Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition: July 2005

Friday, July 29, 2005

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Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1139
BC 2010 SECRETARIAT TO LAUNCH PROMOTION OF ITS PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS THIS FALL

The BC Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat, which is part of the BC government's Ministry of Economic Development, will begin promoting the 2010 aspects of the province internationally later this year using public-relations tools.

The Secretariat will be hiring in mid-August at least one PR agency, and probably more, on an as-needed contract, known as a supply arrangement, to push what it calls "the core areas of business development, business investment and tourism." It says that for this campaign, it won't be doing paid advertising.

The first strategic communications plan, to cover at least two years, is required, all ready to be implemented, by September 30.

It wants the agency and its helpers to do a number of things:

To "showcase and promote" BC as a location to visit and invest in from both business and tourism perspectives;
To create "comprehensive, strategic, media-relations plans" to promote BC Secretariat projects and programs;
To create separate communications-implementation plans for regional, national and international editorial media; and,
To work with the Public Affairs Bureau in the Ministry of Economic Development so they know the media plans and programs, and can be "alerted to any outstanding issues that could arise"; and "to build and maintain strong working relationships with domestic and international media.

The Secretariat says that the plan could involve "multiple firms to target specific international media," based on the planning, plus the agency will also be required to do event planning and promotion in various markets.

Although the Secretariat has 2010 and aspects related to its 2010 Commerce Centre and other projects on its mind, one of the first things it wants done is promotion of BC-Canada House at the Torino Winter Olympics, which is to open in January in downtown Torino and operate until March, to international media.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 29, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1138
SEVEN CITIES IN BIDDING PROCESS FOR 2014 WINTER OLYMPICS -- AND TO BE PART OF 2010'S LIFE

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) reports that the national Olympic committees of seven countries have filed applications for a city in their jurisdiction to host the 22nd Olympic Winter Games in 2014.

The cities, in alphabetical order, are: Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan in central Asia; Borjomi, in the former Soviet republic of Georgia; Jaca in Spain; PyeongChang, the South Korean city which narrowly lost to Vancouver to host the 2010 Winter Games; Salzburg, Austria, at the northern boundary of the Alps; Sochi, a well-known winter sports city in Russia; and Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria and located at the foot of Mount Vitosha. the committees had until midnight, Switzerland time, July 28 to notify the IOC that a city within their jurisdiction was interested in applying.

The applications start a year-long process of technical assessment for each of the cities that culminates in a decision in Guatemala City in July 2007 by the International Olympic Committee on which one will be approved. Representatives of all of those cities will also be in and out of Vancouver and Whistler during the next two years to get tips on how best to organize their responses to the IOC's assessment process. They'll also all be in Torino, Italy, next February, along with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), to observe the operation of the 2006 Winter Games. The winning nation will be heavily involved behind the scenes of the 2010 Winter Games, and take part in Vancouver's closing ceremonies.

Phase 1 of the IOC's two-step process, known as the candidature-acceptance procedure, involves a thorough review by the IOC of each city's potential to organize the 2014 Olympic Winter Games. Cities will be asked to reply to a questionnaire by next February 1. Their answers will be studied by the IOC in order to help the IOC Executive Board to select a short list of the cities by next June 23 that will become candidate cities. Those on the short list will move on to Phase 2.

During Phase 2, known as the candidature procedure, the candidate cities will be requested to submit their candidature file: an in-depth description of their Olympic project, and prepare for the visit of the IOC Evaluation Commission. That file has to be in by January 10, 2007. The Evaluation Commission will make a technical assessment of each candidature, and visit each city from then until April, 2007 and publish a report in June of that year, one month before the election of the host city, for IOC members to review before their vote.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 29, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1137
ADJACENT RETAIL, OTHER THAN WHAT'S THERE, NOT IN THE CARDS FOR WHISTLER SLIDING CENTRE

The director of Sliding Sports for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), Craig Lehto, says budget constraints for development of the Whistler Sliding Centre prevent VANOC from incorporating adjacent retail as part of the Centre's legacy business plan.

"It's hard to have the capital now to do that, to be honest with you, to really develop retail and commercial applications. We have applications we could attract ourselves to make money, but it's pretty hard for us right now to capitalize that. So our priority is that [the Centre] works for legacy and it works for the Games," Lehto says.

Adjacent retail or other business operations could have the ability to provide a steady source of revenue to the WSC after the Winter Games are over, and, since the plan is to help support the economics of running the WSC through a trust set up by revenue from the Games and administered by the Whistler Legacy Society, the revenue stream would reduce the drawdown on the fund.

There are currently two organizations working off the access road to the WSC, the Canadian Snowmobile Association, which runs snowmobile and ATV tours in the area, and Zip-Trek, which provides specialty outdoor activities on a retail basis. "We think the track will work really well with them. We've talked about those two organizations may be included in the [Centre's] Guest Services building, and have that as a kind of 'Gateway to Adventure' that isn't ski-related in the area."

Lehto says VANOC has put a lot of work into ensuring the two organizations can continue their operations, even while it is turning their back yards into a major construction zone. "Absolutely. Every plan that we have, for the entire site, and there are zillions of sheets, has the fact that we're maintaining access for their operations printed right on them. It never escapes anybody's mind that we are keeping access areas open for them."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 29, 2005

Thursday, July 28, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1136
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE TO MOVE FROM DOWNTOWN VANCOUVER TO CITY'S EAST SIDE BY YEAR'S END

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) says its partnership with the City of Vancouver now has an additional component: that of VANOC's landlord.

VANOC headquarters will move permanently from its current downtown location at 1095 West Pender to east Vancouver's Kingswood Atrium, located at 3585 Graveley Street and the adjacent 1570 Kootenay Street, close to the 1st Avenue interchange on the Trans-Canada highway in Vancouver. (See RESOURCES, below, for a link to a satellite map).

The office space was made possible by the City of Vancouver, which purchased the two buildings from Kingswood Properties Ltd. for investment purposes. The City will lease about 230,000 sq. ft of space to VANOC through to the completion of the Games. VANOC will be responsible for all tenant improvements and operating costs, and expects to move into its new offices in early 2006.

Affordability, accessibility, proximity to transit and the various Games venues and adequate parking were also key criteria. As an added challenge, the location had to meet various security and communications needs.

"It's been a real challenge in this commercial real estate market to find a location that meets our special requirements, but today, with the City, we've met that challenge," said John Furlong, VANOC's Chief Executive Officer. "Our goal was threefold: to keep our growing team together, to stay within the boundaries of Vancouver -- host city for the Games -- and to make a lease arrangement that was financially responsible."

Furlong says VANOC will "lease this site at a very competitive rate compared to downtown space and we'll keep our organization in one location in Vancouver. Most importantly, we'll be able to maintain our culture of teamwork that is critical to us reaching our goal of staging spectacular Games in 2010. We're especially grateful to the City of Vancouver for helping us find a solution that benefits everyone."

The property was part of the real-estate sales portfolio of Colliers International, which VANOC had contracted to find its office space. When it was on the market a couple of months ago, Kingswood was asking C$13 per square foot per year; at the square footage VANOC needs, that would have come to roughly C$3 million a year. The building's office-expense figure at the time was noted as $6.38 per square foot. The building, on a 7.2 acre site, was originally built in 1985 and was upgraded in 1995 by extending each floor by approximately 22,000 square feet. It is air conditioned, has a card-access security system, a fitness facility and is equipped with a full-service cafeteria. It's named for its two-storey interior atrium.

"This is a win-win situation for our citizens and VANOC," noted Mayor Larry Campbell. "It is good for our citizens in that, like most real estate investments, we expect to make a return on this asset and could possibly convert it to civic uses in the future. In the shorter term, we will help our partner VANOC and help the organizing committee stay in Vancouver while meeting its financial and occupancy needs." Campbell also thanked Kingswood Properties, which co-operated with the City to, as Campbell put it, "expedite this process." Kingswood, based in Vancouver's business core, is primarily known as a luxury-condo developer in the Greater Vancouver area.

With office vacancy rates of less than 10% for the GVRD and 8% in the downtown business core of Vancouver, VANOC had been looking for several months for a single site of more than 200,000 sq. ft that could accommodate the expected peak staff of 1,200 staff it will need to hire over the next several years, and to also house VANOC's associated organizations in staging the Games, including the joint security task force run by the RCMP, but also the various other major sponsors that are, or will be, working with VANOC. The site also has sufficient space to enable staff from VANOC's government partners, who are collaborating with VANOC on 2010 preparations, to co-locate with the organizing committee.

