villages.

And, by the way, the C$61 million cost of the Centre does not include the federal government's 7% Goods and Services Tax -- that's a permitted extra.

BACKGROUND =

Here's the budget breakout for the Centre, which was done in 2002 dollars. The proponents are to provide their estimates of their costs in 2005 dollars.

  • General site engineering: C$20 million
  • Ski Jump venue: C$22.8 million
  • Site master plan, the Cross-Country venue and the Biathlon venue: C$15.2 million
  • Contingency: C$3 million
  • Total: C$61 million, plus C$4 million GST (net): C$65 million.

--

No time to waste: here is the WNC design timeline required by VANOC:

  • July 2004 - Design contract award
  • Sept 1, 2004 - Trees to be harvested must be identified.
  • Oct 1, 2004 - Complete the Project Definition Report
  • Oct 15, 2004 - 25% of the design must be completed
  • Nov 30, 2004 - 50% of the design must be completed
  • Jan 15, 2005 - 75% of the design must be completed
  • Mar 1, 2005 - Completion of design
  • March 30, 2005 - Issue construction contract tenders
  • May 1, 2005 - Construction starts


--

Here's the road construction schedule for the Nordic Centre:

  • September to October, 2004 - Trees to be harvested on the right-of-way
  • March 2005 - Design of road to be completed
  • April 2005 - Start construction of gravel road
  • October 2007 - Complete construction of gravel road
  • Summer 2008 or 2009: pave the main access road.


--
Once the project is awarded to the design engineer, here's the major To-Do list, which all has to be accomplished by next March:
  • Project scoping
  • a project definition report
  • a project grid system
  • site layout and co-ordination
  • site clearing and grubbing
  • site stripping and preparation
  • earthworks and grading
  • electrical (temporary and permanent)
  • mechanical (temporary and permanent)
  • storm-water movement
  • rock removal and aggregate processing
  • sanitary systems treatment and disposal
  • water systems treatment and distribution
  • maintenance compound and facilities
  • fuel system and distribution
  • co-ordinate with VANOC consultants (on geo-technical
  • survey and mapping
  • hydrological and environmental)
  • co-ordinate with other workers (the B.C. Government's Ministry of Transport
  • which is building the road into the Callaghan Valley
  • other winners of additional RFPs for other parts of the work)
  • cost estimating
  • drawings and specifications

--

Long term uses or requirements proposed for the WNC:

  • Must be "commercially sustainable"
  • World cup sporting events
  • National luge events
  • Biking
  • Camping
  • Backcountry hiking
  • Training
  • Summer jumping
  • Bird watching by groups
  • Nature walks by groups


--

The Nordic Centre is VANOC's RFP 501; there are some related RFPs: 502 is for the ski jumps, and 503 is for the site master plan and the lead consultant.

--

Previous Morgan:News:2010 stories on the LEED controversy:

  • 'C$200,000 of forestry funding to be available for 2010 design, construction expertise'
    [Morgan:News:2010:Number:361:Published:6/8/2004]

  • '(Feature) Italian Winter Games CEO flags sponsorship, construction, environment for focus'
    [Morgan:News:2010:Number:220:Published:3/29/2004]

  • 'LEED standard for 2010 venue construction poses headaches for forestry, plastics'
    [Morgan:News:2010:Number:202:Published:3/19/2004]


--

Interesting factoid: Part of the studies for the Callaghan area provided to the design contractor: pages and pages that contain years of detailed weather data -- temperatures, rainfall, snowfalls, winds...


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 28, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #407
TWO-WEEK CRUISE TO 2010 GAMES ON HISTORICAL FERRY OFFERED AS AUCTION PRIZE


The Kalakala Alliance Foundation of Port Angeles, Washington State, opens bidding today in an E-Bay auction to sell the film and story rights to the 1935 art-deco ferry Kalakala. And part of the prize of winning the bid is an extended visit on the ferry to Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics.

A minimum US$500,000 bid is required to acquire the rights. "The winning bidder will also to receive a two-week cruise vacation on board the Kalakala while [enjoying] the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver B.C. with the privilege of full use of all Kalakala’s space,,," according to the organization's website.

The Kalakala ran between Port Angeles and Victoria in the late 1950s.

The highest bidder is also offered 40% ownership of film, video, music, documentary and book rights.

RESOURCES

Kalakala Alliance Foundation website (scroll down for pictures of the ship):
http://www.kalakala.org/

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 28, 2004

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #406
SOME BACKGROUND INFO ON SOME OF THE NEW MANAGEMENT TEAM


A few extra things for networkers to know about the new additions to the senior management team appointed to VANOC last week:

  • Terry Wright, senior vice-president of Olympic Planning: Wright co-founded and is president of IPS Consulting, a software company that provides resource-management software to major events, including the Olympic Games. IPS, based in Victoria B.C., is allied with Viewpoint Technologies. He's a Chartered Accountant by training, he has lectured extensively for the Institute of Chartered Accountants. He was born in Gander, Newfoundland and lives in Victoria. IPS's home page: http://www.viewpointtech.com/ips.html

  • Jeff Chan, senior vice-president of Human Resources: Chan is a trustee of Queen’s University in Toronto, Ontario, and a member of the executive committee of the planned C$200 million Queen’s Physical Education and Student Life Centre. He has been a governor of Toronto’s Variety Village, president of the Toronto Jaycees and a director of: the Toronto Board of Trade; the Canadian College Bowl; and the Queen’s University Alumni Association. He has been a volunteer with the Special Olympics (which is not related to the IOC), the Canadian Games for the Disabled and the Queen’s University athletics program. He also chaired the Vanier Cup – Canada’s university football championship - in 1998 and 1999.

  • Steve Matheson, senior vice-president of Venue Development: Matheson is the former chair of Real Estate and Construction Division of the BC Childrens’ Hospital Telethon, and he is a leadership presenter for the Lower Mainland United Way charity. He is involved in a number of sports, including skiing, snowboarding, curling, golf and running. He played on the Vancouver Burrards Canadian Senior A Lacrosse team in 1975 and 1977.

  • John McLaughlin, vice-president of Finance and comptroller: McLaughlin is a director of Sport BC, and he's an avid cyclist.



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 28, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #405
VANOC TO SPEND C$80 MILLION BY JULY, 2005; CFO APPOINTMENT A YEAR AWAY...


  • The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee continues to refine its estimates of when it's going to be doing its major construction spending and how much is involved. In the next two years VANOC will be responsible for the design and construction of up to seven competition venues, with an estimated total budget up to C$300 Million. The majority of this construction will start in by the middle of next year, and completed by the fall of 2007. Venue expenditures by the end of the fiscal year in July, 2005 are expected to be about C$80 million. These expenditures will be primarily payments directly to suppliers, and payments to VANOC-connected operations responsible for construction.

  • It was subtle. All the management team named by VANOC CEO John Furlong on Tuesday had the word "senior" in front of their vice-president titles, except one. That was vice-president of finance, John McLaughlin, who also carries the title of comptroller. Nothing was mentioned about it at the time, but according to VANOC, a chief financial officer would be equal to a senior vice president in an organization of the size of VANOC. John McLaughlin is not the Chief Financial Officer. John Furlong indicated that a CFO may be appointed in the next six to 12 months.

  • VANOC's Finance team currently consists of McLaughlin, who is a chartered accountant, a Finance Manager who is a Certified Management Accountant, and one junior accountant, who is a Certified General Accountant student. This group has been doing all of the accounting and financial reporting activity for the first fiscal year, which ends July 31. The team will be expanded to include a director of Budgets & Financial Planning and a Procurement manager in July. VANOC figures that the accounting department will grow to approximately 38 staff: 18 will be clerical staff, 16 will be analysts or managers and the balance directors or above. However, current planning indicates that the majority of these positions won't start until 2006 or possibly later.

