Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition: June 2006

Friday, June 30, 2006

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Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1766
WHISTLER EXPECTED TO FORMALLY APPROVE OLYMPIC VILLAGE -- AND REDUCE WSC RED TAPE -- TUESDAY

The council of the Resort Municipality of Whistler will make its final decision on whether to authorize construction of the Whistler Olympic Village during its regularly scheduled meeting July 4.

The decision on whether to proceed with the Olympic Village is expected to be approved as a matter of course. Work has already started on the lands in order to keep to the timetable of having it completed by the middle of 2009, and several arrangements with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) and the BC government have been authorized, particularly in the last few weeks, that make it economically feasible for Whistler to proceed. The municipality has already held the necessary public hearings.

At the July 4 meeting, councillors will also decide whether to quickly exempt the Whistler Sliding Centre from its bylaws requiring a building permit. In order to do so, it must amend its Building and Plumbing Regulation bylaw. Normally it would do so over two council meetings, to allow time for public comment, but it intends to push this through all three readings during the July 4 meeting.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Sports| #1765
2010-BOUND OLYMPIC NATIONAL TEAMS TRAIN UNDER VARIETY OF SUMMER CONDITIONS

A number of communities in British Columbia, Oregon and Washington State are in various stages of aggression in trying to convince national winter Olympic teams around the world to consider using their community for training in advance of the 2010 Winter Games. The advantages to the community are the economic flows from such teams spending weeks in their town as the training is underway.

Not all the training occurs during the winter. Here's a look at the kind of training that occurs among the teams for one major Olympic sport -- freestyle skiing -- during the summer. And, while the ultimate focus is the 2010 Olympics, that's still too far away; the athletes have much nearer hurdles to make.

This year's goal for freestyle skiing athletes in their new training season is the Freestyle World Ski Championships hosted by the International Ski Federation (FIS) in Madonna di Campiglio, to be held from January 22 to 28.

While some teams are now training on glacier snow, such as the Canadian moguls team that is working to refine techniques with the newly hired mogul aerials coach Darcy Downs on Blackcomb Mountain in Whistler, many others are training on water jumps, such as the Czech and Austrian teams currently in Stity, in the Czech Republic. Others, such as the US Freestyle Team, are coaching youngsters abouit moguls and aerials at summer camps. These camps, which range from on-snow glacier training to climbing walls, using trampolines and skate parks or bowls, allow World Cup athletes to train in excellent conditions while helping the younger generation develop their skills base during the off-competition season.

The Austrian and Czech national ladies' moguls teams recently held a joint dry-land training camp in Austria. As part of the schedule, the teams visited the Faaker See Training Center in Karnten, Austria. A highlight of the visit was a session with Joe 'Tiger' Pachler, a former European Champion in boxing, who staged a demanding introduction to his sport. Why? Because, like moguls skiing, boxing requires excellent coordination skills. The camp also included a number of mountain bike rides as well as an introduction to kayaking presented by the trainer of the Austrian biathlon team.

In Finland, the men's mogul team launched its dry-land training at the newly renovated water jump facility in Nurmes, in the north-east of the country. The revamped jump is the home base for the team's summer training. "For us, this updated facility will enable more jumps and more efficient training while saving money and time before we return to on-snow training on the glaciers in Zermatt [Switzerland] or France in August," says Pekka Lehtikallio, the moguls team's coach. He added: "Since this jump is the only fresh-water jump of this calibre in the Nordic countries, there is a lot of interest in it from teams both East and West of Finland, too."

With the overall improvements in water jumps' profiles and materials, the importance of water jumping in freestyle skiers' dry-land training has grown in recent years even though variety also remains important.

The Finnish team, for example, plans to hold about five or six camps at the Nurmes facility. "Water jumps, even with the differences in landing, represent the best off-season training method for us. We can really train all the elements of the jump, including the take-off, air flight and position in air. Once we get back on snow, we can focus on the skiing part and combining that with the jumps," Lehtikallio noted.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1764
WASHINGTON STATE COLUMNIST HIGHLIGHTS SEVERAL 2010-RELATED DEVELOPMENTS, CONTACTS

Lance Dickie, a columnist for the Seattle Times newspaper, has published a round-up of various things and contacts 2010 that are going on in Washington State.

From his column, here are some helpful things we've gleaned:

The lead person for Washington State governor Christine Gregoire's task-force activities on the Winter Games is Mary Rose. She's 2010 program manager, working in the state's Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. She is presenting regional seminars on the cross-border possibilities.

Counties are putting together local consortiums. Snohomish County organized SnoGold 2010 through the office of County Executive Aaron Reardone. John Cooper is president and CEO of Bellingham Whatcom County Tourism, which is working with the Whatcom Council of Governments on 2010 projects. Adds Dickie, "Cooper said Whatcom County wants to draw international attention to Mount Baker and other natural amenities to raise the area's profile long after the Games. The mountain claims a piece of snowboarding history, an attraction for visiting media not focused on daily results from 90 events."

Work on US Federal government permitting and environmental reveiws have been completed for rebuilding the main border crossing connection between Seattle and Vancouver at the Peace Arch at Blaine. "Whatcom County has five border crossings to spruce up and the state Department of Transportation is working on several state highway expansions," says Dickie. The work would have been done eventually, but the advent of 2010 traffic flows sped them up.

Dickie notes: "The Tulalip Tribes, northwest of Marysville, plan a 12-story, 365-room hotel, scheduled for completion by 2008. John McCoy, legislator and tribal business manager, said the decision to build was driven by the Olympics. Consultants had advised the tribes to be strategic in their thinking, and the Winter Games offered a green light... For 2010, McCoy said one idea is to host athletes training nearby, such as hockey teams using the ice rink at the Everett Events Center."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1763
2010 COMMITTEE AND COC CO-HOST THREE FUND-RAISING GOLF TOURNAMENTS

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) and the Canadian Olympic Committee will co-host fund-raising golf tournaments at three cities across Canada, starting with a Toronto tournament on August 16 at The Club at Bondhead.

Following Toronto, the COC will host a two-day event in Whistler at both the Whistler Golf Club and the Nicklaus North Golf Course from September 8 to 9.

The annual fundraiser is to end on October 2 with a tournament at the Club de Gold Le Mirage in Montreal.