RESOURCES

Satellite map of the location of VANOC's new offices:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=1570+Kootenay+Street,+Vancouver,+BC&spn=0.007276,0.011477&t=h&hl=en

--

Photo of the building:
http://www.vancouver2010.com/NR/rdonlyres/AE6A434E-CC36-4483-8E35-1D004C5E8841/32701/Building2x.jpg

--

Lorne Segal
President
Kingswood Properties
(604) 688-1900
701 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC., V7Y 1A1
604.688.1900

Our previous story on this:
'Two side-by-side buildings to be new home of 2010 Organizing Committee'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1115; Published on Tuesday, July 19, 2005]

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 28, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1135

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC OVAL, DELAYED AGAIN, TO BE BUILT ATOP HUGE PARKING LOT
Richmond's new director of Major Projects, Greg Scott, says the municipality has decided to build the new 2010 long-track speed-skating oval on top of a new C$23-million parking lot, so that it can use the 6.5 acres of land originally slated for the 650 parking spaces for high-density development to help pay for the project, should council make that decision. However, because most of Richmond, and the area where the flagship venue of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) is to be built is river delta land, the parking lot will be built at ground level, with the oval on top of it, at the level of the dikes that surround the municipality. The lot's size will provide sufficient parking for users of the oval and the surrounding sports complex, as well as for businesses and visitors to the high-rises envisioned for the area. Scott says the additional cost will be covered by several sources: the sale of city-owned land; development-cost charges; and a municipal fund that developers pay into in exchange for providing fewer parking stalls on commercial projects. Meanwhile, we now have word that the oval's completion date has been pushed back again. When the project was announced last year, it was planned for completion by the fall of 2007, but earlier this year that date was reset to April, 2008. It is now unlikely to be finished until August, 2008, nearly a year later that scheduled.
VANOC LOOKING FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
VANOC has issued an Expressions of Interest document on BC Bid, the provincial government's open bidding distribution system, for companies offering project management software. The software is to be used in VANOC's Venues department, which is looking after the development or renovation of 16 projects, including the Richmond oval. The requirement includes software for up to 100 users that can deal with engineering document control, purchasing and procurement tracking, contact management, cost and other financial controls, scheduling, resource and consultant management and the like, as well as installation and training for the first 20 users. Those indicating by August 15 they're interested will be winnowed by VANOC staffers to two or three firms who will then give presentations on their system, and the final choice will be made from there.
ANOTHER 2014 COUNTRY HEARD FROM
The Pakistan Daily Times reports that Kazakhstan's National Olympic Committee gave its approval Wednesday for its capital city of Almaty, a foothills city in the middle of Asia, to bid for the right to host the 2014 Olympic Games. That clears the way for committee to submit its official bid to the International Olympic Committee before Thursday's deadline. The IOC will name the host city in 2007, after a technical committee reviews all the contenders in detail. The IOC's choice will observe the back-room operations of the 2010 Winter Olympics in detail, just as VANOC is doing with the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy, and the winner will also take part in VANOC's closing ceremonies.

RESOURCES

A map showing the location of Almaty, Kazakhstan, which is in the centre of the map:
http://tinyurl.com/cz6eg

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 28, 2005

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1134

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

ECOSIGN MOUNTAIN SUPPORTING RUSSIAN BIDDER FOR 2014 WINTER GAMES
Ecosign Mountain Resorts Planners is part of the design team led by Sandwell Engineering of Vancouver that successfully bid to design the Whistler Nordic Centre for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC). The facility, where site preparation is now underway, will be the site of cross-country skiing, ski jumping, biathlon and Nordic-combined competitions and is due to be completed in the fall of 2007. Ecosign is also listed among the supporters of the US$6 billion bid by the city of Sochi, in Russia, for the 2014 Winter Olympics, which is filing its documents with the IOC this week to host those Games. Meanwhile, the French government has shot down the plans by its mountain city of Annecy to make a bid for the 2014 Games, saying it was "premature" to make such a bid so soon after the country lost the 2012 Summer Olympics to England. Annecy mayor Bernard Bosson was deeply disappointed in the French government's decision. The filing deadline is tomorrow. The IOC will make its decision next year on which of about a dozen cities competing for the honour will win.
NIKE OFFERS US SPEED-SKATING TEAM WORKOUT FACILITIES AT HEAD OFFICE
Nike, the sports clothing firm that is one of the major corporate sponsors of the US short-track speed-skating team, has offered its premises at its Beaverton, Oregon, headquarters for a week of off-track workouts during a training camp for the team over the next few days, as it prepares for the Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, next February. Nike also designs the skin suits worn by the US Olympic speed-skating team. Melissa Scott, the director of Public and Media Relations for US Speed-skating, says interest in the sport is strong at the moment, but she knows its cyclical. "Interest tends to subside somewhat between Olympiads, but the upcoming 2010 Games in Vancouver should spark renewed interest in the sport."
40,000 VOLUNTEER FOR TORINO OLYMPICS
The Torino Olympic Organizing Committee (TOROC) says that with the deadline for applications by volunteers to help with the next February's Winter Games to close at the end of this week, it has about 40,000 people in its database. That's double the number who had applied as of just last March. Of the 40,000, about 14,000 said they wanted to help with the 2006 Paralympic Games. TOROC says it will select about 7,000 from the applicants to take part in training and actually working at the Games. Volunteers will help in just about everything: sport support, transport, communications, medical services and assisting with the medals at the ceremonies. Although the process officially ends July 31, volunteers with special language skills still can still register online until the end of this year. TOROC says that of the 40,000, 56% are men and 44% are women, mostly between the ages of 18 and 34, and with an upper-school diploma. Forty-one per cent of the volunteers are students, 37% are employees and 16% are pensioners. A slim majority (22,000) are permanent residents of Torino or the Piedmont region, where the alpine sports are scheduled to be held. Of the remaining 18,000 applicants, 60% are Italian and 40% come from other countries.

RESOURCES

Ecosign's contact info in various countries:
http://ecosign.com/contact.htm

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 27, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1133
AUCTION FOR AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING RIGHTS TO 2010 WINTER GAMES SUDDENLY PUT ON HOLD

The International Olympic Committee has abruptly postponed indefinitely its timetable for sale of the 2010 Winter Olympics broadcast rights in Australia. It's the first time the IOC has ever halted a rights auction.

The IOC isn't offering much in the way of explanation. A spokesman simply says, ""Given recent developments within the Australian media market, the IOC has decided to reconvene the next steps of the negotiation process at a later date, as and when it sees fit."

But it appears to be tied to a pending decision by the Australian government of John Howard to introduce legislation in month or two that would affect media ownership in the country.

The final bids were to be presented to the IOC at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland in early August, and the IOC expected to chose the winner of the process during the week of August 8.

Two television networks, Seven and Nine, are now believed to be the only ones expected to pursue the rights package, which includes the broadcast rights to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, which was valued by industry estimates at about C$120 million. Vancouver could expect to get roughly C$20 million of that, after the IOC's and London's shares are assigned.

Recent cost-cutting at Nine, which could have an effect on the size of its bid against Seven, is also believed to be a reason for the delay.

The IOC met for a week in Sydney in June with Australian broadcasters Nine, Seven, Ten, the ABC and SBS to outline its expectations for the auction of the rights, as part of its standard process. Seven is the incumbent and has the rights to Olympic broadcasts until the end of the Beijing Summer Olympics in 2008.

It is the first time that the Australian Olympic television rights have come up for negotiation since 1996, and the first time the rights will apply to a new era of digital television and widespread use of mobiles and broadband. It was also the first time anywhere that national Internet broadcast rights were to be offered, because the IOC now has technology that it says will prevent views from outside a country from seeing a national Internet broadcast.

Both Nine and Seven have each said it intended to bid on its own for the entire rights deal - which includes radio, pay-TV and free-to-air rights - and, if successful, would then re-sell or sub-contract components of the deal, probably the appropriate components to a telecommunications firm. Under existing Australian Government legislation, free-to-air rights must be sold first.

There is a potential ripple effect of the delay on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC). The Committee is waiting for the broadcasting rights negotiations -- which must still take place with Japan, a major contender, and lesser lights South America, Italy and south Asia --to be completed so it can negotiate the amount it is to receive from the sales from the IOC. When IOC president Jacque Rogge took office, he cancelled the standard formula that saw organizing committees get a standard percentage share, and starting with 2010's Games, required the committees negotiate for for their share. VANOC was hoping to be able to start that negotiation late this year or early next, as TV rights comprise a major portion of its Games-derived revenue -- but it's too early to tell if the Aussie delays will affect that schedule.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 27, 2005

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1132

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

JOHNSON & JOHNSON BECOMES NEWEST OLYMPIC SPONSOR, BUT NOT FOR 2010
Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiaries have signed on through The Olympic Program (TOP) with the International Olympic Committee to become an official sponsor of the Beijing 2008 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the official health-care products sponsor of the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games, and the official health care products partner of the United States Olympic Committee -- plus sponsor of about 20 other national Olympic committees. However, the deal does not extend to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, nor the 2012 Summer Games in London, England; that's a package that would have to be negotiated separately. The company was negotiating with the IOC to become a sponsor of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games when the bribery scandal broke out and talks abruptly ended. The IOC has not had a comprehensive health-care partner since TOP began in 1985, although Bausch and Lomb held TOP rights to vision care in the 1980s. Pharmaceutical maker Pfizer sponsored the activities-and-awards programs of the IOC's medical commission 1994-2002. The IOC's TOP program participants Coca-Cola (soft drinks), Eastman Kodak (film), Manulife/John Hancock (insurance), Lenovo Group (personal computing), Matsushita/Panasonic (consumer electronics), Samsung and Swatch (timekeeping) have contracts that expire at the end of 2008, but Swatch has already said it will be promoting its Omega brand for timekeeping and scoring at the 2010 Winter Games. Over the next seven months, the Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries plan to conduct internal and external marketing programs to highlight the association with the Olympic Games across Europe and in Italy.
BURNABY JOE IS THINKING VANCOUVER 2010 FOR HOCKEY
Denver sports columnist Dave Kreiger says he's been told by National Hockey League star Joe Sakic, who is from the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, that "he now dreams of playing in the Olympics in Vancouver, his hometown, when he's 40." Kreiger quotes Sakic as tell him, "For me, it's how I feel when I'm on the ice," he said. "If I'm still playing at the level that I want to play at, I'll probably keep playing. And also, down the horizon, I mean, this is unrealistic, but the 2010 Olympics are in my hometown of Vancouver, so that's not a bad goal to shoot for. I'm realistic enough to know - I'll be 40 then - it probably won't happen. But you never know. It's always something to keep training for." Kreiger says Sakic wouldn't miss going to the Torino Olympics next February. Says Kreiger, "He had too much fun as the star of the gold-medal match for Canada against the U.S. in the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City." As he told Kreiger, "That's the greatest experience, the Olympics. Love to go there."
COACHES IN U.S. TO EYE SKIERS FOR 2010 POTENTIAL
Annette Royle, the vice-president of Events for the United States Skiing Association, says the 2006 season, which starts in January and wraps up in March, will have the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games on the slopes. As Royle puts it, "The coaches in all sports will be looking at the next wave of athletes, who already are eyeing the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. So - as we've seen in previous Olympic winters - there will be a lot of things going on at these championships. We will not be hurting for action and excitement."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 26, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1131
WHISTLER SLIDING CENTRE TO BE OPEN TO PUBLIC BEFORE GAMES, AS HEAVY CONSTRUCTION BEGINS -- AND SHUFFLES

The director of Sliding Sports for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) says that as construction begins -- and is being rearranged on the fly -- planners are already working on the details of public and high-performance athletic use of the Whistler Sliding Centre, both before and after the 2010 Games.