  • When Terry Wright was introduced as VANOC's senior vice-president of Olympic Planning with several other members of the executive management team on Tuesday, the impression was left that his role, like that of the others, was filled following a competition. The same with McLaughlin. That's not correct. Neither position was part of the current round of recruitment via competition; both men were appointed to their positions by Furlong. VANOC is still in the process of recruiting two more top-level positions -- the Olympic Services senior vice-president and the senior vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 24, 2004

Tuesday, September 07, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For timely news that comes right to you, simply subscribe to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commercial public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze . (There is a nominal charge for certain commercial uses, as described there.) The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #404
NEGOTIATIONS WITH IOC TO DETERMINE 2010'S SHARE OF BROADCAST PIE


The vice-president of Finance for the Vancouver Winter Olympic Committee, John McLaughlin, says that VANOC intends to negotiate the amount of funding from the sale of the International Olympic Committee's broadcast rights to the 2010 Games.

The traditional split with an Olympics organizing committee has been 51-49% in favour of the IOC, which uses its portion of the funds for its own operations as well as to fund the national Olympic Committees in nations around the world, along with grants to a range of international sports federations.

But McLaughlin said the split is not cast in stone. "We don't know what our share [of the funding] is going to be, so we'll have to negotiate that with the IOC," he said today.

And VANOC CEO John Furlong, "We'll have to negotiate based on our needs. We're just beginning going down that road, and I would be surprised if we're doing any negotiating until all of the television contracts are completed. And I don't think we're expecting to see that until next spring."

The funding percentage is critical if VANOC is going to be able to stay within budget for building the necessary venues despite rising cost pressures. According to VANOC's Bid Book, the IOC is expected to contribute US$348.2 million (C$467.5 million) in 2002 dollars - not counting funds from international sponsorships - which is 35% of VANOC's projected revenue.

A large part of the revenue from the IOC for the 2010 franchise comes from the sale of broadcast rights, and although the American and European rights have now been determined, there are still rights to be negotiated by the IOC for Canada this fall, Italy in the next few weeks, as well as Japan, Australia and China. "All of that is going to affect us."

Furlong says that the IOC, with the exception of the Italian portion of the European rights, is unlikely to do any further broadcast negotiating until after Athens Summer Games are completed. "I think you'll see a full-court press on all of those activities towards the end of the year," he says.

Once the percentage share is finalized, the IOC will put 5% of the actual funds into the 2010 Committee's Retention Fund, which the IOC maintains as a hold-back to ensure various services to sponsors are completed and to deal with various contingencies. It, and its interest, is paid out during the final wrap-up of the 2010 Games.

Furlong says the substantial difference in the amount of money accepted by the IOC from the European Broadcast Union for the European broadcast rights to the 2010 Games, which was roughly a third of that provided by NBC for the American rights, was about 50% more than the previous set of games achieved. "Both North America and Europe are following a growth pattern," he notes.

But, adds VANOC's senior vice-president of Planning, Terry Wright, the difference in value between the two continents simply reflects the value those rights can actually be sold for in Europe. "Each country values their sports television differently, and it reflects the fact that the U.S. is a huge market for sports television."

Furlong says that for the North American broadcasting rights, which include a summer and a winter games as a package, the winter games usually gets about a third of the funds, which are then split between the IOC and the organizing committee. But, he says, "the number is weighted heavier for summer Olympics than for Winter Olympics."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 24, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #403
WRIGHT SAYS FIRST RFPS FOR VENUES CAREFUL TO SPELL OUT OBLIGATIONS


The senior vice-president of Planning for the Vancouver Olympic Committee, Terry Wright, says that the organization is "erring on the side of caution" as it begins issuing formal Requests for Proposals (RFPs).

VANOC 's second in command made the comment during a wide-ranging interview about the background operations of the more advanced aspects of venue planning. The main RFPs so far have been for the C$65 million Whistler Nordic Centre, and for auditing and tax services. The WNC involved three thick binders of material, two of which were a number of consultants' reports on the properties involved.

"We've put a lot of effort into ensuring that we've got a fair and transparent service, and so we're giving these vendors very comprehensive documents. We want them to come up with a precise understanding of what their obligations are." For instance, he says, VANOC spent nearly a full day briefing the proponents in VANOC's offices, and then a second day of meetings touring the Callaghan valley locations.

"We got a lot of great submissions at the EOI [Expressions of Interest] stage," Wright says. "We've got great contractors here, great engineers, great design firms and great architect firms, and I think that we are on our way to success on that side of it."

Wright says that the consultants are nearly finished their work on the companion Sliding Centre, a C$31 million project, but that it's getting close to the RFP stage. "We're trying to finalize the run dynamics for the [bobsled and luge] track. And right now we're about a year or two ahead of where anybody else has ever been on that kind of project [in a Winter Olympics]."

Wright says he wants to get the venues finished "as early as we can, and give ourselves a clear sail on the operational side in the last year."

Wright says there are no problems on what he calls the "bob-luge" run of the Sliding Centre venue. "The process of designing the curves into the track, and how we work with the land on the elevation is a very technical, almost scientific, process to ensure that the speed that the sleds will go, and the G-forces, are within the acceptable ranges. We have a team there right now with the two [international sports] federations, working with the consultant." Wright says that he's trying to get the team to sign off on the run this week. "We may need a few more weeks of tweaking, but we're almost there."

Wright says that work will provide the core design, "which will then be turned over to engineering firms to actually do all the technical drawings and the construction." The bulk of the firms, he says, are from British Columbia, but the short list has not yet been finalized.

Wright says that while the Sliding Centre and the Whistler Nordic Centre have slightly different timeframes for the start of the design-build process, the two will have much different seasons for when the work can be done. The Sliding Centre's work will largely take place during winter, while that of the WNC occurs during the summer.

Wright says that the design of the Nordic Centre will be aimed at creating a legacy building that will be a hub with the venues as spokes that will be relatively inexpensive to operate. "We're trying to have one core to service them all, because that would be a lot cheaper to operate." But he says it will offer some challenges during the Winter Games, along with what he describes as "synergy." He adds, "We will have to stack up services with each of the three venues, the biathlon stadium, the ski-jump stadium and the cross-country skiing.

Wright says he is not fazed by the debates taking place in Whistler with the location of the athlete's village and whether to expand existing facilities for sledge-hockey or build a stand-alone stadium. "Our agreements with Whistler on both [venues] contemplated this period. I think Whistler is going to have the village site ahead of where we hoped we'd be, which was [a decision deadline of] mid-fall. I think they're going to have it done this summer." Wright says VANOC is comfortable with both of the remaining options for locating the athlete's village. "We have a slight preference for the site that's closer to the Nordic Centre, because endurance athletes tend to be the ones who we worry about the most. But we're trying to work really hard to ensure [the village] works as a legacy project as well."

Wright notes that the current community plan was to revamp Whistler's waste-water disposal process by 2008, which is something that would have to be done earlier if VANOC gets the Cheakamus location it prefers for the athletes' village. "It's within the time frame. But if push came to shove, I'm sure we could look at a temporary decommissioning alternate. But I think the community is focused on what their long-term strategy is going to be. They've been building a sinking fund to deal with that change-over.

Wright also says that the overall organization of the downtown Vancouver athlete's village still remains undecided. The latest version involves buildings which surround a commercial core of athletes services, but, he says, that since the Bid Book initial planning, "there's been at least 50 iterations of it and by the time it's finished, there will probably be 50 more." Wright says its simply part of the "evolution" of the city's planning in the south-east corner of False Creek.

Wright says that a version that has the village and the commercial core facing the seawall and False Creek will "act like a magnet" for people, in much the same way it has done in the Coal Harbour portion of the downtown core of Vancouver, where restaurants and shops have accumulated traffic.

Wright says the City has been a good partner, and it has included a small team from VANOC "every step of the way" in determining the evolution of the Official Development Permit for southeast False Creek, now expected to go before City Council in September. Wright says he's focused on space requirements -- "I like a denser approach, because I think it will be cozier for the athletes; we've encouraged it" -- and some aspects of unit configuration for the village's buildings, and some ability to have segregation between the international zone -- the Olympics area -- and the city's residential zone. "But it's a marvellous site to work with, and it's going to be all-new construction... It's not going to be hard to have a knockout there."



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 24, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #402
CHIEF MARKETER OF 2010 INTERNATIONAL SPONSORSHIPS, RIGHTS STEPPING DOWN


The International Olympic Committee's man who negotiated the sale of the American and European broadcasting rights for the 2010 Winter Olympics, Michael Payne, will step down from his post as Director of Global Broadcast and Media Rights on August 31.