Participants in these golf tournaments will play alongside some of Canada's major Olympians. The courses will also feature sport demonstrations by several Olympic athletes, as well as a gala dinner and team prizes.

Proceeds raised from the tournaments go to The Canadian Olympic Foundation, which provides support to athletes, coaches, national sport federations and the Own the Podium 2010 program, for which VANOC is raising funds. In addition, 25% of the proceeds will be re-invested directly into sport within local communities.

RESOURCES
For more information or to register: Rebecca Cox, Canadian Olympic Committee <RCox@Olympic.ca>

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1762
VANOC INVITED TO HELP MARK 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF MONTREAL SUMMER OLYMPICS

The City of Montreal and the Canadian Olympic Committee will mark the 30th anniversary of the Opening Ceremony of the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal on On July 17, and officials of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) have been invited to attend.

To help commemorate the event, the City of Montreal is planning several activities including a cocktail reception and the launch of an exhibit on the Games at Montreal City Hall. The exhibit will be open for visitors and members of the public throughout the summer.

Among the dignitaries expected to be in attendance at the July 17 reception, as well as a COC-hosted luncheon the same day, include International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge, Canadian IOC Member and VANOC director Richard Pound, Sport Minister for Quebec Jean-Marc Fournier, Canadian athletes from the 1976 Olympic Games, Quebec medallists from 1976 and since, as well as guests from the City of Montreal, the Canadian Olympic Committee, the Montreal Games Organizing Committee and those connected with the Quebec sport community.

Two days later, on July 19, the Quebec chapter of Olympians Canada will bring together past and present members of various Quebec sport federations and Olympic athletes for an evening of Olympic movies at Montreal's Olympic Stadium.

Throughout the summer, representatives from the 1976 Olympic Games are to recognized by being asked to participate in national and international sporting events being held throughout Canada. They will be asked to do such things as present medals at events or speak at variouis ceremonies.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1761
CANADIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE RESTRUCTURES WITH EYE TO 2008 AND 2010

The Canadian Olympic Committee is restructuring itself "to better focus" itself on the 2008 Summer and 2010 Winter Olympics, as well as on its core areas of business: Olympic Preparation & Games, Marketing & Communications, and Operations, according to Olympic officials.

Each of these three areas will be led by an Executive Director reporting to chief operating officer Lou Ragagnin. He, in turn will continue to report to CEO Chris Rudge.

The three Executive Directors are:

Caroline Assalian, Olympic Preparation and Games

David Bedford, Marketing and Communications and,

Judy Crute, Operations.

A new Senior Director position and two new Director positions are being created under Assalian, with existing staff being moved into the positions. Alex Gardiner's new title is Director, Olympic Programming - Technical; Betty Dermer-Norris will be the new Director of Team Operations, and Derek Covington is now Director of Olympic Preparation.

The COC's Athlete & Community Relations department, which previously reported to Ragagnin, has been moved to Bedford's responsibility, with Marc Gelinas, based in the COC's Montreal office, taking over national responsibility for the Athlete & Community Relations Business Plan.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 30, 2006

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1760

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

TWO 2010 MARKETING EXECS IN BEIJING FOR SPONSOR CONFERENCE

VANOC representatives are take part in the second annual Sponsor Workshop of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Organizing Committee is underway in Beijing, China, to brief the sponsors on the latest development of Games preparations and network. The VANOC reps include Andrea Shaw, VANOC's Sponsorship Department vice-president, and Neeta Soni, VANOC's Director of Marketing and Client Services. Apparently there no Canadian-only sponsors of VANOC in attendance, but representatives of the international sponsors of the 2010 Games, which have agreements with the International Olympic Committee directly, are there. The IOC, the International Paralympic Committee and all of the sponsors for the Chinese Games are there, along with reps from all the upcoming Games. Besides those from 2010, are people from the 2012 London Summer Games and the candidate cities for the 2014 Winter Games. BOCOG President Liu Qi, in an opening statement to the group, said the Beijing municipal government will intensify its efforts to protect the rights and interests of the sponsors, and improve the city's look-and-feel. It will also organize cultural events of various kinds to provide more opportunities for the sponsors to participate and market themselves. Other areas covered at the workshop include other types of sponsor marketing, as well as the state of venue construction, sport competition, venue operations, city operations, culture, look & image of the Games, the planning for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and for the Torch Relay, aspects of BOCOG's media and communications department, as well as its media operations, rate cards, logistics, protection of Olympic and Paralympic marks, volunteers, the accompanying Paralympic Games, and topics closely related to the sponsor operations during Games time such as accommodation, transport, accreditation and security. Beijing expects to hold two more of these conferences, one in 2007 and the last one in the early summer of 2008.

BAINS REMAINS NDP OLYMPIC CRITIC

The opposition party to the BC Government today rearranged its group of critics who monitor the activities of various government cabinet ministers, but it has not affected the New Democratic Party's critic for the Olympics. Harry Bains, the NDP member of the Legislature for the riding of Surrey-Newton, remains the critic following the shuffle.

Water company considers making a 2010 splash

Clearly Canadian Beverage Corporation (OTCBB: CCBEF), which is an office-water supplier based in Vancouver, was chattering on about reaching various agreements with Global Water, a U.S. based, non-profit organization whose goal is to set up safe water supplies in developing nations, when a spokesman made an odd comment. Clearly Canadian president Brent Lokash said, almost in passing at one point, "Clearly Canadian looks forward to... using that success to help bring awareness of the need for safe water supplies to the world's attention at the 2010 Winter Olympic Games." We've put in a call to ask him or his marketing director about how the firm intends to do this, since it's not a VANOC sponsor, but have not yet received a response.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 29, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1759

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

BLACKCOMB TO BE OPEN FOR NORMAL BUSINESS DURING 2010 GAMES

Dave Brownlie, Whistler Blackcomb's chief operating officer, says that no only will all of Blackcomb Mountain and most of Whistler be open for normal skiing while the 2010 Winter Olympics are underway, there will likely be less crowded. Brownlie was reported by the Whistler Question newspaper about the lessons he learned from spending five days in Torino during the 2006 Games last February and March. He said the reduction in skier volume will due to the fact that most of Whistler’s accommodation will be used by Olympic and Paralympic sponsors, athlete’s families, and others producing the Games, and because there was an incorrect assumption, despited advertising to offset it, that the rest of the mountains will be closed to skiing because of the perception that the Olympics is on all of them. All alpine events will be located on Whistler Mountain at Creekside. Other lessons learned by others from Whistler who were at the Torino Games: family and friends of athletes should be treated in special ways because they help motivate athletes and bring spirit to the Games. Another was to give volunteers to the Games, who are highly motivated, meaningful jobs.