"We're working on our business plan for post-Games right now," says Craig Lehto [pronounced LAY-toh]. "We need to make sure the facilities post-Games are sustainable, and we're putting great effort into working out how the venues will operate for athletes, for the communities, and for the public that wants to use them after the Games. We will combine, in this venue, high-performance sport development and community use, to make it successful post-Games."

This venue, along with the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Whistler Paralympic facilities, will be supported after the Games are finished by money drawn from a Legacy fund, administered by a public society, in addition to revenue generated by its commercial aspects. But there won't be much opportunity for businesses locating near the track, according to planners at this stage, although judging from the steep acreage along the rural roads leading to the facility from Whistler, there should be better possibilities for retail there.

Lehto's own resume includes helping to manage the sliding track at Calgary's Olympic Park, and managing the sliding track, both during and after the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, in Utah. He has also been to inspect the sliding centre site at the Torino Italy games twice as they were being constructed.

The site will host bobsled, luge and skeleton, with various men's and women's events. With a bob-luge track, as it's usually called, terrain is the key component, and the major factor in its design is ensuring the centreline of the track follows the terrain in such a way as to make the track technically challenging but within safety factors of acceleration and centrifugal forces.

In VANOC's case, the track is built along a ledge that follows the edge of a steeply sloping ravine; the ravine has Fitzsimmons Creek at its base. The site is in a recreational land area that's visible from Whistler and easily accessible by two-lane paved roads that were already in existence. It has a 1,450 metre drop over about two kilometres of track -- about a third of it devoted to run-out, allowing the sleds to slow against gravity -- with 16 corners. Lehto expects the design will allow top speeds of about 130 kilometres per hour, and five times the force of gravity on the corners.

There will be seven buildings and other track-support structures on the site, including a guest-services building, a control tower, a track-operations building, a weigh building and the refrigeration building that ensures the ice on the entire track is kept to a specific temperature. Spectator capacity is expected to be 11,650 during the Games, with the Olympic overlay in place, but most of the spectators can be accommodated along the service road that runs along the track nearest to the ravine edge.

"The orientation of the track and the favourable weather conditions," says Lehto, "makes it efficient to operate." He added later, that the track, for the athletes, "will be very much like Torino's; it'll be very challenging. But it will be within standards. You don't start out planning an easy or a really hard track. You've got to take into consideration where the world of sliding is. You're pretty much controlled by the international sports federations what we build, because they want it safe and they want it to be a good sport. They care about all the things they talk about, too. The calculations that go into the track are phenomenal. The speed calculations alone fill three binders. They know the track's speed every half metre, all the way down."

Lehto says VANOC expects to allow public use of the site before the 2010 Winter Games. "We hope to get some programming going before the Games. What we can derive out of this track is an absolutely amazing ride. A ride by the public on a bobsled is something that you never forget for the rest of your life -- I promise you this! Our design idea right now is to have the public ride right from the top of the track, getting up to 120 kilometres per hour, to 125 kph, in specially designed four-person sleds." Lehto says VANOC is also looking at summer programming on the track, including trips down from the top of the track as well on special sleds designed to work without ice. "It's a year-round, public-use type of program that will complement the resort."

The construction of the track is going to be challenging. "It's a lot of concrete on top of rebar, and the tolerances that we have to hold during the construction are going to be very tight. It will be a big challenge for the shotcrete operator to hold it to the design, but doing so helps us so much in maintenance after, because the thinner you can make the ice on it, the easier it is to maintain. You want profiles on the concrete that mimic exactly the way you make ice on it." Lehto says there will be representatives from three operations involved in the tracks' construction as it is being built: the ice-making contractor, the engineering design firm, and from the concrete company, so the profiles all the way from start to finish will be as close to perfect as possible.

Site preparation is underway and for the four months on this site alone, VANOC is going to be spending about C$3 million per month, which is close to the budget projected for this phase of the work. The contract, worth about C$13 million, was awarded this spring to Emil Anderson Construction of Hope, B.C., which one the job out of a short list of five companies, and an initial expression of interest of 14 firms. Steve Matheson, VANOC's senior vice-president of Venues, says that the contract "is just about smack on the budget that the consultants had prepared. We added a few components to the scope-of-work environmentally, which increased the cost a little bit, but so far we're tracking fairly closely to our budget."

Package 1 of the work scope, which involved clearing and grubbing, was done by a directed award to Coast Mountain Excavations, which was largely known in the Whistler area as a snow-removal firm up to this point. As for Emil Anderson, which is working on Package 2 of the project, Matheson says that besides roughly grading the site, "The main job these guys have to do is build the main access road, and they're also going to be putting in some initial servicing. It's all the prepatory work for the track construction, which starts next year. They'll also being doing another road we're creating for Whistler-Blackcomb for their Snowcat access at the top of the mountain. They've got about four months of work to do."

Adds Lehto, "The track footings and the facility build-out will take place over the next two construction seasons [the spring, summer and fall months of 2006 and 2007]. In 2006 and 2007, the systems will be completed. Most of our major construction will take place in 2007."

While that may be true, some of the work that was planned as early as a few months ago to be done this year has now been pushed back into the 2006 construction season. For instance, the idea as late as this March was to have the shell of the refrigeration building erected before the snow hit this winter, so that work could be done inside it over the winter. The refrigeration building now won't even be started until next spring. "Not this first year, now, no," confirms Matheson. "We can't operate effectively here over the wintertime. Once we get going with the track construction, and the construction of some of the buildings, we will be able to do some work in the wintertime inside the buildings, but that won't happen until subsequent winters."

As well, pre-qualification documents were published this past spring for the next phase of the project, but were quickly retracted by VANOC. The reason, says Matheson: "We wanted to have the design advanced a little bit further, so we had more certainty about the [construction] packages and their timing for the track construction." Matheson now expects that documentation will be reissued in October or November. "They'll be coming out so that the contracts will start as soon as the snow is gone next spring."

On the other hand, the refrigeration machinery, once it's in place, will be state-of-the-art, but it won't be new technology; an Olympics, says Lehto, is not the place to be trying out bleeding-edge technology, especially on things are part of the core process. "Refrigeration using ammonia is common in the industry; in the United States there huge plans that use it. It's not a technology that is 'out there' at all. But it's rigorously regulated [for safety reasons] and rigorously designed."

Telecommunications infrastructure is still in the planning stage, according to Matheson. "Some of the basic service structure is going in this year -- we're putting in some conduits and that sort of thing this year, but it's minor."

VANOC also reveals that, as part of the work now connected with the site, it has budgeted funds to improve some of the intersections on the roads from Whistler to the site, to ensure better turning radiuses for the buses it plans on using to bring spectators to the Games, when private vehicles will be banned.

Lehto also expects that buses probably will only go as far as Parking Lot 7. Lot 8 is higher and closer to the track, but will be used for Olympic family parking. But the improvements will also make it easier for the TV broadcasters to move their equipment onto the site. "They're harder than buses to move around, and they have high clearances." There's also a low four-metre-clearance wooden overpass over the main access road; the overpass carries a ski trail from Blackcomb and the Sliding Centre site to Whistler, and so not likely to be expensive to raise. But it's likely going to have to be reworked before the Games.

We've also learned that Blackcomb will also be expanding its runs to be much closer to the Sliding Centre, and run parallel to the tracks for a portion of the run.

Lehto says that sustainability, one of the keystones of Olympic construction policy, is important to VANOC. "We have comprehensive process; a tree-tagging program operating on the site; woodchipping and composting -- the chips are taken to Squamish for composting -- we also have a lot of sediment-control measures and we also have some remediation work we're doing with Intrawest [the landholder] on some of the storage areas they had in the area and on the site. We get into those areas, clean them up and take the materials to proper locations or manage them, and leave the area much cleaner than it was." Intrawest's maintenance compound was located on parts of what are now becoming the the bob-luge track. "Along with maintenance areas come old wood, parts of equipment and other materials that have accumulated on the site. We want to make sure we don't have any bone-yards left on our site."

Actually it's still not VANOC's site yet, despite all the heavy work underway. Intrawest still holds the leases to the property, and the lawyers for VANOC and Intrawest have been going back and forth for some time now over the conditions under which Intrawest will relinquish the site, and what happens to the lease if the legacy part doesn't work out and the site closes.

"It's still part of the Whistler-Blackcomb lease," agrees Matheson. "But there is an agreement-in-principle that we will be taking that over from Lands & Parks BC." The BC government ministry is the owner of the property, which Intrawest has using on a long-term lease. Matheson says the delay in transfer is the time being taken to get paper work done. "There's no technical issue around it." Intrawest, on the other hand, is holding off on completion of the documents until it has assurances of access, and that's why VANOC is building the Snowcat road. "It's so we can provide the [Intrawest] mountain access through the venue during construction, and afterwards."