Payne, a 15-year veteran of the IOC was its Marketing Director from 1989 to 2003 and he was the architect of today's multi-level sponsorship program that funds the Olympic Games as well as the national Olympic Committees around the world, such as Canada's, and international sports federations.

Payne will join the world of Formula One racing cars, working as a special advisor to the President of Formula One Management, Bernie Ecclestone.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 24, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #401
BELL TO SPONSOR BC ALPINE AND "B2B" PROGRAM FOR THREE YEARS


Bell Canada confirmed today it was entering into a three-year partnership with the BC Alpine Ski Association that it says "involves significant cash and in-kind communications products and services,"

The move is seen as another in Bell's strategic positioning for its resume when the eastern-Canadian-based firm bids against the western-Canadian-based Telus Communications for the lucrative telecom sponsorship the 2010 Winter Games is expect to offer early next year.

Bell Canada's president of its Western Canada operations, Paul Healey, says that under the arrangement, it will become the official telecommunications sponsor of BC Alpine and its "Best with Best" (B2B) program, but he did not reveal the budget for the support. The B2B program It provides intensive training for 14 elite-level skiers aged 15 to 19 from throughout the province. Bell also said it will be supporting the Vancouver Ski Team.

The BC Alpine Vancouver Ski Team is made up of the strongest skiers from the three skiing clubs in the Lower Mainland - those at Cypress, Grouse and Seymour mountains. They compete throughout Western Canada in the year-round program has them compete throughout Western Canada. Their primary training is at Cypress Mountain. Bell Canada and Cypress Mountain announced an eight-year sponsorship agreement for cash and in-kind last April.

Bruce Goldsmid, General Manager of BC Alpine, says, "Bell Canada's commitment, along with support from 2010 Legacies Now [which is allied with the 2010 Organizing Committee] through its Game Plan BC program, is enabling us to provide our most promising athletes with additional training and the best coaches." And, he adds, "Our elite-level B2B team is already out on the slopes training, preparing for the start of the competitive ski season in December."

Healey pointed out that Bell has been involved with BC Alpine for some years already, but "this expanded relationship will assist more skiers in gaining critical national and international experience."

The British Columbia Alpine Ski Association is the provincial sport organization responsible for all alpine ski racing in the province. It's in charge of coaching and athlete development, officials training and event hosting. It's an organization of 38 ski clubs and about 4,500 members throughout the province.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 23, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #400
VOLUNTEER CONSTRUCTION GROUP GUIDELINES FUZZY; ADDITIONAL VANOC SENIOR MANAGERS LATER..


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee CEO John Furlong says he asked Concert Properties president Steve Podmore and Eric Marton to form a volunteer committee to "support the effort to build the venues." He says it will take several weeks for the pair to gather the committee, which will work with senior vice-president of Development, Steve Matheson. Furlong says Matheson will "have the benefit of meeting with an experienced committee of community leaders, people who will have no interest at all in Olympic construction. People who will be there solely to help us be successful. We need to give them time to look at all these issues, and review them, and give us the guidance to do the right thing as we go forward."

  • Furlong says that once the remaining three positions of his senior management team -- a vice-president in charge of revenue generation and marketing, a vice-president of Olympic services, and a vice-president of Legal Services -- that will form "a very large part of our management team." Furlong says, "There will likely be some additions to that, but not immediately." Furlong says that the current eight positions will put in place the structure by the end of the year that is "sustainable and strong and easily identifiable in the community."

  • Senior vice-president of Human Resources, Jeff Chan, was listening attentively when his boss, John Furlong, was asked if the compensation levels for his management team which were "in the arena" of C$200,000 to $250,000 was "on an annual basis." Furlong nodded yes. Chan, in the background, made a mock-disappointed sound...

  • Wright says that he worked with the Vancouver Airport to perfect the main boilerplate portions of the wording for VANOC's Request for Proposal documents.

  • Although they'd hardly been introduced to one another, the five senior vice-presidents and VANOC CEO John Furlong gathered for a group photograph and, with the exception of senior vice-president of Sport, Cathy Priestner, it was a row of men in suits. Communications people quickly handed them grey 2010 T-shirts and a symbolic tool of one of the types of winter games: a curling broom, a hockey stick, a couple of snowboards, and so on. They were all a bit unsure about what to do with the T-shirts until Senior Communications director Jane Burnes tried, valiantly, to get them to stick them to their fronts. Said one wag nearby, "That's probably not the last goofy thing they'll be asked to do."


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 23, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but this is a delayed feed; the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For more timely news that comes right to you, simply upgrade to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commerical public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze . The blog posting date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here. The date the story was originally published to subscribers is at the end of each article.




Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #399
(FEATURE) HERE'S WHAT JOHN FURLONG SOUGHT IN HIS SENIOR MANAGERS


Vancouver Winter Olympic Committee CEO, John Furlong, yesterday held his first news conference in the organization's new offices, which are carpeted but still mostly unfurnished and won't be officially occupied until June 28.

It was just four months ago that Furlong was named as the senior executive officer of VANOC, and now he was naming the first five of his senior management team, with at least another three to be resolved by the end of July. What kind of people were in his mind when he sifted the applications?

"We profiled very carefully the kind of people we wanted to have on the team," he says. "The kind of people who would be great team members, who would have the inspiration, the experience, the drive that would be needed to lead a very large piece of this organization all the way to the finish line... the result we had exceeded the expectation we had when we started out."

Furlong says Terry Wright, the new senior vice-president of Olympic planning, which Furlong describes as "vice-president of project evolution," easily won the competition for the position because he was a key figure since the day in 1997 when he wrote the feasibility study for Vancouver to obtain the Games, and he was Furlong's second-in-command during the bid phase.

"Terry wore [the 2010 Bid] on his sleeve all those years," said Furlong, "and he had an enormous impact in every single corner of the organization. He was also one of the major architects who moved us from the Bid Committee through onto an organizing committee. He carried far too much work for one person, but did so quite willingly... we had absolutely no difficulty in deciding that Terry would be at the highest levels of the organization."

Wright says that during his bid work, "We saw just how powerful the Olympic spirit was in motivating people from all walks of life to come together and work towards a common goal. There are many people who made huge personal sacrifices as either staff or volunteers to help us achieve that goal." Wright says he hopes to continue building that spirit, and to leave a positive legacy for our community, our country, out sport and to the Olympic movement." He also adds that's now quite happy to hand off some of the work load to

Furlong said that in the process of planning his management structure, VANOC wanted to ensure that sports would be a top-line function, "which hasn't always been the case in the past." Furlong said, when he created the role of senior vice-president of Sport, he wanted to ensure that athletes would always be "the priority for us in our planning." He said that in determining the type of person for the function, he felt that the credentials needed to be "impeccable, and be able to provide leadership."

Priestner says that she's been involved in with 10 Olympics over the years in a wide range of roles -- as an athlete, a coach-manager, and in management. Priestner says that she's been out of the country working on Olympics for the past seven years.

Furlong said that applications from 16 countries were received for the role, "many with past Olympic experience, amateur and professional sport experience," but that the application Cathy Priestner provided covered all of that criteria and more. "We've secured the very best person in the world with her."

One of the most challenging aspects of any organization that must expand rapidly is the construction of the organization itself. Furlong says that for him its essential that the head of Human Resources for VANOC needs to figure out the proper strategy for building "in an orderly fashion against the master schedule and strategy that our team has developed." Furlong said that in choosing Jeff Chan of Toronto, he needed somebody who, in addition to their HR expertise was "somebody who could contribute to the overall delivery of the project." Chan was chosen out of 125 applications from 14 countries.

Chan says that one of his chief priorities will be developing and planning, "the means for attracting, recruiting, hiring training, motivating and retraining the key staff and volunteers that will really be the face of VANOC to the thousands of athletes who will be here, as well as the millions of spectators and visitors who will be tuning into Vancouver and Whistler in February and March of 2010.