HANSEN CONFIRMS BC TO HAVE A "SIMILAR PRESENCE" IN BEIJING AS IT DID IN TORINO

The BC government minister in charge of its Olympic file, Colin Hansen confirms the government will have a "similar presence" in Beijing during the 2008 Summer Olympics as it had in downtown Torino with BC/Canada House during this year's Winter Olympics. "Through the business relationships that were built and continue to grow from Torino, to the estimated C$30 million in ad value BC received from international media coverage, we know our investment in Beijing will be a huge success," he says. The BC government spent about C$11 million on its log-house style complex for Torino. He adds, "Our intention in Beijing is to expose the rich potential of our province to the vast Asian market as a tourist destination, an investment centre and as North America’s gateway to doing business with Asia. Beijing will present fantastic opportunities for BC’s wood, green energy and environmental sectors to show why their products are world leaders. Our First Nation partners will also be able to showcase their history, art and culture to the world market. And based on the success of BC/Canada Place, we know the opportunities that BC businesses have at the site of the Olympic Games."

HALF OF WHISTLER FILM FESTIVAL SHORTS WINNERS FOCUSED ON OLYMPICS, PARALYMPICS

Two of four winners of a Whistler Film Festival competition for five-minute movies about the area have films with Olympic or Paralympic themes. Whistler Stories is a legacy program for the area in advance of the 2010 Whistler Olympic and Paralympic Games. It is expected to run annually until 2010. It is sponsored by 2010 Legacies Now and the Resort Municipality of Whistler. "Whistler: An Olympic Story" by Brian Hockenstein uses computer animation and live interviews with Whistler founders, to look at the history of Whistler with the idea of showing how the area was created to host the Winter Olympics in 1968, which ultimately wasn't successful. Meanwhile, "Can You Hear Me?", by Beau Blanch looks at the history of the Paralympic movement, with comments from a few Whistler Paralympic athletes. Each producer -- they both live in Whistler -- receives C$5,000 and an opportunity for their film to be premiered at the Whistler Film Festival, which is to be held from November 30 to December 3.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 29, 2006

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1758
CANADA TO INVEST C$12.5 MILLION ANNUALLY IN SPORT SYSTEM FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

Michael Chong, the Canadian Minister for Sport, has released a Policy on Sport for Persons with a Disability that will provide C$12.5 million in funding to increase the number of people with disabilities who can participate in sport, and the Canadian Paralympic Committee was involved in the program's creation.

C$11 million of it will be provided each year for federal programs to improve access to sport and C$1.5 million annually fund growth in participation in sport for persons with disabilities.

Chong said the policy was developed in consultation with representatives from Special Olympics Canada, which deals with people with mental disabilities, the Canadian Paralympic Committee, which currently deals with people who have physical disabilities, the Canadian Deaf Sports Association, Canada's provincial and territorial governments, as well as several national sport and multisport service organizations.

"This policy will provide a firmer foundation for the development of sport opportunities for Canadians with disabilities, which holds enormous benefit in terms of their health and social integration," said Henry Wohler, President of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

Luc Michaud, President of the Canadian Deaf Sports Association says that, "With this policy, deaf athletes across Canada will have the opportunity to compete and excel on the international playing field; Canada will be showcasing our best athletes in all capacities. We are pleased the federal government recognizes the need to foster the participation of sport in under-represented groups."

The policy's goal is to increase the number of persons with disabilities involved in sport activities at all levels and in all forms. It provides a framework for partners and stakeholders to initiate changes that lead to reducing and eventually eliminating sport-specific barriers that prevent persons with disabilities from participating. The Government of Canada will continue to work with its partners to effectively implement the Policy.

The Government of Canada is the single largest investor in Canada's sport system. A total of $140 million is provided annually for initiatives to support our high-performance athletes and to increase Canadians' participation in sport.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 28, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Business, Labour| #1757
BC UNIONIZED CONSTRUCTION WORKERS REACH TENTATIVE DEALS TO APRIL 30, 2010

Canadian Press today is reporting that tentative agreements have been reached between the BC Construction Labour Relations Association and 14 provincial construction unions have been reached that, if approved, will stabilize unionized wage rates in until just after the 2010 Olympics.

No details have been released, but the unions, which represent 35,000 workers, will hold ratification votes by mid-August. The deal expires April 30, 2010 and includes about 300 companies.

CP says wages, benefits, holidays, hours of work, pensions, safety provisions and travel provisions are included in the prospective deals.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 28, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1756
HOW MUCH FOR A TENT? HOW MUCH FOR A TRAILER? FENCING? VANCOUVER 2010 WANTS TO KNOW

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is looking for pricing information on an initial six classes of products that will be used temporarily just before and during the 2010 Winter Games.

The categories include fencing, tents, trailers, storage containers, washcars (a type of portable washroom) and flag poles. VANOC's also looking, within each commodity category, supplier suggestions of products that might be substitutions, or have options that VANOC might find useful when it mounts the Games.

For instance, it says, portable toilet units and hand-sanitizing stations might be considered a substitution for washcars, or Quonset huts may be considered a substitution for tents. It expects to begin installing the Olympic Overlay on its venues in November, 2009.

Companies have until July 11 to fill out the forms VANOC is offering for the categories. A spreadsheet with the details and other informaiton about the request is being posted on BC Bid for companies to download.

VANOC wants the pricing in current Canadian dollars, without adding any taxes, with prices that reflect delivery in Vancouver and Whistler. The storage containers, which can be up to five years old, are relatively large ones; VANOC's looking for sizes of about 10' x 24' and about 10' x 40'. The trailers range from 10' x 24' to 10' x 60', and one type of about 20' x 52', in standard office configuration.