Before the 2010 Games, Lehto says the track is to be certified as being safe for use by the two international sport organizations which oversee such events -- the International Luge Federation (FIL) and the International Bobsleigh & Tobogganing Federation (FITU) -- during the winter of 2007 and 2008. "We plan on having training runs in the fall and winter of 2007, and then our Canadian teams will be the first ones to get on it, and start training for the 2010 Games and other events. The following year [winter of 2008/2009], we'll have our international test events on the site -- both the Bobsled and Skeleton World Cups, and a luge test event as well. Those will really test our systems and operations, and help us get ready for the Games."

One of the largest operating expenses for such a track is in maintenance of the track surface itself. "Every time a big, four-man sled goes down at 130 kph, at five times the force of gravity on the corners," says Lehto, "it damages the ice. So we have to go along the whole mile or so of track, in three-person teams, with little trowels and buckets of slush, and slush in the grooves and spritz water over it. But if you've got a good profile -- and that means good construction -- it's much easier to do those repairs."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 26, 2005

Monday, July 25, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Sports| #1130
ALPINE CANADA URGES DEVELOPMENT OF FEDERAL SPORT MINISTRY TO ENHANCE SPORT AND OLYMPICS

Alpine Canada says it would like to see the federal government establish a single Ministry of Sport and Physical Activity for Canada.

Alpine Canada president Ken Read says in Calgary, "A distinct Ministry of Sport and Physical Activity would act as a highly visible advocate for sport and physical activity across Canada and would reflect upon the government's commitment to athletic excellence and sustainability - especially with the focus of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games."

Earlier this year, the federal government decided in invest C$100 million into Canadian sport in increments, primarily through the launch of the 'Own The Podium' program, a technical program designed to help Canada become the number one nation in terms of medals won at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, and to place top three at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games. Currently, the federal government's sport funding programs are administered through a division of Heritage Canada, with Vancouver member of Parliament and cabinet member Stephen Owen at its helm, although it's just part of his position. He also is the minister who looks after the federal government's responsibilities connected with the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, and met with the CEO of Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) last Friday in Whistler.

Read notes, "As one of the few nations to host the Olympics three times within a single generation, Canada is presented with a unique opportunity to take a leadership position on sport."

He says the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics gave Canadians "the administrative foundation for our sport programs" and Calgary's Winter Olympics in 1988 "set a world standard for venue legacy management." Read claims that, "Now Vancouver presents a unique chance to focus on the capacity of national sport organizations, which have the responsibility of leading athlete-development systems and major events, and to build world-class sport programs so young Canadian athletes have the coaching, sport sciences, financial support and sports programs that will produce champions year after year."

In order to accomplish this, Read says, the federal government needs to establish a sports ministry. "We need this high-profile advocate to actively engage the corporate sector to invest in sport, to lead the various government agencies, and to reach out to Canadians from coast to coast in this mission to aim for number one. We are prepared to work closely with the Ministry to deliver the human, financial and technical resources to reach these ambitious goals and to inspire a new generation of young athletes to be successful."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 25, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1129
WHISTLER NORDIC CENTRE PROJECT DESIGNED TO ENSURE MAXIMUM COMMERCIAL IMPACT FOR SPECTATORS, TOURISTS

Doug Ewing, the project manager for the Whistler Nordic Centre of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), says that the development and design of the site is being driven by what CEO John Furlong calls "the riveting scenery" of its location, to enhance spectator satisfaction for the Games and tourism afterward.

Ewing adds that even with last winter's relatively warm and wet west-coast weather, there was abundant snow at site, which will help provide postcard views for TV viewers of the Games and tourists alike. The issue of snow and warm weather had been a cause celebre last January, when the president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, was touring the locations during one of the south coast's warmest winters on record.

"It's just one of the reasons we chose the site," Ewing notes, "It was chosen for what it is; it has abundant snow, even last winter there was a great deal of snow up there. But it also has beautiful views, limited winds and lots of recreational opportunities." The latter is important for the on-going commercial aspects of the Callaghan Valley site, about 25 minutes drive from downtown Whistler, about 20 minutes drive from the site of the yet-to-be-constructed Whistler Athletes Village. VANOC also will build in snow-making facilities as part of the overall project, as a fail-safe.

"We're really focusing on framing the views of the site, the mountains, the trees, the water, the wetlands [which are on the way into the site]," says Ewing, noting that view-scapes are a key element to the presentation of the Games internationally and for tourism prospects for the site after the Games are finished. "We will provide an Olympic experience when it's televised around the world, and when the spectators come up to the Games, [we're focusing on] what they are going to take away from here that's different, that's unique. The best way I can describe it is that there is an intimacy that you don't necessarily see with other places, and the intimacy is with the natural surroundings."

Construction on the site has only recently begun; one of the project managers for the construction venues said that when they first arrived on the scene shortly after the snows melted this spring, it took the crews about eight hours to work their way from Highway 99 to the base location. Today there's a good 10-kilometre gravel access road, which will become a paved highway -- construction on it is expected to start later this year and according to tenders already offered, will cost between C$11 million and C$20 million to complete.

The roadway currently leads to a clearing in heavy second-growth forest that will eventually become a parking lot. It's adjacent to what are now gravel pads. The pads are destined to become locations where various compounds for the site are to be built next year. Only an office trailer is on site at the moment, and work crews were installing a telecommunications dish on it as of Friday; the sign marking it as belonging to Resource Business Ventures, an aboriginal-based joint venture that was assigned the main contract for work this spring and summer: clearing and grubbing. "They'll be in there until the end of October," says Ewing.

The WNC combines four major Olympic events, which in other Games has taken several venues, in one: biathlon, cross-country skiing, Nordic combined and ski-jumping. As well, parallel Paralympic events for cross-country and biathlon will also be held at the site before it's turned over to a society to operate as a year-round commercial resort following the Games in 2010.

When spectators and, later, customers of the complex arrive, they'll be dropped off by bus during the games or by car later at the main parking lot which is located at the bottom centre of a rough bowl of mountains. On their left, they'll see the biathlon course, in the centre, the 16-kilometre cross-country trails, and on their right, the ski-jumps. A bit further to the right, they'll see the day lodge.

Ewing says the relatively small size of the competition trails -- 16 kilometres versus 55-kilometres at a 1988 Olympics location in Canmore, Alberta, reflects the changes that have taken place in the sport in those years. "They still have all the same events, but now they simply use the trails multiple times and it's more oriented toward the stadium." The compact system also makes it easier for TV coverage.

The ski-jumps are still planned to be temporary and removed following the Games, their site rehabilitated during the summer of 2010, because there is not sufficient business to support them after the Games. That could still change, and discussions continue with the sports federation and government officials. The stadiums are still planned to hold 12,000 spectators during the Games when the Olympic overlay, to be installed in 2009, is in place.

"The 2005 construction program," says Ewing, "is dedicated to getting ourselves so the compounds are roughly built, because we have a large construction program next year. It's site preparation." Ewing confirms that in 2006 and 2007, the work involves finishing all the large compounds, doing all the utilities and services, building the ski jumps. "Ours will be a seasonal jump [during the lead-up to the Games], so it will have a grass landing hill. All the competition trails will be built over the next three years."

Ewing says there are several main drivers for development of the site, from environmental considerations to keeping the site as compact as possible to reduce construction costs and complexity. For example, he says, storm water management is one of the drivers. "We're essentially building large parking lots there. How we manage the water is complex, but if we don't it will become quite an erosion problem. How we mitigated it was incorporated directly into a part of the design; the result is quite simple on the ground, but the design rationale is quite rigorous. The same with the buildings. We are incorporating quite a few best-management practices to deal with overall water consumption and the sanitary systems."

Other aspects of the designs include how used construction materials can be recycled. "For instance, if we have wood left over, how we can chip some of it and put it on the trails. There will be power coming in, but we're not going to be on the municipal water system. We're developing all the services there, and they will all be self-sustaining, including the ground water and surface water.

Ewing remains confident the work will be done in time for the completion date, officially October, 2007. "We got an ambitious start; there's no reason right now that we won't make it." Ewing says that during the 2007/2008 winter, the complex will be open to the Canadian national Olympic teams that will be competing on it in 2010. "They'll have first use of the facilities; the winter of 2008 will be our Olympic test events; 2009 will be the Paralympic test events and, of course, in February, 2010, will the Olympic Games."

Ewing says the business plan for the complex after the Games has not yet been finalized, but work on it is advanced, and that, too, is being built into the design work, done by Sandwell Engineers. "Right now, VANOC is working with all of its business partners, putting together the business plan for the legacy. As part of the on-going design, we are making certain assumptions so that we don't limit the on-going opportunities our partners would like to pursue."

Ewing declined to provide details, but said, "The strategies look at how the place can be used in the future for events, for high-performance sport development and, of course, public and community use. The facilities are expected to be supported by the Legacy Fund, but as part of the business planning, we're looking at what recreational opportunities will make the facility essentially self-sustaining."

Talks continue between VANOC and the Squamish and Lil'Wat aboriginal groups over the specific location and design of the recreational trails; the groups have some cultural and human-impact concerns with the expect number of people that VANOC says will need to use the recreational trails to help make the complex self-supporting. Those talks have been underway for months.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 25, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1128
CANNON DESIGN, CITYSPACES CONSULTING WIN MAJOR WORK AT NEW OLYMPIAN TRAINING CENTRE IN VICTORIA, B.C.

Cannon Design of Victoria, B.C., has won the competition to design the C$36-million PacificSport Institute at Camosun College in the Vancouver Island city. The Institute, to be built on Camosun's Interurban campus, is expected to be the residential training centre for some of Canada's Olympians.

Cannon Design, run by architect Bob Johnston, was one of seven firms competing for the project, and, according to the College, was selected based on its "depth of experience in conceptualizing and designing integrated sport training centres that support high performance athletes." Cannon is also designing the long-track speed-skating oval for Richmond on behalf of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC).