Chan, though, says his immediate challenge is figuring out where to hang his coat. "I'm just smart enough -- I think -- to know what I don't know about organizing Games. There are lots of details that I will have to pick up over the next few weeks, and that's why I'm going to spend the early part of my tenure trying to improve my OQ, my Olympic Quotient." Chan says that having several people in the senior management team who have been through the bid phase -- Furlong, Wright and McLaughlin are all in the same roles they had in the Bid Corporation -- is going to be useful. "That kind of experience, along with the ability and the desire to not be restricted by the confines of the past... is part of the excitement that drew me to this opportunity." Chan, a man of deprecating humour, pointed out that on Monday he sold his house in Toronto and put a bid in on one in Vancouver. "So," he deadpanned. "I'm committed."

Furlong says that the thing which impresses him about vice-president of finance John McLaughlin is that he has "remarkable calm and cool. He's a very disciplined individual." Furlong says that McLaughlin is currently recruiting a team "to lead us through the first phases of [the organization's growth]."

McLaughlin, who was born and raised in Vancouver, says, "It's a huge challenge ahead on the financial side. We know we're going to be watched, we're ready for that, and one things that I really want to contribute to, more than anything else, is building a disciplined team." McLaughlin says that he's already looking past 2010. "We've completed the games, they've been outstanding games for Vancouver and Whistler, for B.C., for Canada, for athletes from around the world. We've finished, we're on budget or ahead of budget, we've got money left over that will got to an endowment fund to further support sport in this country, and people are saying that we did it with honour and integrity in the way they expected."

In ultimately deciding on Steve Matheson as senior vice-president of Venue Development, Furlong said that he wanted an individual "who had the broad experience to be able to manage and lead a big project like this." The community has high expectations of VANOC's venue construction, he said. The competition involved 120 candidates from 10 countries. "Steve's seen as a man of great integrity, his reputation is impeccable." Furlong said that he was impressed by the fact the Matheson has been involved in all kinds of projects like the ones VANOC will be building.

Matheson said that Furlong "pulled me out of a pretty comfortable position" as senior vice president for Dominion Construction, one of Canada's major construction and development firms, but he says he's "jazzed" about his new job. Matheson says "I'm looking forward to showcasing the talent that's available in our country and in our city for design and construction... and once the games are complete, we're going to leave some legacies that are going to be sustained in a lot of communities around the province for the benefit of our future athletes."

Matheson says he's going into the job with his eyes open. "It's not going to be without its challenges on the venue side," says Matheson, "but there's been a lot of really good work done on the preparation for the venues by Terry [Wright], and we're going to be able to roll out what we hope to be the very best games ever in 2010."

Matheson notes that one of his goals is to entice "a whole new generation of young people" to consider design and construction to be a job worth doing. "I see this as a good opportunity to bring young people into our construction industry. There are going to be a whole bunch of things that we can't even anticipate that are going to be beneficial for our province."

Furlong says that although all of the senior team is Canadian, and most are from Vancouver, it wasn't a condition of the selection committee. "I was very hopeful that everybody who ended up at the table would be a Canadian, but it's not fair to have an international competition and not treat them as equal participants, so we didn't [use it as a filter.] We looked at each case, we looked at the application, and we tried to make a determination as to whether that person or another could be successful... if anyone from another country who could have been a shining star, we would have made that decision."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 23, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #398
CONCERT PROPERTIES INVOLVED IN VOLUNTEER VENUE REVIEW BOARD


The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee says it has appointed a "volunteer capital works committee" to help work on how the 2010 Games venue development program is handled and delivered.

The first two appointees of the committee include David Podmore, president and chief executive officer of Concert Properties Ltd, who will chair the committee, and Eric Martin, the vice-president of development for Bosa Developments of Vancouver. Furlong says that other members of the committee will be announced shortly.

Furlong says the role of the committee is to provide "advice and support to VANOC to ensure the venues are delivered in accordance with the commitments outlined in the Vancouver 2010 Bid Book." He added that he wanted a committee to review construction plans who had "nothing to do with Olympic construction."

Concert Properties is a property developer owned by a number of British Columbia union and management pension funds. It's chairman and CEO is Jack Poole, the chairman of VANOC. Concert announced last year it would not take part in any aspect of the Olympic venues. "Concert will not be involved in any Olympic project," Poole said on October 29, "Period. Full Stop." Concert seconded or volunteered several senior staff of the firm to help win the Olympic bid and prepare the Bid Book.

VANOC director Tony Tennessy, a former president of the International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 115, but is now a consultant to the union, is also a director of Concert Properties.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 22, 2004

Friday, September 03, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For more timely news that comes right to you, simply upgrade to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commerical public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze . The blog date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here, not the date the story was originally published to subscribers.




Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #397
FIVE VP'S APPOINTED AND MORE TO COME


Five executive vice-presidents including a comptroller, all Canadian and two who worked on the bid phase, have been appointed to the management team of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee by John Furlong and confirmed by his Board of Directors.

The new managers, some of whom only met each other today and who will be paid various amounts ranging between C$200,000 and $250,000 per year, will begin work between July 10 and July 26, depending on their terms of separation from their current employers. The new managers include:

  • Terry Wright, senior vice-president of Olympic Planning, will, says, Furlong, "lead the integration of all aspects of the 2010 Games planning and operations", a job that effectively makes him Furlong's second-in-command. Wright was Furlong's vice-president of bid development and operations and wrote the first white paper on whether Vancouver could get the bid in 1997. He was a senior manager with the 1999 Pan American Games, the Goodwill Games and the World Masters' Games. He was also on the management team for the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games and Expo 86, a transportation-themed world's fair in downtown Vancouver in 1986.

  • Cathy Priestner Allinger, senior vice-president of Sport, will work with the International Olympic Committee and the international sports federations. Priestner Allinger, from Windsor, Ontario, is coming directly from a job as the managing director of Games Operations for the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics and is now in the process of buying a house in Vancouver. She was the managing director of sport for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. She won the silver medal in the 500-metre speed-skating event at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1976 at 19 to become the first Canadian woman to win a medal in the sport. She is also a recipient of the Olympic Order, and an inductee of both the Canadian Sport Hall of Fame and the Olympic Hall of Fame. Olympian Steve Podborski, now a strategic bid solutions partner with Telus Communications, welcomed Priestner Allinger's appointment, saying that she operated the Calgary Olympic Oval and was brought to Salt Lake City to run that Organizing Committee's oval, then worked her way up in the organization. adding that she was "extremely competent."

  • Jeff Chan, senior vice-president of Human Resources, will have overall responsibility for hiring paid staff and supervising what Furlong said may ultimately be "40,000 to 50,000" volunteers. For the past 10 years, Chan, has been working with the management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company in Toronto. Like Priestner Allinger, he is also moving to Vancouver, His earlier experience was with American Express, Honeywell (when it was called Allied Signal) and Imperial Oil.

  • Steve Matheson, now senior vice-president of Venue Development for VANOC, resigned yesterday from Dominion Construction of Vancouver, where he was also senior vice-president. Matheson is a Professional Engineer who got his bachelor of applied science in civil engineering from the University of British Columbia. He is a registered member of the Association of Professional Engineers of British Columbia, a member of the National Association of Office and Industrial Parks, a member of the International Facility Management Association and a former member of the City of Vancouver's Urban Design Panel. He oversaw construction of General Motors Place for the Vancouver Canucks, the C$150 million Kennedy Heights Printing Plant for Pacific Press, North Vancouver's Public Safety Building, Richmond's 120,000 square foot City Hall, the 115,000 square foot head office facility for the BC Automobile Association, the 220,000 square foot office complex for BC Tel Mobility, the 300,000 square foot Canada Way Business Park where he was responsible for site development and planning as well as construction of Phase I.

  • John McLaughlin, vice-president and comptroller of VANOC, continues in that position. A chartered accountant, he was was vice-president of finance and chief financial officer for the the VANOC's predecessor, the bid corporation. He is on the board of directors of Sport BC, and was member of the Board for the 1996 BC Winter Games.


Furlong says he expects to announce at least three more to his senior management team before he leaves in early August for to review the Athens Olympic Games — the people named today will attend the Games as well. The additional positions include people responsible for the Communications Marketing & Revenue; Olympic Services, and Legal Services.

RESOURCES:

A profile on Cathy Priestner Allinger, written in 2001:
http://www.imperialoil.com/Canada-English/thisis/publications/2001q4/pages/cathy_allinger.html

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 22, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #396
ATHENS TORCH COMES ALIVE FOR CROOKS


Charmaine Crooks, a member of the Board of Directors for Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, was thrilled to be the second-to-last carrier of the Athens Olympic torch through Montreal Sunday.