The enclosure items, such as tens, trailers and washcars, need to be sufficiently strong to deal with a Whistler snowfall and to be wheelchair accessible. The fencing for which VANOC is looking is the freestanding kind that can withstand being blown over in gusty winds. The flag poles sought are in 20-, 30- and 40-foot lengths. The pricing should be based, VANOC says, on products or commodities than are no more than three years old; rental costs in one-month and three-month increments. For the most part, VANOC's also looking for pricing information on delivery, installation and removal.

VANOC is careful to say that it isn't at the point yet where it intends to rent or lease any of these items; it just needs the information at the moment to develop two things: a list of possible interested suppliers of such products, and, primarily to plug the pricing numbers into their planning spreadsheets. Among other things, all sixty functions of VANOC are in the process of contributing to the development of VANOC's first public business plan, expected late this year, probably in November.

At some point later, VANOC says, it'll be asking about other categories of temporary-use items, such as event specific temporary products -- seating, tents, platforms, ramps, signage, Look-of-the-Games treatment, for example -- and services, such as electrical, mechanical, waste water, ventilation and air-conditioning. But it stresses, it's not ready to take that information yet.

RESOURCES

From our Live & Learn Department: What the heck is a Quonset hut (it's pronounced "KWAN-seht")? According to Wikipedia, the Internet self-serve enclycopedia, "A Quonset hut is a lightweight, prefabricated structure [usually] of corrugated iron, having a semicircular cross section. The design was based on the Nissen hut developed by the British during World War I. The name comes from their site of first manufacture, Quonset Point, at the Davisville Naval Construction Battalion Center in Davisville (a village located within the town of North Kingstown), Rhode Island. " And here we thought they were built by bands of roving Quonsets...

A picture of some Quonet huts:
www.uh.edu/engines/quonset.jpg

RESOURCES

BC Bid's website portal. Browse for bid opportunities by organization name. VANOC's name will be at the top; follow the links.

www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 28, 2006

Monday, June 26, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1755

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

GREAT BRITAIN EYES AERIAL SKIING MEDAL AT 2010 GAMES

The manager of Britain's aerial skiing, Simon Ashton, says his organization has begun to resurrect the sport with a push strong enough to win a medal in the sport for the country at the 2010 Winter Games. "It is a bold statement but it is definitely what we are aiming for," he told a BBC reporter today. Snowsports Great Britain has decided to support the comeback of the sport, which hasn't existed in Great Britain since the mid-90s. Aerials involves an athlete on skis performing a series of somersaults and spins as they are catapulted up to 15 metres into the air from a jump. They are judged on how high they jump, how graceful the jump is and on the style of their landing. You don't need to be a skier to compete in aerials. We are more interested in those with a background in gymnastics, tumbling, trampolining or diving," Ashton told a BBC reporter. "They have the natural ability and we can coach them to make the transition to snow." As a result, his group is recruiting and coaching athletes with expertise in trampolining and gymnastics. Ashton also hopes his country will compete in a new ski-cross event if its approved for the 2010 Games. The International Olympic Committee will decide in November whether ski-cross will be included. "We're really excited about the possibility of ski-cross in the [2010] Olympics although it was a shame they did not think to consider half-pipe too," said Ashton.

"WE'RE NEXT" IS NEXT IN VANOC SLOGAN PIPELINE

VANOC is in the process of creating another official trademark. The slogan "We're Next" is currently wending its way through the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for registration, after the 2010 Committee's trademark law firm, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP of Vancouver, began the process April 20, but it wasn't made public until June 21. That brings to 116 the number of marks VANOC has protected. Number made public by VANOC as of April 3, 2006, when it last published a list (which is quite difficult to find): 104.

HBC PUMPS OLYMPIC BRANDS FOR CANADA DAY

HBC, VANOC's retail sponsor has, true to its word, begun marketing Olympic materials connected with Canada's national day, July 1, which is also connected with an annual public run which it sponsors. HBC is the holding company for several large Canadian retailers, including Hudson's Bay Company and Zellers. The top three items they're pushing this week are these: "1. Cool capris and shorts in many styles and colours, Official Canadian Olympic Apparel, the Bay and Zellers; 2. Hats and visors, Official Canadian Olympic Apparel, the Bay and Zellers; and 3. Men's and Women's bathing suits, Official Canadian Olympic Apparel, the Bay and Zellers.

RESOURCES
A PDF file dated April 3, 2006 that lists most of the brands and trademarks of VANOC, its former Bid committe, the IOC and the Canadian Olympic Committeem, among others:
www.vancouver2010.com/resources/PDFs/Official%20Marks.pdf

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 26, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Paralympic| #1754
GOVERNING BOARD CONFIRMS 2010 PARALYMPIC GAMES LINE-UP

The Paralympic program for the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Winter Games was approved by the International Paralympic Committee's Governing Board in Lausanne, Switzerland.

The IPC's Board confirmed that paralympic athletes will compete in five sports: alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country, ice sledge hockey and wheelchair curling, all in Whistler.

For alpine skiing, the Board accepted the possible addition of medal events in super combined. It's a two-part event that includes a super-G race and slalom on one day. The times of each race are compiled to determine a ranking. This, however depends on what IPC spokesman Miriam Wilkens calls "a comprehensive feasibility analysis", that is, competition schedule, compiled by the IPC in and the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, that can work. Wheelchair curling in 2010 be a 10-team tournament. That's two more teams than the Torino 2006 Winter Paralympics.

IPC President Sir Philip Craven, says, “There is potential for more sports, disciplines and events as well as athletes to compete at a Winter Paralympics and we are confident that, for the Games in Vancouver, we will be able to augment the number of athletes taking part. We hope that the national Paralympic committees [in various countries] and sports will work together with us to make sure that viable new sports, disciplines and events can be added to future Paralympic Games programs.”

The Board also approved the final Paralympic Brand Report, were briefed on the status of the Paralympic Games, received a debrief of the Torino 2006 Winter Paralympics and an update on the organization's current budget, as well as updates on the work of various IPC standing committees and councils.

The IPC has decided it won't be possible to begin integrating sports for people with mental disabilities in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics, but it wasn't immediately clear whether that meant it might focus some efforts on the 2010 Games.