As well, CitySpaces Consulting, also of Victoria, but with offices in Vancouver, is to be the project manager. CitySpaces was one of four firms that took part in a formal competition for the job. CitySpaces, says Ashton, was selected "based on the comprehensiveness and quality of their submission, the firm's extensive project management experience, its positive reputation, and the fact that, in addition to being a Victoria-based firm, the proposal offered best overall value."

Although the project is going ahead, fund-raising for it still has a distance to go. The BC government is contributing C$18.5-million to the project once it gets approval for the money during this fall's legislative session, federal funding totalling C$11 million is being sought, with a private capital campaign set to raise the remaining C$7 million. Contracts will be negotiated to include a paragraph that allows for contract cancellation should the project not proceed for any reason.

Camosun estimates the entire project will cost C$57.5 million, and it is to be constructed in two phases:

Phase one: Phase 1 of the project will include a three gymnasiums, one of them able to seat 1,600 spectators, fitness- and strength-training areas, meeting rooms, a lighted, all-weather playing field and facilities for sport-medicine and -science. It will be used by Olympians, Camosun athletes, community teams as well as health and wellness groups. The provincial funding is for this phase and comes from the Major Post-Secondary Sports Training Facilities Initiative, a spending program set up by the BC Liberals and connected to the 2010 Winter Olympics to pay for infrastructure that provide the public with "more opportunities to participate in sports and physical activity."
Phase two: residences, a stadium and additional playing fields.

"The selection of the architect was a critical next step on the Pacific Sport Institute project," said Camosun's President Liz Ashton. "Cannon Design has international expertise in high performance sport and community recreation facility planning and design. Bob Johnston, the lead on the project, has over 20 years experience on a wide range of sport-related venues and is acknowledged as a leader in sport and recreation architecture. Their goal is to create a world-class facility and we are confident they will do just that. It's very exciting to know that we have this calibre of architectural experience right here in Victoria, too."

The Pacific Sport Institute will be designed to a minimum LEED Gold environmental standard. LEED standards are also required for 2010 Olympic venues.

RESOURCES
Cannon Design
http://www.cannondesign.com/start_frameset.htm

CitySpaces Consulting
http://www.cityspaces.ca

Camosun College:
http://www.camosun.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 25, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1127

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

OFFICIAL CONFIRMATION OF NHL AT 2010 GAMES
Rene Fasel, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee's Co-ordination Commission for the 2010 Winter Olympics, has confirmed that National Hockey League officials and players will participate at both the next two Winter Olympic Games, next February in Torino, Italy and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Fasel, who is also head of the International Ice Hockey Federation, says both the NHL and its Players Association agreed to the arrangement, adding, "For hockey fans around the world and for the national associations of the participating nations, I am delighted that the NHL and NHLPA have decided to continue the partnership with the IIHF for Torino 2006 and also Vancouver 2010." In Italy, the men's tournament is scheduled for February 15-26 at the Palasport Olimpico and Torino Esposizioni arenas. Participating countries are Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, the Czech Republic and the United States, however the NHL, its Player's Association and the IIHF are still discussing scheduling issues today that may affect the 2006 tournaments; the schedule is due to be released Wednesday, depending on the outcome of those talks. In Vancouver, the ice hockey competition events will take place in two venues: the primary venue will be a renovated General Motors Place stadium, and the secondary venue will be a new arena at the University of British Columbia Winter Sport Centre, which starts construction next year. The current competition schedule calls for the Vancouver hockey games to be held on 16 days starting with preliminary rounds on Saturday, February 6, 2010, and continuing through to the men's Gold game on Sunday, February 21. Defending Olympic champion Canada, again under the leadership of executive director Wayne Gretzky, begins preparations for the 2006 Games at training camps from August 14th to the 20th in Vancouver and Kelowna, in BC's Okanagan area.
ATOS HAS BUSINESS CONNECTIONS IN MIND AS BEIJING GAMES NEAR
The value of the deal Atos Origin signed with the International Olympic Committee earlier this year to extend its networking contract to include the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games remains secret, but the company is talking about what it hopes to get out of the deal, at least in China, where it will be doing computer integration for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It pays for five years of planning and about 200,000 hours of testing the integration of all the digital connections that are required at every Games. On the other hand, for the France-based Atos, Europe's largest IT company, it's an opportunity for Atos Origin to use the Olympic branding in its marketing and to significantly develop its business in China. K.C. Neoh, Atos Origin's Asia-Pacific chief executive officer, says, "The Chinese business for us is about 10% of Asia Pacific at the moment. We aim to make it grow five times by 2008. For the whole Asia-Pacific region, the business will approximately double." Its Chinese clients include Bank of China and China Construction Bank; and global clients, Shell, Philips, ING Group, Vodaphone and ABN-AMRO Bank. Atos will be opening its office in Vancouver to start planning 2010 early next year. Part of its five-step process involves scouring local universities and colleges for top IT talent.
THESE BOOTS ARE MADE FOR TALKIN'
From the Say What? Department at Morgan:News:2010 -- Squamish aboriginal band chief Gibby Jacob, who is also one of the 20 people on the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) Board of Directors, was taking part in an organized tour of the Whistler-area VANOC construction sites Friday. He, like the rest of the group, which included several female representatives of the host aboriginal groups, had donned a hard-hat, safety vest and steel-toed rubber boots as part of the safety protocol. He was one of the last to get off the small tour bus. As he worked his way along the aisle to the door, he quipped, "I love women in gum-boots. Reminds me of the cannery."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 25, 2005

Friday, July 22, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1126
HEALTH AND SAFETY ACCORD WITH BC WORKERS COMPENSATION BOARD SOUGHT

The senior vice-president of Venues for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), Steve Matheson, says the organization is in the process of creating a formal partnership with BC's Workers Compensation Board through its WorkSafeBC program.

Says Matheson, "We've got a lot more going on here than just the Games themselves. We are trying to raise the bar on a number of fronts -- across the country and in B.C. -- in terms of how we can perform as a province, and as a country." Safety, he says, is one area where VANOC has decided to focus. "We think there's an opportunity for VANOC. Although our venue program isn't large in relation to the overall construction in the province, we think we have the opportunity to raise the bar for safety. In all the work that we do for VANOC, and not just the venues, but also in operations. We are really committed to having safe venues and creating a culture of safety in the province."

The agreement, however, is largely symbolic in the aspects dealing with "raising the bar," since it's the publicly stated goal of every large project that it intends to built its project with, in VANOC's case, a Zero Incidence Policy, or ZIP, for short.

For the WCB, VANOC's high visibility is an opportunity. Diana Miles, the vice-president of the Worker and Employer Services division of the WCB, says that, She says that just because an organization has a goal of safe practice, "It's a goal and it's not reality. One of our corporate initiatives is to impact cultural change around health and safety, and having those owned by the public, not just employers, or WCB or just individuals. We think there's an opportunity here. When we first met with VANOC, we were surprised. We felt like they had read our strategic initiatives, because their focus is similar. They came to us, saying they wanted to take health and safety to another level on the Olympic venues, and it's what we had been talking about, and not just on Olympic venues, throughout the province."

Miles says she is still in the process of "negotiating language around how we can be in a partnership, because, when push comes to shove, we have regulatory responsibility. We are not shying away from that responsibility, but we see that with VANOC and other significant initiatives going on within the province, there's an opportunity to reach more people. We do not think it's acceptable for people to go to work in the morning and not come home at night. Many businesses are dangerous, but that doesn't mean their employees won't be coming home."

Miles says there are no significant issues that are holding up finalizing the deal, just a matter of the people being available both at the WCB and VANOC having the time to complete the work, which she expects will be finished in "two or three months." Miles says there are workplaces that exceed WCB regulatory health and safety minimums, and both she and VANOC are agreed that VANOC wants to be one. The concept she and VANOC are trying to negotiate is that VANOC will go well beyond the regulatory language. "And they came to us saying that was a place they wanted to go."

John Furlong says VANOC has on over-riding philosophy about the safety program. "We're working with the agencies and the contractors to make sure that every single thing on a site that it is important to us that there not be a single [time-loss] incident, that everybody's protected, that nobody who comes on the sites is in violation of the safety culture. We're driving the awareness to a different level, and that everybody is kept on their toes and looking for ways to improve safety. We don't want to have an incident that we ever regret, and we want other projects to look at ours and say, "We should do ours the way VANOC is doing it.'"

Doug White, VANOC's manager of Construction, however, says that every visitor and every employee to any of the VANOC construction sites will get a safety protocol lesson, and in the case of employees, the protocol review has been, and will be, extensive. In addition, all visitors to the site have to be accompanied by a guide, who carries a two-way radio, trained in the safety, first-aid and emergency-handling measures -- and even bear-avoidance manoeuvres.

That part, at least, is not public-relations exercise. "We do a visitors' orientation every time anybody comes up to the sites," says White. "It is a proven method of safety promotion, and it does work." And so areas with various dangers are marked off with yellow tape -- for caution -- or red tape -- for a prohibited area, and air horn signals are used to warn of evacuation, fire or first-aid. The sites each have a four-wheel drive ambulance -- VANOC calls them Emergency Transport Vehicles -- to allow them to move over rough construction ground.

Visitors -- including VIPs, media and Olympic representatives -- who go through the construction sites of the Whistler Nordic Centre and Whistler Sliding Centre had to wear hard hats, safety vests, safety glasses and steel-toed gum-boots, and depending on what's going on at the site, it will also provide hearing-protectors and other safety equipment. "Even with the best safety practices," White notes, "construction sites still contain dangers."