"To watch the torch come alive again in Montreal, with hundreds of thousands of people coming out, really shows you how important they still feel the Olympics are to their city," she said. "On the other side of the country, we have Vancouver 2010, and that same excitement will be there."

Cheering spectators lined the streets as she carried the torch about 400 metres after collecting it from former speed-skater Marc Gagnon. She handed it off to Bruny Surin, a relay gold medallist at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta who spoke to a crowd of about 2,000 at the end of the 60-kilometre run by 120 people. The torch is in Antwerp, Belgium, today to begin the tour's European leg.

Along its entire route over cities in all five continents, the flame will travel 75,300 kilometres and be carried by more than 3,600 people.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 21, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #395
GLOBE SPECULATES CBC TO FACE CONSORTIUM IN FALL BIDDING FOR CANADIAN 2010 TV RIGHTS


2010NewsWatch

Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper said on Saturday that CBC may be thinking it will be up against an alliance of private broadcasters when the Canadian rights to broadcast the 2010 games are offered this fall by the International Olympic Committee.

Newspaper reporter William Houston quotes unnamed sources "close to the CBC" as saying that the network will, "align with 'The Score' highlights channel because The Sports Network (TSN) will be going with CTV and a number of specialty channels as well as "Rogers Communications, which owns TSN's rival, Rogers Sportsnet."

Houston quotes his source as saying, "Nobody should be too surprised about it... Both Rogers and Bell [majority owner of CTV] are making a big push to get involved in the Vancouver Olympics."

The article's wording doesn't provide evidence for or against the notion that the leaked comments are a ploy to bring such an alliance out into the open. The 2012 Summer Games will also be part of the package of rights offered by the IOC with the 2010 Games.

Houston quotes another unnamed source who says that TSN and Sportsnet "... Work together a lot more than people realize -- below the surface... They get along when they have to and when business forces them to. And, if they're going to take on the powerful CBC, that's what they will have to do."

Houston points out as evidence of this background business relationship that belies the public view of the firms as competitors, that TSN and Sportsnet share the broadcast rights to the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. TSN also buys rights to broadcast Toronto Blue Jays baseball games from Rogers. And TSN sold a package of rights to Sportsnet for broadcasting five Canadian Football League games. And CTV, TSN and Sportsnet all work in the same studio complex at Agincourt, an area in the northeast corner of Toronto.

Houston adds that, "If a CTV-Rogers group is able to grab the Olympic rights, insiders are already speculating about how Bell Canada and Rogers, both of which are in the Internet and wireless-telephone business, would divvy up the spoils. Rogers, which also owns a network of AM and FM stations, would certainly want the radio rights." Houston speculates that the price for rights to the Vancouver Games has been pegged at C$60 million, "or even higher. The CBC paid C$28 million for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin and C$45 million for the Beijing Summer Games in 2008.

Meanwhile, The BBC, it's no surprise, has won the UK television, radio and online broadcasting rights to cover the 2010 Winter Olympics from Vancouver, as well as the 2012 Games, which have not yet been awarded to a city.

It's a ripple effect of the International Olympic Committee deciding last week to award the overall European coverage of the 2010 Games to the European Broadcast Union in an umbrella deal in a deal covering 51 countries except Italy. The cost to the BBC for its arrangements were not immediately announced, but as a sub-contractor the BBC's payments would simply flow to the EBU and form part of the payments it makes to the IOC.

For this summer's Athens Games, BBC One and BBC Two will carry 250 hours of free-on-air coverage -- thus respecting the IOC's requirement that core coverage of any Olympics be done on free-over-the-air television -- but that it will have more than 1,000 hours available via interactive broadcasting. For the first time, it says, BBC Sport will be offering live coverage of the Summer Games via broadband direct to viewers' computer desktops. That's expected to be standard fare for all broadcasters by the time the games are covered in 2010.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 21, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #394
CROOKS'S TORCH RUN SPECIAL ON SUNDAY; SQUAMISH TO BEGIN 2010 SPEAKER SERIES THIS FALL


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee director Charmaine Crooks will be running, along with CEO John Furlong, in the Montreal leg of the Athens Olympic Torch run this weekend. "As an Olympian, it's one of the greatest opportunities you have, particularly when it comes to your country," says Crooks, a former track athlete. "To know the people from around the world are touching this and the symbol of unity behind it, its a very powerful message." Carrying the torch will also be very personal for Crooks. Sunday is Father's Day and her father died two years ago on June 23. "It makes it really special. I know he would have been watching it," she says.

  • Squamish will begin a regular public-speaker series this fall focused on the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. It's a collaboration with the Squamish Chamber of Commerce, Capilano College's Squamish Campus, the Chief newspaper and Community Futures Development Corporation of Howe Sound. The series, entitled "2020 Vision, 2010 Focus", will start on Thursday, October 18 with speakers in November, January, February and March. The final presentation is in April. in addition a trade fair called "The Heart of 2010 Business After Business Trade Show" will be held in Squamish on October 21.

  • The Squamish Chamber of Commerce’s 2010 Group, which includes backing from the 2010 LegaciesNow Society, will launch the "O-Zone Leadership Adventure Program and Community Relay August 27. It's aimed at increasing public interest in the 2010 Games that will be held in nearby Whistler, but will use the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens as leverage. Camp Summit in nearby Brackendale will host 70 youngsters from 11 to 13 years of age. They'll come from disadvantaged Vancouver areas, Squamish First Nations students, and will also include international sister city youth representatives from Japan and Italy as well as Squamish elementary school students. The ideas is for them to be taught Olympic movement values while having fun with sports and other types of recreation. A group of Canadian Olympic athletes will be on hand to help. At the end will be a torch relay that will take the "Fires of Friendship" to the top of the Stawamus Chief, a huge local cliff visible to Squamish. There, they will wave Canadian flags and a “Squamish Welcomes the World” banner for an aerial photograph above the Chief. Organizer Anne Languedoc hopes to make Squamish attractive as a potential host for the Olympic Youth Academy in 2010.


RESOURCES:
Olympic Youth Academy background:
http://www.olympic.ca/EN/organization/news/2003/0409_2.shtml

Camp Summit Outdoor Education Centre address: 41015 Government Road
Squamish, B.C., Tel: 604.898.3700


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 18, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |IOC, Business| #393
EUROPEAN RIGHTS TO 2010 GAMES AWARDED FOR ESTIMATED C$330 MILLION


The International Olympic Committee has awarded the Olympic broadcast rights in Europe for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, and the 2012 Summer Games to the European Broadcasting Union for C$991 million.

The deal, awarded after two days of concentrated negotiations with the IOC, is an umbrella package in which the EBU will sublicense rights extensively to 51 countries and a host of corporate subcontractors. Only Italy was excluded from the coverage, although the reason is not immediately clear, although it appears there is trouble between the EBU, the IOC and Italy's state broadcaster, RAI; the IOC has been critical of RAI's support for the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy. Once negotiations with Italy are settled, it could bring the total for Europe up to C1.26 billion.

NBC, the American rights-holders for the 2010 and 2012 winter and summer Games paid C$3 billion for the package of those two games to be broadcast to a population of 293 million, with C$1.127 billion of that assigned to Vancouver's Games. The European decision, covering 454 million people*, is expected to add only about C$330 million to Vancouver 2010.

Not all of the funds will go to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee up front. Under its operating agreement, the IOC will hold back 5% of the funds related to broadcasting. It keeps the money in a "retention fund" which is already at C$51 million, and which will be paid out to VANOC once the Games are finished and wrapped up; 5% of the EUB award is C$16.5 million, bringing the potential retention fund up to C$67.5 million.

The Canadian competition for broadcasting rights, which have traditionally gone to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, is expected to be held this fall with CTV network in the bidding. It would cover a population of 31.7 million.

The new European agreement covers the full range of media categories besides radio, television and the Internet. It also includes multi-media, such as interactive DVDs, and mobile services such as text messaging for game results and news. Also covered are video-on-demand and broadband, all of which is similar to the NBC deal.