The Board recieved a report on the progress made about developing a what Wilkens, the IPC's Media and Communication Director, calls a "mutually acceptable eligibility and verification systems for athletes with an intellectual disability." At this point, the IPC only holds Games for athletes with a physical disability. The report outlined research conducted on the impact of intellectual disability on sport performance, initiatives to develop sport-specific criteria and details on a general eligibility system as well as corresponding appeal procedures.

At the 2004 IPC Extraordinary General Assembly in Cairo, Egypt, a motion was approved agreeing that the IPC would actively direct the process by which mutually acceptable eligibility and verification systems are developed. In November 2005, a report was provided to the IPC General Assembly on the status, including provisional findings, of the research. Based on this status report, the General Assembly requested that the GB make a decision on the inclusion of athletes with an intellectual disability at future IPC sanctioned competitions, including the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, no later than June 2006 on presentation of the additional research findings and the advice of the involved sports.

The Board accepted the report detailing the research findings and the conclusion that no sports-specific eligibility system has been developed for athletes with an intellectual disability to date. The Board also decided that the general eligibility system, as developed by the International Sports Federation for Persons with an Intellectual Disability (INAS-FID) and referred to in the report, doesn't achieve the standard expected for IPC competitions and is not sufficiently robust to ensure fair competition for athletes with an intellectual disability. This opinion, based on the subjectivity of the Sport Information and Consequences Questionnaire and the absence of real on-site and tested protest procedures, was supported by the feedback from sports specialists of Athletics, Swimming and Table Tennis. Consequently, the GB decided that athletes with an intellectual disability cannot take part in IPC sanctioned events, including the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

There is, however, evidence to suggest that sport specific eligibility systems may be developed in the future and, as a result, the status of the participation of athletes with an intellectual disability at future IPC competitions will be re-evaluated following the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, allowing for more time for further work to be carried out in this area.

Sir Philip noted that: “This is the first time that such scientific research has been undertaken and I congratulate the group responsible for its initial work, which could form the base of a sport-specific eligibility system for athletes with an intellectual disability after the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.”

The Olympics executive Board is expected to make a decision this fall on the 2010 Games line-up.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 26, 2006

Friday, June 23, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1753
VANOC'S LOTTERY SPONSOR ADDS GRETZKY GAME TO ROYALTY GENERATORS

The BC Lottery Corporation (BCLC) today added a game with a high-profile name attached to it, in part to help boost royalties to the 2010 Olympics.

BCLC's SportsFunder suite of lottery products, which provides royalties to the 2010 Games as part of the organization's sponsorship, now has a C$5 SportsFunder instant-win ticket featuring North American ice hockey personality Wayne Gretzky. The SportsFunder Lottery games also benefit amateur sports in B.C.

BCLC says the Gretzky game has about C$2.1 million in cash and prizes, with top cash prizes of C$99,000 -- Gretzky's jersey number, when he played, was 99. Coupled with those prizes, and for the first time offered on a BCLC instant-win ticket, players can win the opportunity for themselves and a friend to spend a day with Gretzky, and receive signed Gretzky souvenirs.

Proceeds from SportsFunder Lottery games are also distributed by the BC government to directly pay for a program called Game Plan/Team BC, which provides support for high-performance B.C. athletes, financial assistance for coaching development and travel assistance for BC athletes so they can used training facilities and take part in competitions.

BCLC's partnership with tthe Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) provides BCLC with sponsorship rights for the Vancouver 2010 Games, as well as marketing rights to the Canadian Olympic Team for the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Games.

SportsFunder Lottery games also include a province-wide 50/50 game with draws every 30 minutes, pull tab tickets and SportsFunder interactive games available the Lottery Corporation's website.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 23, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government, VANOC| #1752
OTTAWA CONTEMPLATES "OPPORTUNITIES TO ENSURE WE CAN CONTAIN COSTS" FOR VANOC CONSTRUCTION

It appears the federal government is considering some construction-control suggestions for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC).

The possibility Ottawa may also have some strings attached to its reponse to a request VANOC made last November for C$55 million from each of the BC and the federal governments came in an oblique comment by the federal politican overseeing VANOC. VANOC in May replaced its construction vice-president, Steve Matheson, with Dan Doyle, a long-time BC government construction deputy minister who had retired last year, but has not given a reason for the move.

A reporter from the Ottawa news bureau of CanWest MediaWorks, which owns The Vancouver Sun newspaper, and Jeff Lee, the veteran reporter assigned to cover the Olympics by the Sun, report in a jointly written story today on a brief interview with the minister responsible for the Canadian government's Olympics file, David Emerson.

Ottawa reporter Peter O'Neil asked Emerson "if the results of the recent audit launched by the federal government have satisfied him that VANOC won't be appearing with more requests if the $55 million is covered?"

Earlier this year the federal government hired Burnaby-based Pacific Liaicon and Associates, a subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Inc., to review VANOC's venue-construction program. The results were sent to Ottawa in May. The chairman of the firm, Henry H. Wakabayashi, said that calling the review an audit would be too strong a word, but would not discuss his company's recommendations.

Emerson, O'Neil reports, replied to the question this way, "I look at our audit as part of, if you like, a mid-term course-correction... And what the audit did was uncover for us some opportunities to ensure that we can contain costs, and that [VANOC CEO] John Furlong can move ahead with confidence that we've got the resources behind him and the systems behind [him] that he needs to make sure this is an exciting sporting event for Canada, not a debate over construction costs."

Furlong, who was in Ottawa to announce the sponsorship of the Games by the Royal Canadian Mint, in turn, told CanWest that he remains "hopeful" the government will approve the request "within a month", but he said that it won't affect this year's construction program if it doesn't. VANOC has split the main part of its venue-construction program over 2006 and 2007.

"I had a discussion with minister Emerson," Furlong reportedly told O'Neil. "My sense is the minister is working hard to get this through and I am hoping, hoping, that we'll have some positive news within 30 days... I am not even going to think of what we might or might not do if the news comes later."

At the time of applying for the additional capital funding last November, VANOC said it needed a decision "within two months" or it would not be able to complete the full Olympics construction program.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 23, 2006

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1751
BELL CANADA EXTENDS CANADIAN PARALYMPIC TEAM SPONSORSHIP DEAL THROUGH TO 2012

Bell Canada has reached a deal to extend its support of Canadian Paralympic teams through to 2012.
Linda Low, the Associate Director of Corporate Communications says the arrangement "is part of Bell's overall commitment to Canadian sport, high performance, and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The amount of the deal was not released.