RESOURCES

Diana Miles
Vice-President
Worker and Employer Services Division
Workers Compensation Board of BC
6951 Westminster Highway
Richmond, BC
Phone: 604.233.5355
Toll-Free: 1.888.967.5377, ext 5355
E-mail: Diana.Miles@WorkSafeBC.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 22, 2005

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1125
PRIESTNER SAYS CANADIAN INSPECTION WAS AN EVALUATION FROM "ONE OF THE TOUGHER NATIONS"

The senior vice-president of Sport for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC), Cathy Priestner, says it was good to have the Canadian Olympic Committee's formal evaluation team go through first, because "Canada is one of the tougher nations... They were a very good test."

The COC's evaluation team wrapped up its three-day "first look" tour of Whistler and Vancouver's venues, and spent its last day in briefings on various aspects of VANOC's current planning on transportation and accommodation, and other issues affecting the country's Olympic team when it arrives here in force.

As Priestner puts it, following the wrap-up of the visit, Canada's evaluation committee, "is considered one of the best-organized and experienced" team support organizations among the 70 to 90 national Olympic committees that will be coming to Vancouver -- most of them next year -- to have their own look at what they need to do, and what VANOC will do, for them.

VANOC, and the staff of the Bid corporation before it, worked closely on a lot of levels with the COC over the past few years to ensure the Games go well, but Priestner says the joined-at-the-hip concept doesn't prevent the COC from doing its job. "They come in here as professionals. They go to every Olympic Games to do this, and they were here, quite frankly, expecting more from us than they would from other organizing committees." The COC, she says, "know what they want, and know what they're looking for, and they ask the questions that need to be asked" of an organizing committee. "There are two or three tough ones, but if there is one country you want to come in and test us, it would be Canada."

Priestner says the COC will deliver a report to her later this year on their visit. "They won't be easy on us," she says, "It's not in their nature." She says the report will tell VANOC where it is strong and where it needs to do more planning or work to support at least Canadian athletes and, probably, athletes in general.

Priestner also says the value of the visit is that it's good for VANOC, because, "the national Olympic committees know more than any of us what conditions are good for their people." For instance, she says, one athlete was concerned about shading, another about cross-winds. "Winds are absolutely critical to the skiing events," she notes, but not a factor in the enclosed environment of speed-skating, where ice conditions are the major factor. "Every venue is looked at for the micro-climate in that venue, and how the different aspects of that micro-climate impact on the different aspects of each sport. Snow conditions and altitude are issues for other sports, the effect on the drop in bob[sled] and luge is critical."

Athletes that have checked the Whistler Sliding Centre track plans say they expect it will be a fast, technically challenging track. "Athletes need to know what the venues are going to be like, and they need to know it now so they can plan their training."

Priestner says the COC will have to find and establish several types of support facilities in Vancouver and Whistler as the venues are readied by the fall of 2007. "What they're trying to do is find locations that are relative to the venues and the [athlete] villages. But we don't find it for them; they find it. Every nation does that, depending on what makes sense for them. Some nations are more focused on ice sports or snow sports, so they will have larger or smaller set ups here in Vancouver or in Whistler. Austria, for instance, is going to have something in Whistler because of how strong they are in the Alpine sports."

VANOC, she says, will, however, try to point the various national Olympic committees in the "right direction, or open some doors for them with planners or management companies, or tourism operations; that sort of thing. Wherever we can help, we'll try."

She says they'll be looking for areas they can use for training, or accommodation outside of the athlete villages for support crews or families, or for locations that are for the exclusive use of their athletes. "They'll also be looking for people of their own nation; their own people, so they try to source from people of their own nationality, such as Austrians, Germans, French or Italians. It makes it easier for them to set up house and home."

By the same token, though, Priestner says national Olympic committees are also constrained in their search for such facilities by the distance from the venues or training areas. "They look for places that make sense for their athletes, for their sponsors, for their support teams, so it's a challenge for each of them."

VANOC will also work closely with each national Olympic committee to ensure athletes are qualified to take part, because that's VANOC's responsibility as host organizing committee. "The national Olympic committee representatives get to know our people quite well as they go through the submissions. Not much of that is being done now, but as you get to be about a year or two out, we start working with the NOCs about what their athlete list is starting to look like, and we work with them on [athlete] village allocations, transportation services, accreditation."

Priestner expects the COC to visit at least once a year, and probably more often as the Games near.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 21, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1124

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

WHISTLER NORDIC CENTRE HIGHWAY BIDS TOP C$11.2 MILLION
The bids to do the 9.7-kilometre, two-lane, paved highway from Highway 99 to the site of the Whistler Nordic Centre are in, and are now being analyzed by the Burnaby office of the BC government's Ministry of Transportation. The project includes grading, paving and bridge construction. They range from C$11.9 million to more than C$20 million. Here's how the tenders looked when they were opened; the project, however, has not yet been awarded. All figures are in Canadian dollars, and all the communities except for Hope are suburbs of Vancouver:
- Murrin Construction of West Vancouver: $11,916,017
- BelPacific Excavating & Shoring, a limited partnership in Burnaby: $16,074,346
- B Cusano Contracting Inc of Surrey: $19,993,000
- JJM Construction Ltd of Delta: $15,922,727
- Emil Anderson Construction (EAC) Inc of Hope, BC: $20,259,130
WHISTLER LOOKS TO STATES FOR THREE-YEAR GARBAGE-HAULING DEAL
When Whistler decided where to build its 2010 Athletes Village, it meant closing its only nearly-full landfill nearby. Since geography prevents new landfills in the area, Whistler planned to ship its garbage to the same Cache Creek landfill in BC's central interior used by the Greater Vancouver Regional District, but the BC government has put a hold on the Cache Creek site's development while it+ examines environmental and social concerns. Whistler next considered shipping its garbage about an hour's drive away to the Squamish landfill, but had environmental concerns about doing that. Now, it's decided to ship its waste for the next three years to a state-of-the-art, cleaner, greener landfill in Washington State, called Rabanco. The garbage trucks would drive to a train depot where they'd unload the waste into hopper cars, which would then transport the garbage to the site. About 780 km of the 940-km journey is by train.
NHL PLAYERS EXPECTED AT 2006, 2010 WINTER OLYMPICS
The new National Hockey League contract, ratified by 90% of those from the Player's Association who voted, allows them to take part in the hockey games played at the 2006 Torino Winter Olympics in Italy next February. The deal doesn't officially extend that far it time, but essentially allows them to play at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics as well.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 21, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1123

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

BUILDINGS? WHAT BUILDINGS? WHERE?
We've been trying to learn the addresses of the two buildings where the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) is to move by the end of the year. Since we know the buildings are adjacent and one is seven stories and the other is two stories, and that they total 230,000 square feet of space, and that somebody ought to be ordering new letterhead one of these days, you would think this would be a trivial question. The official line: it's a secret. The unofficial line (so far): no, really, it's secret.
COC COMPLEMENTS VANOC ABOUT SMALL TOUCH
When the Canadian Olympic Committee was doing its official evaluation tour of the construction sites for the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Whistler Sliding Centre on Monday, the veteran team was impressed by a number of things VANOC has done. One of them was the way their visit was supported. The usual fare by an organizing committee is to assign the team or two escorts who have a general idea of what the team wants to know and, if the question can't be answered, the escort will try to find the answer. VANOC, however, assigned a co-ordinator to the team to organize logistics, and had experts at each site that met with the group; something that other organizing committees, say the COC people, can't manage to do until several years into the process.
COC ATHLETE TESTS WIND AT CYPRESS SITE
Canadian Olympian freestyle skier Deidra Dionne of Red Deer, Alberta, was part of the COC's evaluation team, and joined the group last Tuesday so she could assess VANOC's Cypress Mountain venue, which she describes currently as "a parking lot and a cliff." But here's the reason she was there. As soon as she got off the bus, she instinctively noted the wind and its direction, and made some inquiries about what it is like in February. She now knows, and so will her team-mates, that, for 2010, they will have to train for expected cross-wind conditions on the course, and that, at certain times of the day, the landing area may be shaded. Note, however, that TV broadcasting requirements will ensure that a shaded landing area won't be in the cards for competition events.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 21, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1122
KOOTENAY'S KIMBERLEY LAUNCHES PROJECT TO BUILD C$6.5 MILLION PARALYMPIC SUPPORT AND TRAINING COMPLEX

The second significant capital project to support 2010 Winter Games training that's both outside of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) and outside of the main Olympics area has begun.

The City of Kimberley -- formally working with the Kimberley Spirit of BC Community Committee, the Resorts of the Canadian Rockies company and the BC provincial government -- intend to build a Paralympic sport project so that the east Kootenay community can provide dedicated training and competition facilities for all four Paralympic winter disciplines: alpine skiing, cross country skiing, sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.

This isn't a stretch for Kimberley, a city in the midst of the Rocky and Purcell mountain ranges in southeastern BC. The city has hosted training and competitive Alpine events for athletes with a disability for more than 20 years. The events included the Disabled Canadian National Championships, the World Cup Festival for the Disabled, the Alpine World Cup for the Disabled and the Alpine Finals for the Disabled.

The City was awarded C$3.9 million funding from the provincial government's Major Regional Sports Facilities Initiative earlier this year during the provincial election campaign to help with project, and the City and Resorts of the Canadian Rockies have each committed C$300,000 in capital and C$1 million in land to the project for a total of $6.5 million so far.

Prince George is the only other BC city to take on a project to provide training and support facilities for teams from around the world who intend to take part in the 2010 Winter Games, but it is focusing on Olympics athletes.

Kimberley has now begun the hunt for a firm to develop a conceptual plan for project and construction management and a conceptual floor plan of the complex, along with a budget for the plans. These plans, in turn, will be used to look for and instruct an architect. Kimberley planners say, "We are very interested in having local trades and workers be a part of this project". Once the architect is hired, the planning firm is to work with the City as its supervising agent while the complex moves through the phases involving design, tendering, construction and commissioning, as well as supervise any modifications to the plans by the City, the Spirit Committee or Resorts of the Canadian Rockies throughout the construction program.