The IOC's policies require that basic coverage of the games be available be on free television, and it requires broadcasters to provide a minimum of 100 hours on free-to-air television for the 2010 Winter Games. Beyond that, the IOC allows for various cable, pay-per-view, digital, video-on-demand and other services to sub-contract.

The EBU has been the European broadcaster for Olympic Games for decades, however this year was the first time the EBU was faced with an open competition to usurp its monopoly. The BBC is expected to remain as Britain's main broadcaster for the Games.

A spokesman for the IOC says, "This agreement with the EBU will help ensure the promotion of the Olympic values both during and outside Games time, achieve the widest possible audience and protect the basic principle of free-to-air viewing.

The bidding process began in last fall with a consultant's report on how the open-tendering process should work. After extensive briefing, the tenders were published in March and closed about a month later. The IOC, which is so far the only organization with information on the situation, "resulted in the submission to the IOC of proposals from national broadcasters, multinational consortia and agencies."

The host city for the 2012 Games will be chosen by a vote of the IOC Session on July 7, 2005. They'll be choosing from five candidate cities: Paris, New York, Moscow, London and Madrid.

The EBU paid C$792.5 million for the rights to the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, and 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

BACKGROUND =

Estimated cost per person for Vancouver 2010 broadcast rights:

  • U.S.: C$3.85 per person
  • Europe*: C$0.73 per person without Italy
  • Europe*: C$0.83 per person with Italy


---
* Population estimates for the 25 European Union countries


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 18, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #392
VANOC SENDING ONLY SMALL GROUP TO ATHENS GAMES


John Furlong, the CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee, will head up a "small team" of about 15 people connected with the 2010 Winter Games who will travel to Athens to observe how this year's Summer Olympics works in the background.

And why not a large contingent going there and staying for the entire Games? Because one of the things VANOC has learned from the Salt Lake City 2002 Winter Games organizers is that it spent too much time paying attention to the Summer Games in Sydney, and what they learned wasn't all that helpful. Instead, they recommended that VANOC pay much more attention to the Italian Winter Olympics, which will be held in 2006.

Those going will not generally be travelling as a group, either. They'll be going over to Greece and coming back by separate arrangements, depending on what they need to do and when they need to do it. Furlong, for instance, will be leaving only a few days before the Games begin August 17. He's expected to play a small role in the opening ceremonies and he will be briefing the full International Olympic Committee Board of Directors, which will be holding its annual meeting in conjunction with the Games, on the current state of the 2010 Games. He's also expected to take in a couple of the early events, and then head back to Vancouver.

Other members of his executive team and some operations personnel will be attending for various time periods and then heading home.

Also expected to go are a couple of people from the secretariats of the B.C. Government and Federal government which oversee their governments' interests in the 2010 Games.

They'll all be using Canada Olympic House in Athens as their home base, where VANOC will have a small area marketing the 2010 Games, the equivalent of a small, unmanned, trade-fair booth.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 17, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #391
BROADCASTERS WIN WARDS FOR 2010 BID COVERAGE; NORDIC CENTRE FIELD SERVICES STILL TO BE SETTLED


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • Two local broadcasters, one in TV and one in radio, been given bragging rights for news segments done on Vancouver's win of the 2010 Winter Games by the Radio-Television News Directors Association of Canada, which has just given out awards for the best in electronic journalism in British Columbia in 2003. BCTV News on Global, which is headquartered in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, won the Gordon Sinclair Award for a newscast segment about Vancouver winning the "2010 Olympic Bid" in the Large Market Special Events category. And Producer Karen Burgess of CBC Radio Vancouver, received an Honourable Mention in the Large Market category of the Gordon Sinclair Award for radio report aired July 2, 2003 entitled "Olympic Bid 2010 - Decision Day." The awards were presented at the Association's B.C. Regional meeting in Prince George.

  • VANOC hasn't yet entirely figured how the field services will be managed when the Nordic Centre will start construction next year. It's decided there will be a construction manager, field engineers, a safety coordinator, construction coordinators, accounting services, quality assurance personnel and site secretarial services, all housed in an on-site trailer complex. But yet to be decided is whether the field team will also include VANOC staff, its outside consultants, consultants' staff or others. It is, however, telling proponents to fix professional charge-out rates until the end of 2005. It knows there will likely be several public meetings the construction and design teams will have to attend, but it isn't sure just how much of the construction cost to allow for it. At the moment, it's offering a cash allowance of C$5,000 for executive time at various public meetings, with charges against it to be at standard charge-out rates plus a 7.5% disbursement allowance.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 17, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For more timely news that comes right to you, simply upgrade to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commerical public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze . The blog date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here, not the date the story was originally published to subscribers.




Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #390
TELUS-FUNDED OLYMPICS RESEARCH TO BE INCORPORATED INTO ECONOMIC-DEVELOPMENT ADVICE


A Telus Communications executive says she expects that significant research into 25 years of economic strategies connected with Olympic games will be incorporated into a second phase of town meetings in British Columbia this fall.

Corinne Campney, Telus's director of strategic relations, says the research, which she says is "pretty much done," will reveal "lessons learned and best practices, and come up with recommendations" about the economic strategies B.C. and its regions should purse to take advantage of the business opportunities afforded by the 2010 Winter Games. The research delves into how the areas where games have been held during the past 25 years used them -- or not -- to increase business.

The research is sponsored by Telus and being done by Frank Knott, the president of Vital Economy, of Baltimore, Maryland, a specialist in industry-cluster formation and analysis, as well as rural and regional economic development in Canada, the United States and Australia.

Knott, says Campney, has "an amazing track record" of producing measurable economic development and improvement for companies within communities by using a clustering approach. Knott has said that clustered development "plays on a region's identity, rather than seeking formulas that have worked in other areas. But governments and businesses must cooperate to make the long-term process work."

Campney is currently touring the province as part of the first phase of company's major Ramp Up program, and will have visited cities in each of B.C.'s seven economic regions by the time it's finished with Phase 1 next week.

Ramp Up uses three experts, including Knott, to present case studies to businesses, who have been assembled by the local economic development office, that show how regional economies flourish by focusing on opportunities through industry clusters, and how the collaboration of interdependent businesses, the public sector and communities in a particular region can help individual businesses grow. Phase 2 of the program will begin in September with a tour of another seven cities.

Campney says that once the research is complete, she will meet with the provincial government during the summer, including the 2010 Secretariat, which oversees B.C.'s involvement in the Games, to discuss the findings and mesh them with government plans. "We don't want to be going to the communities and recommending they do something if the provincial government's economic strategy is different," she explained.

"The Games will help drive economic development," says Campney, "The research will say 'here's the strengths [each region] has and here's the opportunities."

Telus, the major telecommunications company in British Columbia, was a major sponsor of the bid phase of 2010 Winter Games and is expected to vie with other telcoms early next year when the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee offers sponsorships for the Games themselves.

BACKGROUND =

Besides Knott, there are two other experts involved in delivering the day-long series of seminars in each Ramp Up program:

  • Mark Nydam is a partner in Signal Hill Advisors of San Francisco, a management consultant with 12 years of international economic development, strategic consulting, market assessment and corporate restructuring experience.

  • Rob Beynon, Director with InterVISTAS Consulting of Vancouver who has has worked with communities throughout B.C. on airport, tourism and economic development initiatives.



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 17, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #389
MAJOR MARKETING NEWSPAPER CALLS 2010 LOGO COMPETITION "BLUNDER"


Louise Aird, the editor of Vancouver-based Blitz Magazine, which claims a readership of 50,000 in the Canadian marketing industry, says in a stinging editorial the Vancouver 2010 logo competition "a colossal blunder" and "embarrassing."

It's the first chance Aird has had to write about the controversy, which erupted in May when the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee announced the competition among professional designers for an emblem that will be the cornerstone of the 2010 Games entire image. The publication is only published every two months by mail, and the current issue, #40, is just now landing on corporate desks.

The glossy newspaper-sized colour magazine is distributed primarily by subscription to "decision-makers in marketing, media, creative, advertising and promotions; corporate communications and PR; pre-press and printing; design, illustration and animation; photography and computer technology, film and television production," according to its marketing material. 