Under the deal and for the first time as a Team Sponsor, Bell Canada will provide the Canadian Paralympic Committee with a mix of financial and in-kind services. Bell's previous involvement has included supporting team development and communications programs, such as the Athens 2004 Paralympic Spokespersons Team.

Last year, Bell activated a part of its C$200 million sponsorship deal with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) by confirming its participation as founding sponsor of the Own The Podium 2010 program. One of the program's goals is to put Canada among the top three nations at the 2010 Paralympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 22, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1750
WHISTLER THE FOCUS OF ATHLETES CENTRE DESIGN PROCESS, WSC CONSTRUCTION OFFCE AND VILLAGE HEARINGS

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is asking architectural firms interested in bidding on the design of the Whistler Athlete Centre to contact it by July 5. It will develop a short list of three interested firms, and offer them a formal request for Proposals.

The Athletes Centre, which will be adjacent to the Whistler Olympic Village and will be built of timber, will be used as part of the Village venue during the 2010 Games, and then turned over to the community after March 2010 to be a permanent building that will provide accommodation and training facilities for high-performance athletes.

The Athlete Centre has three major sections. The first section incorporates about 20 town homes of various sizes with between two and four bedrooms each, with garages and storage space to allow for long-term housing for an athlete and their family. The second section is about 90 small hostel-style units for athletes staying only a few days. These two areas will be served by a central kitchen and recreation room at ground level and associated parking as required by the Resort Municipality of Whisstler, with the possibility of underground parking as an option.

The third section of the Centre incorporates a free-weight training gymnasium for community people
and high-performance athletes, multi-purposes rooms that could be set up for classrooms or studios, a reception area, change rooms for men and women with an optional sauna or spa, various sports and fitness-testing rooms, some office and some laboratory-style spaces for fitness testing and recovery equipment.

VANOC is also asking for companies interested in bidding on a relatively small contract for supplying a portable, 195 square metre (2,100 square foot) construction office at the Whistler Sliding Centre north of Whistler. VANOC prefers a single 11 metre by 18 metre (36’ x 60’) trailer, but is willing to look at other suggestions. The offer closes June 28. Heating will be by propane or electric power. Other firms will add stairs and decks. The office building will be needed for 20 months, from no later than the end of next month to March, 2008. The agreement will also require the contractor to fully remove the building and its accouterments at the end of the project. The opportunity closes on June 28.

Meanwhile, Whistler, which is nearly finished going through its own standard regulatory process for allowing development of the 2010 Whistler Olympics Village, which will surround the Athlete Centre, now has all the remaining components in place to complete the Village project, with an C$11 million contingency and the ability to see up to 15% of the legacy housing at market rates should the project go over budget.

The project is currently budgeting to sell only 10% of the 300 housing units at market rates; the balance will go to help house the municipality's business employees. The Resort Municipality is holding an official public hearing today and will present the third and final reading of the development bylaw to the next Council meeting. The BC government last month agreed to set up a process that would allow Whistler, and other resorts like it, to apply for more funds from the government's hotel tax, and that will be used by Whistler to help pay for the overall cost of the Olympic Village, which will be more than the contribution given it by VANOC. There will also be an increase in the contribution coming from VANOC. Permanent housing units will be built to accommodate the 5,200 Olympians and Paralymians expected to take part in the Games in 2010.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 22, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC, IOC| #1749
FURLONG GIVES STATUS REPORT TO IOC EXECUTIVE BOARD BY VIDEO CONFERENCE

The IOC executive committee heard in a closed-door session from the 2010 Winter Olympics executive and other Games organizing committees from across the globe today. VANOC CEO John Furlong and the others made their presentations on the current state of their games by video conference to the 15-member Executive Board who were meeting in IOC's headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

They were were able to speak directly to Furlong and the other OCOG leaders in Beijing, Vancouver and London.

The Board also heard staff reports from different IOC departments, including as Marketing, Technology, Legal Affairs, International Cooperation and Development, the Olympic Museum, Finance & Administration, Communications, as well as the TV Rights and New Media Commission.

Furlong, an IOC spokesman said later, discussed the current progress of venue construction, the results that VANOC is having in sponsorship, the status of Canada's “Own The Podium” project that is now helping Canadian athletes ahead of 2010, and of VANOC’s desire to "create a memorable spectator experience."

Furlong, the spokesman said, also commented on the "positive experience" that VANOC staff had when they participated in the IOC’s Observer Program during the Torino Games last February and March, and how it would "undoubtedly stand them in good stead as they organized the Games for 2010." He also spoke, said the IOC representative "about VANOC’s delight in hosting the official Torino 2006 debrief this July, where the Turin Games will be analysed and the lessons passed on to VANOC, BOCOG, LOCOG and the three cities in the running for 2014."

IOC Coordination Commission Chairman Rene Fasel reportedly told the Executive Board how impressed the 2010 Commission, which Fasel chairs, had been during its visit to Vancouver this month, but he reminded the executive that "there was still a long way to go."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 22, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1748

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

IOC PICKS THREE OF SIX CITIES AS FINALISTS FOR 2014 WINTER GAMES

The 15-member International Olympic Committee executive have approved Salzburg, Austria -- a postcard Alpine city; Pyeongchang, South Korea -- an east-Asian sports centre -- and Sochi, Russia, a mountain resort on the Black Sea, for the final competition to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Eliminated from the race were Almaty, Kazakhstan; Borjomi, Georgia; Jaca, Spain and Sofia, Bulgaria. The cities have now paid a US$500,000 fee to cover the costs to the IOC of the bidding process, and will be required to submit their formal bid books by January 2007. Salzburg finished first in the IOC's preliminary technical ratings. The full IOC assembly, which has more than 100 members, are to select the host city finalist in Guatemala City on July 4, 2007. Pyeongchang was narrowly beaten by a come--from-behind Vancouver for the 2010 Games when it was finally chosen in 2003 by the full IOC; Salzburg was third in that election. The winning city will be incorporated into VANOC's planning, particularly for part of its closing ceremony, but all three cities will have representatives in Vancouver when VANOC hosts the Torino debriefing at its headquarters from July 10 to 15. VANOC CEO John Furlong, who has been through the bidding process, says, "Winning the right to host the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games is one of the most challenging journeys any team could face and we have great respect for the 2014 Candidate Cities who have worked tirelessly to achieve this milestone," Furlong said in a statement.