The planners hope to hire the consulting firm in August, providing they get their proposals in by August 8.

It's an ambitious project. City planners say it will include:

A 20,000 square-foot Paralympic training centre and Paralympic speed-training area is to be be the main part of the project. It will be a new building, located on municipal land in the Kimberley Alpine Village. It's also to include a conference facility, cafeteria, meeting room, therapeutic centre and equipment, office space, wax room, storage facilities and lockers, washrooms and showers. It will incorporate upgrades to Kimberley's 50-year old Paralympic speed-training area so it will meet today's international standards. The upgrades are expected to include contouring the speed-training run, installing an ice-injection system and purchasing removable safety netting, which has to meet sports-federation standards, to be used for training and competitive events.
A 3,200 square-foot Nordic Centre, a new building, will also be located on municipal land at the head of the existing Kimberley Nordic trail system. It will have team meeting rooms, a lobby, a wax room, change rooms, a club administrative office, warm-up areas and some retail space. The Kimberley Nordic trail system itself will be upgraded to provide a year-round Nordic competition and training area. Upgrades to the trail system will include a stadium area so that spectator views are improved, and new wiring and timing equipment is to be installed at the centre, and there is to be some paving and lighting of the Nordic trails.
The 35,000 square-foot Kimberley Civic Arena is to be both modified and upgraded to provide access to people with disabilities, and to support sledge-hockey training and competition. The upgrades will include, as a minimum, more ramps and modifications to the dressing rooms and the viewing area for better access by people in wheelchairs, as well as purchase and installation of lowered transparent boards according to the requirements of the International Paralympic Committee.
The 17,000 square-foot Kimberley curling rink is also to be modified and upgraded to support wheelchair-curling training and competition, as well as better access by people in wheelchairs. Upgrades involve more ramps, additional curling stones that meet IPC criteria, ice-sheet changes that meet IPC sizes and other criteria as well as changes to the dressing-room and viewing areas to improve wheelchair access.

RESOURCES

Larry Haber,
Director of Economic Development
Chair of the Kimberley Spirit of BC Community Committee
340 Spokane St.
Kimberley, V1A 1E6

E-mail: lhaber@city.kimberley.bc.ca
Phone: (250) 427-5311, extension 220

Map and satellite view of Kimberley:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=kimberley,+bc,+canada&spn=0.057733,0.091813&hl=en

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 21, 2005

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1121

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

MORE COUNTRIES TO BID FOR 2014 WINTER GAMES
As this month's July 28 deadline for submitting names for the International Olympic Committee to consider for hosting the 2014 Winter Olympic Games nears, two more countries have offered to go after the Games. Turkey will bid its northeastern Anatolia region as host and the Spanish Olympic Committee picked Jaca again; Jaca so far has lost six attempts to host winter Olympics, stretching back to 1992 and including going against Canada for the 2010 Games, so far. They join Sochi, a Russian resort city on the Black Sea, Annecy, in the French Alps, Sofia in Bulgaria, Pyeongchang in South Korea, Salzburg in Austria, Oestersund, Sweden, Harbin, China and Tbilissi in the country of Georgia in filing bids. The IOC meets in Guatemala in July 2007 to choose the host of the 2014 Winter Games, but the bid cities must all be evaluated by an IOC technical committee first.
VANOC'S GOOD NEWS SPREADS THIS WEEK AROUND WORLD
The good news of how pleased the Canadian Olympic Committee's official evaluation team is with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) is echoing around the world in a plethora of media coverage. Stories based on COC news releases have appeared in Australia, where the Aussies are currently debating which companies will bid for 2010 TV broadcasting rights in that country, to Singapore, which just hosted a full International Olympic Committee meeting that included VANOC CEO John Furlong. Stories have also appeared in the US as well as in many newspapers across Canada. On the other hand, the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper is grumpy about VANOC starting to spend money on one of its renovation sites, the Vancouver Coliseum. We quote in full from a squib in its July 17th edition: "Thumbs down: To the Vancouver Olympics people for spending C$3 million just to replace seats in the Pacific Coliseum with more comfortable ones in different shades of the same colour. With talk of the 2010 Games going over-budget, they should spend their money better."
PORT MOODY TOLD TO ADD 15% TO 20% TO CAPITAL COST BUDGETS DUE TO 2010 EFFECT
The city of Port Moody, to the east of Vancouver, was considering a recreation centre project its been planning for some time, and was told this week that the Greater Vancouver non-residential construction boom continues to affect prices. It hired a consultant, SmytheRatcliffe Chartered Accountants, to independently review cost estimates for the project. The firm told Port Moody council that capital projects for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games would exert pressure on construction costs through 2009, and recommended the city increase its capital cost estimate by 15% to 20%. Economists in BC have noted that actual VANOC capital expenditures account for about 10% to 12% of projected capital spending in the area between now and 2010.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 20, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1120
CANADIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE SAYS IMPLEMENTATION OF Own the Podium PROGRAM NOW UNDERWAY

The executive director of Sport for the Canadian Olympic Committee says implementation of the Own the Podium program, designed to put Canadian athletes on 2010 Winter Games podiums to receive medals, has begun.

The program is designed to make Canada the top medal winner of the 2010 Winter Games, a program that will reportedly cost C$110 million in spending over five years. In order to accomplish that goal, Canada would need to win a total of 35 medals, compared to the 17 it won during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) says it has raised much of the C$55 million it has agreed to cover of the total C$110-million project, through sponsorship agreements with its major corporate contributors, although it still had more to go. The Canadian government has committed through budgeting to provide the other C$55 million over five years. That means about C$22 million per year will be funneled into the program.

The COC's Mark Lowry says the OTP implementation team, which began operations earlier this year, is focusing on several areas simultaneously: recruitment, the so-called Top Secret program, Olympic preparations and performance-enhancement.

The Top Secret program is designed to identify in areas ranging from technology to psychology, what each sport needs to boost their chances of winning a medal in 2010.

"For recruitment, they've started to look at the process of developing medal winners. Where's the sports, where's the programs, where is the talent. That's just starting to go. The Top Secret program right now is looking at every sport, and getting from them, in their opinions, the best advantage with technological and equipment innovations. The sports are feeding back into that now, so the committee is doing the research on that now. The Olympic preparations involves what the COC has been doing here in Vancouver and Whistler the past few days, which getting to the venues and facilities to make sure that every operating unit that we need outside the athletes villages is put in place, way ahead of everybody else who will be here and before other national Olympic committees can do the same. On the performance-enhancement side, we learned in 2004 and 2005 there are still athletes who are going overseas to events without proper medical support, such as massage, physio, doctors, etc. Up to now we just haven't had the money. Now we have the resources to help them, and as we finish up '05 and go into '06, we've already identified every team and told them the support team they'll have. So, as they go into the World Cup events leading into the Olympics, they're ready."

Lowry says that under the Top Secret section of the program, there will also be a component of research that doesn't deal with technology; but about mental stamina through athlete psychology. "More in the performance-enhancement team area," he says. "I'm talking about physiologists, sports psychologists... Every team has been asked 'What have you used so far? What has worked?' We're doing some assessments on why those things have worked. But, absolutely, part of it is sports psychology, leading up to the mental component of winning. It's hard to build that into somebody who doesn't believe they can win."

Lowry has supplied the COC with a draft competition schedule for the 2010 Games, but he declines to be specific about which international sports federations are so far signed up to hold sanctioned events at 2010 venues, even though the federations usually set up such arrangements two or three years in advance, and sometimes longer. "Each federation is looking at, coming out of the 2006 Torino Games, what kinds of training their athletes need. Some need a lot of training, some don't need as much. But every federation involved in winter Games, by virtue of the commitment to have an Olympics in 2010, must commit to having a test event where the world comes and takes part in the event, so that will happen in Vancouver and Whistler. It may not be the world championships, but it will be an event that everybody comes to because, for all the countries in the world involved, that will be the best opportunity they have to find out what they'll be dealing with, and it will probably be around each February [between 2007 and 2010], because they like to do them in the same time period as the Olympics. But they have the obligation to have an event here."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 20, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1119
CANADIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE BEGINS SEARCH FOR BUILDINGS IN VANCOUVER, WHISTLER FOR SUPPORT OPERATIONS

The Canadian Olympic Committee's executive director of Sport says his organization has begun the process of looking for buildings in Vancouver and Whistler to lease for its operations during the run-up to the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Mark Lowry says in Vancouver, following the end of his first evaluation of the 2010 Games, that while the COC and the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) have some common goals, there is a point were VANOC's support stops, and where the COC takes on its regular role of handling the logistics of the several hundred people that will be involved in supporting the Canadian Olympic team, including coaching and medical-support and training staff.

VANOC's basic job, he says, is to host the 2010 Olympic events and to lean towards supporting the Canadian Olympic team and the COC as much as it can, but it's the job of each national Olympic committees -- and the Canadian Olympic Committee in particular -- to do the necessary evaluation work of the 2010 Games structure for the team members and the national sports federations it represents.

"It's not VANOC's job to worry about all of our needs," says Lowry. "We typically have to work around organizing committees, and we have to find things like [a location for] our Canada Olympic House ourselves. We have to find all sorts of outside accommodation. Sometimes it's in competition with them, and in competition with other national Olympic committees. But with VANOC, it's a totally different experience. We're not competing here with VANOC."

Lowry says the COC evaluation team has some specific requirements for the 2010 Canada Olympic House, and, for the first time, that there will be two of them, one in Vancouver and one in Whistler, and in each case, not too far from the venues. "We'll be setting up, in effect, dual operations. We know we're going to have the same level of activity in both centres."