"...This contest appears to be a colossal blunder," Aird writes, after listing international reaction received by the Designers Council of Canada, which said the competition violated its ethical policies. Aird, in the editorial, recited the defence of the competition on traditional Olympic grounds by VANOC spokesman Jane Burnes -- whom Aird called "perhaps the most hostile PR person I’ve ever spoken with."

Then, said the full-page editorial, "...While ad agencies may be able to devote some time to the logo competition without losing money, most of Canada’s best designers are not at agencies. They’re on their own or have their own firms. Because they’re the best, they’re busy -- too busy to waste an enormous amount of time and money on spec work. We all know that this is true. I know it’s true from my own experience. Over the years, I’ve written countless ads, minutely detailed proposals—even marketing plans, on spec. Inexplicably, I once got roped into writing an award-winning annual report for C$500. Now I know better. I don’t have to do anything on spec. And I won’t. Neither, I suspect, will those who have what it takes to create the perfect logo for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. For proof, look at the number of entries to the last three logo competitions. These were international competitions, open to every designer in the world. The Beijing competition received 1,985 entries, the Torino competition 1,400, the Athens competition 690. Now that’s embarrassing."

RESOURCES

The full editorial is not on Blitz's website, but it's reproduced in full on the Graphic Designers's website, here:
http://www.gdc.net/community/news.php?id=24&press=1&draw_column=3:1:2



Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 17, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #388
SNOHOMISH COUNTY EXECUTIVES URGED TO BECOME INVOLVED IN 2010 OPPORTUNITIES


2010NewsWatch

The Everett Herald newspaper this morning reports the travel director for Idaho told the quarterly meeting of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council yesterday about opportunities for businesses there in connection with Vancouver's 2010 Winter Games.

The paper quotes Carl Wilgus as saying to about 100 executives in Lynnwood: "The Olympics are such a big operation that you don't know where to start. Try to take it one step at a time and see where it gets you." Everett and Lynnwood are two American cities about 150 kilometres south of Vancouver on the I-5 Highway to Seattle. They are about 20 kilometres apart and both are in Snohomish County, a part of Washington State.

Wilgus reportedly likened Snohomish County and Washington State's situation to that of Idaho during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah. About US$100 million was pumped into the Idaho's economy during the Olympics, he said. Evan Caldwell, a reporter for the Herald said Wilgus told the group, "We were able to have 10% of the Olympic athletes visit Idaho, People could see and touch Olympic team members."

Caldwell reported Wilgus as saying that hundreds of thousands of spectators, participants and vendors passed through Idaho for the Salt Lake City games. Thousands on their way to the games, as well as Utah skiers and vacationers displaced by the games, chose to visit Idaho. He told the group that Snohomish County can take advantage of the same situation before, during and after 2010.

Wilgus encouraged the development council to research how the area can emulate the tourism ideas Idaho used successfully, improve on Idaho programs and create ideas unique to Western Washington. For instance, Caldwell reported, Wilgus suggested trying to get local school athletes to take part in the torch run, or have the torch runners pass through the county. "Nothing else will stimulate the public's interest in the Olympics more than the torch," Wilgus reportedly said. "Nothing touches people like that torch does. We estimate one in five Idaho residents saw the torch before the games started."

Caldwell also reports the group were told that a lot of people will use Snohomish Country as a base for visits: people attending the games, athletes training for the games and journalists will all pass through.

Caldwell also interviewed Brian Parrott, a senior trade commissioner at the Canadian Consulate in Seattle, who told the reporter he saw an opportunity for cooperation. "These are regional games for us," Parrott told Caldwell. "We all can benefit from them."

Wilgus said Vancouver co-operation was important. "Utah could have shut us out, but they too saw it as regional games."

The reporter also interviewed Dave Waggoner, director of Snohomish County Airports, who told him: "We are now at the point people still see [the Olympics] as so far away, but you need to start early and plan ahead. It's nice to have someone who has been there before to jog your brain. We are all in the planning stage."


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 17, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #387
NORDIC CENTRE FLIES, VANOC GAG ORDERS, BOARD MINUTES MAY BE PUBLIC, ETHICS DOWNSTREAM


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • The first of two proponents meetings for the companies that have been shortlisted for the first major VANOC contract to design a venue, the Nordic Centre, occurred today. The meeting began at the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee's headquarters in downtown Vancouver about 0900 and continued until about 1500 Pacific time. The companies received three binders of materials June 7 and they'll be touring the Callaghan Valley location tomorrow from 1000 hours tomorrow. It's not that easy to get to: they'll be meeting at the intersection of Highway 99 and the Callaghan Valley Forest Service Road. And they've been told to be prepared for swampy, rough conditions -- and a local pest: black flies. The proposed side of the Nordic Centre is in the Madley Creek watershed.

  • It looks like it's going to be standard in every RFP and contract that VANOC: A gag order, a no-promotion clause and hands-off-the-logos section. If you want to be considered for a contract with VANOC, you can't talk to the media about the fact that you're involved in the process, and you can't do any self promotion about being a supplier, nor can you use any of the Olympic trademarks or logos, unless you've got specific written permission from VANOC. These clauses appeared in the search for tax and audit services, and they've also been spotted in the RFPs for the Nordic Centre.

  • VANOC CEO John Furlong says he'll talk over with his Board whether it's possible to make Board meeting minutes public. And he will ask the International Olympic Committee, the next time he's talking to them, which won't be until just before the Athens Summer Olympics begin, whether executive summaries of his reports to them can be made public.

  • VANOC's major suppliers and contractors will be expected to follow the guidelines of the organization's ethics policy. The policy, which was a full section of the RFP for the Nordic Centre, requires, among many other things, that suppliers declare there is no "undisclosed or direct interest in or relationship with any outside organization or person that might affect (or that might reasonably be understood or misunderstood by others as affecting) the objectivity or independence" of judgement in doing their job. And subcontractors will also have to sign off on that as well. And, if such a conflict arises during the course of the project, it has to be immediately disclosed to VANOC.

Bronze Service is published regularly, but the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For more timely news that comes right to you, simply upgrade to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commerical public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze . The blog date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here, not the date the story was originally published to subscribers.




Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #386
FIRST THREE OF FIVE SENIOR VPS CHOSEN, TO BE NAMED TUESDAY


The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee has selected three of five senior vice-presidents it has been searching for, but will not be introducing them publicly until "an event" is held next Tuesday.

And VANOC CEO John Furlong says that during the same event, he will outline what he's looking for in at least two more positions, in addition to those five, during that same event. He says that he expects there to be between "eight and 10" senior vice presidents in his organization, but he declined to elaborate on what the next two positions entailed.

"By way of a tease," said Furlong, "I can tell you that when I announce the names, you'll see that it will be much more Canada's Games than it is now."

It's known there are more than 50 functional roles that have been developed within VANOC, but not all of them will be reporting directly to Furlong.

Furlong says that now the first three have been confirmed by the VANOC Board of Directors and its human-resources committee, they'll be notified and "some minor aspects" connected with their contracts will be completed and they'll have a chance to notify their current employers about their new jobs before it hits the media.

The three positions that have been filled:

  • Senior Vice President, Venue Development. This person will be responsible for developing, constructing or renovating multiple multi-million dollar projects, starting with the $61 million Nordic and $35 million Sliding Centres in Whistler. According to the VANOC, the person will also put together "a team who share your on-time and on-budget obsession. Work closely with the government agencies whose approvals are necessary. Establish a co-operative and supportive labour environment. Be available and willing to include the public in the plans and progress..."

  • Senior Vice President, Human Resources. This person will be required, according to VANOC's search list, to recruit "talented people who believe passionately and professionally in the Olympic ideals." Starting with a human resources plan they'll generate, they will need to "create a flexible and scalable infrastructure that accommodates best practices in employee relations, compensation and performance measurement." They're looking for "a leader by example in a large, complex and results-first organization."

  • Senior Vice President, Sports. This person, according to the job description, will be the "voice of sport and champion of the athletes in the planning and staging" of the Games. The person will become a relationship manager with international sports federations. They're looking for somebody who already has Olympic experience "to ensure that the athletes' villages, venue operations and competitions encourage excellence and reflect the values of the Olympic Movement." VANOC was looking for a person who has sports-business expertise and "international credibility."