LEADERS OF WASHINGTON STATE AND BC URGE DELAY OF BORDER CHANGES TO AFTER 2010

Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire and B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell have urged their national governments in a joint letter to delay a requirement for passports at border crossings until after the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler. The first phase of a two-phase program authored by the United States that requires passports at the Canadian border is due to come into effect on January 1 for ferries and aircraft, and one year later for people travelling in cars. The joint letter said the state and province are volunteering to come up with a better identification system, such as an encrypted driver's license or personal ID card that would be cheaper and provide greater security screening. The letter is part of an intense lobbying effort by provinces and northern border states over the issue for several years, but it has so far failed to garner sufficient American support for further delay.

SUMMER OLYMPICS COVERAGE TO SWELL IN SEPTEMBER

Expect a lot of Summer Olympics news stories in late September. The Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, which is constructing the 2008 Summer Games, will hold its first world press briefing from September 25 to the 29 in the Chinese capital city. This is the first time an open invitation has been extended to the world's press to visit Beijing in order to review the preparations China is making to host the 21,600 accredited media who will cover those Games. Although the briefing is primarily for news management, there will be reporters involved. VANOC expects to host something similar a year or two out, but no dates or planning has yet been done.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 22, 2006

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1747
VANCOUVER CHOSES AMERICAN FIRM TO DEVELOP PUBLIC ART PLAN FOR OLYMPIC VILLAGE AREA

The City of Vancouver has chosen the Seattle-based company, 4Culture, to develop the public art plan for the Southeast False Creek area, which includes the new 2010 Winter Olympic Village section. The budget for the project is C$28,000.

Two executives of 4Culture is the same company -- Cath Brunner and Barbara Luecke -- just recently finished producing a similar plan for the City of Richmond's Olympic speedskating oval sports complex. A third member of the firm has worked in Vancouver before. Buster Simpson, an artist, produced "Brush with Illumination", a public art piece commissioned by Concord Pacific, a company developing the land along the north side of False Creek, northwest of the Olymic Village. His art is located in the waters on the north side of False Creek.

4Culture, a cultural-services agency that was part of King County government in Washington State until 2003, when it became an independent public corporation, was awarded a C$79,400 contract by Richmond.

Bryan Newson, the City's Public Art Program Manager, says the plan "is intended to empower the SEFC neighbourhood to shape its physical environment into a place that reflects common values and unique insights. Working with architects, planners, and the SEFC Public Realm design team, 4Culture will identify opportunities for public art throughout the area."

And, he says, the whole public art program tries "to incorporate contemporary art practices into city planning and development. The program funds art-making of many kinds, from single-artist commissions to artist collaborations with engineers, designers and communities. The intent is to provide for the creation of art that expresses the spirit, values, visions, and 'poetry of place' that collectively define Vancouver."

The City wants 4Culture to complete the plan by the end of the year. Once completed, it's expected that components of the plan, once approved, would be offered as competitions to artists.

RESOURCES

Southeast False Creek is a 32-hectare site of City-owned and privately-owned land between Main Street and Cambie, and bounded by False Creek on the north and 2nd Avenue on the south. The area is being redeveloped as a mixed-use "sustainable" community. The City-owned land will be home to the Vancouver Olympic Village for athletes and officials during the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. Starting in April, 2010, the area will be changed into what the City hopes will be "a model sustainable development based on environmental, social and economic principles where people will live, work, play, and learn." By 2018, it's expected the area will house between 12,000 and 16,000 people.

RESOURCES

The City of Vancouver's web page dealiing with public art:
www.city.vancouver.bc.ca/commsvcs/oca/publicart/

4Culture's staff page:
www.4culture.org/staff.htm

Our earlier report on Richmond's public art plan:
'Richmond to spend more than C$5 million on Olympic speedskating oval public art' [Morgan:News:2010:Number:1685; Published on Wednesday, May 24, 2006]

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 21, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1746

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

PRINCE GEORGE SWITCHES ICE FOCUS TO SPEEDSKATING SUPPORT

Prince George, one of the British Columbian cities which is actively marketing itself as a place for national Olympic teams to train for the 2010 Winter Games, says the decision that 2010 hockey tournaments will be played on North American-sized ice sheets only changes the "validity" of just one of its marketing points. Initiatives Prince George's president, Gerry Offet, says that the international size of the city's Canadian National Centre's ice sheet "is still an excellent training facility for short track speekskaters, who will be competing on the larger dimension ice at the Pacific Coliseum because it's too dangerout to race on anything smaller." As for hockey, Offet says the city may have lost a competitive advantage, but that doesn't necessarily rule out attracting some teams to Prince George. "I don't think it means we don't stand a chance, it's just that one of our selling points not longer has the same validity." Initiatives spokesmen says that Prince George will continue "to aggressively market its training capacity in the five winter Olympic sports: cross country skiing, long- and short-track speedskating, biathlon, men's and women's hockey, and curling. As well, Prince George is also able to host Paralympic athletes to train in biathlon, Nordic skiiing, sledge hockey and wheelchair curling.

BC OLYMPIC SECRETARIAT SEEKS BUSINESS-EVENT PLANNERS...

The BC Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Secretariat, which is the bureaucracy that supervises and co-ordinates the BC Government's section of the 2010 Games and operates the 2010 Commerce Centre, is asking firms interested in being shortlisted for various services dealing with business-event planning and management. Those applying will be ranked by the Secretariat staff, and the top 10 will be offered individual-event contracts on an “as, if and when requested basis.” The application window closes July 7.

...AND BUSINESS WRITERS

The Secretariat is also looking for business writers on the same basis. Katherine Caughran, who is supervising the procurement says, "...The content will be all about business. If there are businesses involved in sport, that could be relevant, but sport-related or Olympic-related writing is not." The Secretariat wants people who are able to provide various business-writing services for the Commerce Centre bi-monthly newsletter, as well as for news articles, fact sheets, brochures and the like. The window for that closes on July 6. And, yes, there are application forms to fill out for both offers.