But the evaluation team hasn't yet made up its mind where they will be located. "We think for 2010 that this is going to be a pretty special place; it's going to have to fit with the fact that we're the host of the country. We had quite a diversity [of buildings]. In Athens, we used an old museum building, in Torino, it's an art gallery. We've just started that run-up, talking to people in Vancouver and Whistler about what we're looking for, and it's going to be something that people are going to say, 'Wow!'"

Lowry says the space will have to hold about 200 people, primarily families of athletes and support teams; it's not going to be a giant drop-in centre. It also ends up as our local offices, and we need to set up our [support] team outside the athletes villages so we can operate on a daily basis. It'll be a four-week office away from home. VANOC has told us that we'll have to find places to accommodate all of our staff, where they'll live, outside of the villages. Finding the space for offices and events will be difficult in Vancouver, and we may have to separate the two.

Lowry, who evaluated the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games, says the COC learned a lesson from how the American Olympic team set itself up for those Games. "Nearly three-quarters of the U.S. team, in effect, ended up living in Salt Lake City and the valley leading to the Games for a two-year to year-and-a-half period. Two things happened there: they started feeling like they were part of the community, and the community therefore rallied behind them, and supported them in any way they could. The second thing: they had an enormous feeling of competing at home, in an environment that they could understand, and they trained on all of the facilities that they were going to be competing on. That was a huge advantage. If you're in another country, like we typically are, you're in for a week or so of training, and you might not come back for another year. The familiarity factor is huge."

Lowry says that while it may seem likely that the host Olympic committee and its organizing committee would be closer than most, it's not always the case, but it is certainly the case between the COC and VANOC. "It depends on who runs the organizing the committee, and the focus on what they want. If they focus on putting on a wonderful Games as an extraordinary event, but not that concerned about the performance of Canadian, or Australian, or Italian athletes, you have tremendous event but not a lot of help or support from the organizers. Here we have a person like [VANOC CEO] John Furlong, you just couldn't ask for anybody more supportive. They're committed to both the event and the support, big time."

Lowry says VANOC's whole-hearted support of the Own The Podium program is also unique in any Olympic Games. "No organizing committee in history, that I'm aware of, has actually gone to a corporate sponsor and said, 'Look, we want money for the support of the event but, by the way, but you also help support the Canadian team as part of the deal.' It's unprecedented. And every sponsor had said, 'What can we do to help support the Canadian team; we want to be seen as more than just an event sponsor.'"

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 20, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1118
CANADIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE COMPLETES FIRST MAJOR SITE EVALUATION OF 2010 GAMES VENUES

The Canadian Olympic Committee, which is today finishing its first formal inspection of the facilities and venues planned for the 2010 Winter Olympics said both publicly and privately that its experts are pleased with the preparations so far by the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC).

"These three days have provided the Canadian Olympic Committee with invaluable information to develop a performance plan that will ensure we achieve our Own the Podium goal of being the top medal winner in Vancouver," said COC Chief Executive Officer Chris Rudge. "We are extremely pleased with the progress being made on the venues in Vancouver and Whistler, and congratulate VANOC for co-ordinating a professional and productive site visit."

Starting last Monday, the COC, which has its major offices in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa, became the first of between 70 and 90 national Olympic committees to officially tour the sites, which included Whistler's on Monday and those in Vancouver, Richmond and West Vancouver's Cypress Bowl on Tuesday. The COC is expected to return a couple of more times before 2010 to do further evaluations, as well as have COC representatives meet with their VANOC counterparts at regular points along the way.

Today, the officials and athlete representatives held specific meetings with VANOC officials on aspects of transportation planning, sport services, ceremonies, villages and national Olympic committee relations. The VANOC executive in charge of the briefings, and who will supervise all the visits of the national Olympic committees, is senior vice-president of Sport, Cathy Priestner, who expects more visits from other countries starting this fall, and more so next year after the 2006 Winter Olympics. The COC's first visit, which normally doesn't take place until three years before a Games is scheduled, needed to be moved up in part because of the fact the 2010 Organizing Committee will have the faculties completed by the fall and winter of 2007.

The overriding purpose of the COC's visit was for its evaluation experts to see the locations and structural plans for the sport venues, as well as the locations and surrounding areas of the non-competition venues such as the Vancouver and Whistler athletes' Villages. The underlying goal is to gather information that will allow the COC to do planning that best supports and prepares Canadian athletes, teams and coaches for achieving podium success in 2010. COC officials also wanted to get to know key members of VANOC staff and talk in technical detail about the facilities.

They also began the process of identifying advance-training locations and preparation sites, along with Games-time facilities the COC's support teams will need, such as the location of a performance centre, accommodations outside of the two athletes' villages should weather or transportation problems prevent normal movement in and around the venues. The COC was also looking for possible venues for Canada Olympic House, the COC's hosting and hospitality venue, and which also serves as office space for four months leading up to, during and post-Games.

The COC's director of Sports, Mark Lowry, who has been doing similar site evaluations since the mid-90s, says, for instance, that looking for such facilities in the neighbourhood of the venues is the responsibility of each national Olympic committee. In the case of the COC, the space needs to be large enough to hold events of up to 200 people, but also provide the necessary working office space for supporting the Canadian Olympic team while it is here.

Lindsay Alcock, a Calgary-based Olympian in skeleton in 2002 and hopeful for the 2006 Olympic team. "It was particularly great to be one of only a handful of athletes to see the site and design for the sliding centre in Whistler. It gives me an opportunity to visualize the course, which will be a strong technical course, and start developing a long-term training plan."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 20, 2005

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Sports| #1117
MANAGER OF 2007 CANADA WINTER GAMES IN MARKETING TALKS WITH VANOC

The manager of the 2007 Canada Winter Games, scheduled to be held in Whitehorse, in the Yukon, says exploratory talks are underway with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) about cross-promotion of the two sets of games.

The Whitehorse games are quite different in scope and size from the Olympics, but Piers McDonald says he feels there could still be ways of working together.

As McDonald puts it, "We have had a number of good discussions [with VANOC CEO John Furlong], particularly in the areas of sponsorship and marketing, to determine what opportunities we can undertake together. The 2010 Olympics have already exceeded their targets for [Tier 1] sponsorship, but are still taking in sponsors. We have started to explore ways where we can share at least some of the momentum that their carrying, and hopefully getting some good support from their senior staff... to assist us. [Furlong] has indicated that they view our games as being pretty important to theirs in the sense that our winter games will be the last [national] winter games in the country prior to them hosting theirs. There are some synergies between the two events than can build momentum for theirs. So, they've indicated support and, where they can provide assistance [to us], they will."

There are BC provincial winter games that will also take place between 2007 and 2010, including a set of games set to occur between the end of the 2010 Olympics and the start of the 2010 Paralympics.

McDonald also says he has met with the federal government's 2010 Secretariat, which is the office in Ottawa's Sport Canada ministry that supervises the federal government's interests in hosting the 2010 Games.

"They've indicated," he says, "that in various key areas, in broadcasting and the Torch Relay, particularly, they will be positioned to provide at least some good advice [to us.]"

RESOURCES

Background to the 2007 Whitehorse Canada Winter Games:
http://www.canadagames.ca/Content/Games/2007%20Yukon.asp?langid=1

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 19, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1116

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

COMOX PROCUREMENT MEET SET FOR 9/22
The Comox Valley, about halfway up Vancouver Island, has been one of the most organized areas in British Columbia for nearly two years when it comes to readiness and support for the 2010 Games. On September 22, its businesses will finally get details from the BC government's 2010 Commerce Centre on 2010 procurement policies. That's when a procurement workshop sponsored by the Centre is scheduled in Courtenay for businesses in the area.
2010'S COMPETITIVE ASTHMATICS TO BREATH EASIER
By the 2010 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee is expected to have full and routine procedures in place to ensure that athletes claiming to be asthmatics -- and thus be allowed to take lung-clearing asthmatic medication -- actually have the condition. Arne Ljungqvist, the International Olympic Committee's medical commission chairman, says that preliminary tests at the 2004 Athens Olympics flagged 45 athletes who described themselves as asthmatic were not, although only four or five of them requested medication clearance. There will be further testing at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino and at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games to determine what documentation is needed by asthmatic athletes.
VANOC NOT SUCH A BIG DEAL COMPARED TO OTHER OLYMPICS
From our Let's Keep Things in Perspective Department: The most recent official estimate of the overall cost for Games-related sites and urban infrastructure projects in the Beijing 2002 Summer Olympics is US$38 billion. The bulk of the money is going toward roads, railways and environmental enhancements, all aimed at giving Beijing a new look. The Greek government spent about US$14 billion getting ready for the 2004 Games. London's 2012 plan calls for US$16 billion in infrastructure investments. The official capital cost to the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee for staging the 2010 Winter Games was budgeted a couple of years ago at C$620 million. The BC provincial government also had a few projects it wanted to get done to help support the 2010 Games, even though they aren't specifically part of the concept: the Richmond-Airport-Vancouver rapid transit line and the renovation of the Sea-to-Sky portion of Highway 99 between Vancouver and Whistler. So, if you add them all up, depending on what you decide to count, when, and why, it comes somewhere around C$3 billion. It's an even smaller number if it's in US dollars.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on July 19, 2005

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1115
TWO SIDE-BY-SIDE BUILDINGS TO BE NEW HOME OF 2010 ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

The entire Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Organizing Committee (VANOC) will be moving into two side-by-side buildings in downtown Vancouver by January, and this is expected to be its home while finishes organizing and running the Games, until it disbands in 2011.

In late June, it said that in August it would likely be moving three of VANOC's senior vice-presidents and four vice-presidents to a 12,000 sq.ft. portion of the new building, which is to be outfitted to ho