Still to be decided are the senior vice-presidents of Revenue & Marketing, and of Olympic Services. Furlong said there were "hundreds" of applications, particularly in the marketing section that, on the face of them, had the credentials and experience to handle the job of promoting the image of the Games, and so the selection committee had to proceed carefully and slowly to sort through them and winnow the list down.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 16, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #385
MCEACHERN REAPPOINTED AS ETHICS COMMISSIONER FOR 2010 COMMITTEE


The Vancouver 2010 Organizing Committee's Board of Directors has reappointed the ethics commissioner its predecessor used during the Bid phase to continue watching the standards of behaviour in the planning and organization of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Allan McEachern, a retired Chief Justice of British Columbia, will re-assume the role of Ethics Commissioner for VANOC. As well, Martin R. Taylor, a Queen's Counsel and a retired Justice of the British Columbia Court of Appeal, will take on the role of Deputy Ethics Commissioner. He will act as Ethics Commissioner when Mr. McEachern is unable to do so. Neither are being compensated for the job.

"We need to be seen to be acting ethically as well as actually doing so," said Jack Poole, chairman of the VANOC Board of Directors. "In a perfect world, we wouldn't need to appoint one."

The role of the Ethics Commissioner is to provide independent guidance and interpretation in matters relating to the VANOC Ethics Policy and to provide his opinion and recommendation on matters referred to him by the Governance and Ethics Committee of the Board.

No significant issues involving the ethics commissioner were made public during the Bid phase. Poole says, however, that not all ethical concerns or decisions will necessarily be made public. "It'll be decided on a case-by-case basis. Having said that, I can't think of anything we've got to hide."

VANOC CEO John Furlong says a question could end up before the ethics commissioner in one of two ways, either a situation comes up and somebody in VANOC needs to ask the commissioner about how to handle it, or somebody from outside VANOC makes a call to the organization and the matter is referred to the commissioner. Furlong notes, however, that the rules under which the Bid Corporation, VANOC's predecessor, operated were more stringent that the International Olympic Committee required.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 16, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #384
VANOC MULLING VILLAGE LAYOUT; CROOKS'S FUTURE UNDECIDED; SOME VANOC FUNCTIONS MANDATED


Some moguls we've bumped into today...

  • The Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee is so far non-committal about the new layout design for the Vancouver Athlete's Village. The Bid Book, which stressed its design was preliminary, put the commercial portion of the Village along First Avenue in the southeast side of False Creek in downtown Vancouver, but that's been revamped in recent days to cluster the 12-acre village in the centre of the 120-acre site with the commercial area in a sort of village square. Says VANOC communications director Sam Corea, "The village will cover an area to meet the athlete requirements. It is being designed to function as a complete village with a vibrant international zone. As you know, 2004 is a planning year for VANOC. The focus for VANOC is to ensure that the village meets all requirements for the athletes during the Games while working with the city to ensure its legacy needs are met." The Bid book says that VANOC will be involved in the design for two years, until March 2006, and Corea says that timetable hasn't shifted.

  • No word yet on whether Charmaine Crooks will be replaced by the International Olympic Commission on the VANOC board of directors. Her term as an IOC member expires in August. The COC has seven appointees to the VANOC Board, including all the IOC members in Canada. The COC could choose to reappoint Ms. Crooks. However, if Olympics wrestler Daniel Igali is elected to the IOC's Athlete's Commission, he would become an IOC member from Canada, so he may be appointed to the VANOC Board. VANOC CEO John Furlong has worked with Igali, Canada's nominee to the Athletes Commission, before. He was also a member of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation Board of Directors.

  • Some of VANOC's more than 50 functional and operational areas, developed by Furlong, are mandated by the technology requirements of the IOC. It's Olympic Games Knowledge Services want VANOC and other Olympic Organizational Committees, such as those for Italy's 2006 games and Beijing's 2008 games, to use common terminology when filing their games materials and experiences with the IOC so they can be passed along to along to future Games organizers.


Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 15, 2004



Morgan:News:2010 |Sports| #383
BOYD NAMED AS CANADA'S ALPINE WOMEN'S TEAM SPEED COACH


A triple winner of the World's Cup in downhill skiing has been named the new speed coach for the Alpine Canada Women's Speed Team.

Whistler resident Rob Boyd, 38, who retired from the men's team in 1998 and inducted into the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame last year, was appointed to help Canada win medals in World Cup championships, the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy, and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler. Boyd won a World Cup downhill at Whistler in 1989 to become the only Canadian male to win a World Cup at home, and he's still holds that position.

The 2010 Winter Olympic Games in his home town made coaching particularly attractive for Boyd, "It was in the back of my mind that it would be neat to be on that course in 2010 and have the experience to be able to coach and inspire an athlete to do what I did in 1989," he said. He's also likely to be consulted by both the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee and contractors as the 2010 venue facilities are constructed in the Whistler area in the next few years.

Boyd has trained with the Canadian Ski Coaches Federation and is a Level 3 coach. For the last two years, he has worked with the Whistler Ski Club coaching 13 and 14-year-olds, who are likely to be in their prime in 2010. With Alpine Canada, Boyd will deal primarily with the super-giant slalom and giant slalom skiers, such as Genevieve Simard, Emily Brydon and Britt Janyk.

During his 12-year racing career Boyd had six podium finishes and 28 top-15 results. Beside winning at Whistler, he won races at Val Gardena, Italy, in 1987 and 1988 and placed third at Kitzbuhel in 1991.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 15, 2004

Bronze Service is published regularly, but the most recent items here were provided to our subscribers by e-mail two months ago or more. For more timely news that comes right to you, simply upgrade to our Gold or Silver service at Morgan:News:2010. Bronze is free for the use of news services and for non-commerical public use under conditions described at: Morgan:News:2010:Bronze . The blog date and blog archive dates refer to when stories were posted here, not the date the story was originally published to subscribers.




Morgan:News:2010 |Business, VANOC| #382
SHORT LIST RELEASED OF FIRMS VYING FOR FIRST MAJOR 2010 VENUE CONTRACTS


Four firms -- three Canadian and one American -- are on the short list for more than one of the first significant contracts from the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee for the construction of its first major venue, the Nordic Centre in the Whistler area's Callaghan Valley.

AMEC Canada, Sandwell, Stantec and MulvannyG2 have all been shortlisted for more than one formal Request for Proposal:

  • Five firms have been short listed for RFP 2010-501, which is the general site engineering for the Whistler Nordic Centre. They are: AMEC, Associated Engineering, Earth Tech, Sandwell and Stantec.

  • Six firms have been short listed for RFP 2010-502. That's the detailed design of the ski jumps for the Whistler Nordic Centre. They are: AMEC, Bunting Coady, Cochrane Group (PBK Architects), MulvannyG2, Sandwell and Stantec.

  • Six firms have been short listed for RFP 2010-503. That's the site master plan for the Whistler Nordic Centre and the detailed design of the cross-country and biathlon skiing venues. They are AMEC, IBI Group, MulvannyG2, Sandwell, Stantec and URS Canada.


All firms are using their Canadian operations if they are not headquartered in Canada, with the exception of MulvannyG2, which is in nearby Bellevue, Washington State. AMEC is an international firm headquartered in London, England; its Canadian office is in Toronto. Stantec is based in Vancouver; Associated is based in Edmonton, Alberta with Vancouver offices, Earth Tech is headquartered in Long Beach, California, but has several offices in British Columbia. Coating Bundy is based in Vancouver. URS is headquartered in San Francisco, but has its Canadian office in Markham, Ontario, near Toronto.

The companies have now all received their RFP packages, a stack of documents about two feet thick. The firms have until June 29 to submit their detailed proposals to VANOC. They'll be touring the venues with VANOC staff and consultants on June 17.

Construction of the Whistler Nordic Centre is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2005.

The Whistler Nordic facilities will be the site of biathlon, cross country skiing, ski jumping and Nordic combined competitions during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

Still in the VANOC RFP pipeline are the documents for the firms shortlisted for the Whistler Sliding Centre. The names of the companies shortlisted for that project, which is also expected to begin construction next summer are likely to be released in about a month, when the RFPs for it are sent out.

RESOURCES




Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 15, 2004