RESOURCES

Prince George's website that outlines the city's marketing for national Olympic teams around the world:

www.TrainInPG.com

--

BC Olympic Secretariat contact info:

Layle Larusson
Procurement Specialist (for the business event & planning offer)

Katherine Caughran
Procurement Specialist (for the business writing offer)

Purchasing Services Branch
c/o 2nd Floor 563 Superior Street
Victoria, B.C. V8V 1T7

Fax: (+1) (250) 387-7309
E-Mail: pcadmin@gov.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 21, 2006

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1745
ROYAL CANADIAN MINT TO SUPPLY ATHLETES MEDALS, COINAGE IN C$15 MILLION "SUPPORTER" DEAL

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has signed a seven-year, C$15 million deal with the Royal Canadian Mint to become its second Official Supporter. The deal allows the Mint to have VANOC marketing rights in exchange for suppling various types of minting to VANOC, and that includes making the athlete medals for the 2010 Games.

The Mint, which has operations in Ottawa and Winnipeg, will be minting various categories of items. Including coins for circulation in the Canadian money supply, with some using precious metals and others using base metals, some will be used for collectors, and there are bullion coin products and services as well.

The agreement, which runs until December 31, 2012, provides the Mint with Official Supporter rights for both the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, as well as rights for the Canadian Olympic Teams that are going to the Beijing 2008, Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Games.

The includes $2 million worth of in-kind goods and services. The Mint will produce the gold, silver and bronze athlete medals for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. In addition, over the next several years, the Mint will offer circulation and numismatic coins and other related products to help promote the spirit of the Olympic and Paralympic Games across Canada.

Ian E. Bennett, president and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint, says his organization has an international reputation "for its excellence, innovation and high quality - all of which are characteristics that will embody the corporation's Olympic program."

John Furlong, VANOC CEO, says that, "Thanks to the Mint's variety of circulation and collector coins, every single Canadian will have the unique opportunity to physically touch and collect a piece of the Game. In 2010, many of the most stirring moments will be when medals produced by the Mint are draped around the necks of many of the world's greatest athletes."

David Emerson, minister responsible for the the federal government's portion of the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics notes that the coinage and other materials produced by the Mint will have national marketing implications for VANOC. "The momentum is building... Soon Canadians will be seeing the Mint's coins in circulation featuring the Games, as well as other commemorative products."

The Mint is the second organization in the Supporter Category, which is the second tier of VANOC's sponsorships. It signed the BC Lottery Corporation to a similar C$15 million deal about six months ago.

RESOURCES

Our story last week about the Mint:
'Canadian Mint to produce unusual $25 Olympic coin for collections'
[Morgan:News:2010:Number:1733; Published on Tuesday, June 13, 2006]

RESOURCES
The website of the Royal Canadian Mint
www.mint.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 20, 2006

Monday, June 19, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1744
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HIRES SENIOR BC CONSULTANT FIRM TO REVIEW VANOC CONSTRUCTION DECISIONS

One of the reasons the federal government has taken so long to decide whether to give the 2010 Games an additional C$55 million is that Ottawa has been conducting an investigation into the organizing committee's construction practices.

Pacific Liaicon & Associates of the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby fielded a team of several senior construction consultants, led by the company's chairman, Henry H. Wakabayashi, which completed a detailed construction-practices investigation of the Committee about a month ago.

The 36-year-old project-management firm, a wholly owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Inc, was hired through the office of federal Olympics minister David Emerson. Wakabayashi confirmed his firm was involved and said the review was part of the federal government's due-diligence look at the Committee's construction file, but said it would be too strong to call it an audit. He declined further comment, however, instead referring additional questions to the federal government.

Wakabayashi, who is a recipient of the Order of British Columbia, has more than 40 years of experience in engineering and project management, and is involved in the Vancouver International Airport Expansion project, among several others. His company, based in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, was also one of the 86 Friends of the 2010 Bid Corporation, a second level of contributors above the Donors level but below the Community Contributor section.

The comptroller for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), John McLaughlin, confirmed the federal investigation took place at VANOC headquarters in April and May, and also said it was part of the federal government's process of due diligence, which VANOC has said publicly several times was underway and would be expected as a result of VANOC's request for more money. McLaughlin said the investigation was also designed to ensure that VANOC would not need to make a request for a second round of additional funding later.

However, such an investigation was clearly not expected when VANOC submitted its request for funding to Ottawa last November. At that time, VANOC forwarded a full binder of material to Ottawa in support of the request, saying that it needed to have a decision within two months because of construction timing issues that threatened to put two of its major projects, the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Whistler Sliding Centre "at risk" of being curtailed.

VANOC -- shouldering a significant, industry-wide issue with construction-cost inflation conservatively estimated at 40% since 2002 -- cut the scope of its projects and found more efficient ways to build them, but still needed to request C$55 million each from the BC and the federal governments to top up the capital budget to C$580 million, including a C$36.1 million contingency. The two governments, through the restricted-use capital budget administered by VANOC, have agreed to equally fund the construction of specific Olympic venues, although the federal government, for various reasons is still behind BC in contributing funds to that account.

VANOC's request for more money to the BC government was made last October, and the request to the federal government was made the following month. BC earlier indicated it will agree to the additional funding, but only to the extent of Ottawa's approval. As a result, VANOC has been forced to proceed with the first year of its three-year major construction effort assuming it will receive the additional funds, but, so far, its senior executives say that they have only committed to projects that account for two-thirds of that budget, about C$386 million.

In part, the delay has been due to the differences in the way the BC government and the federal government accounting systems work. The BC government, in working out its funding for the Games, included a sizable contingency that took its overall envelope for the direct-host costs to a maximum of C$600 million. The federal government, however, did not set up a contingency, and so is partly treating the request as if it was a new project.

Other delays have occurred because the Liberal government was defeated about the time the VANOC request went to Ottawa, and the new Conservative government wasn't able to take power until February, and while Emerson, when he was a Liberal cabinet minister for BC, the main Olympic file was handled by his then-colleague, Stephen owen. Still, the timing means Pacific Liaicon's investigation started about two months after the Conservatives took power.

The Pacific Liaicon & Associates report has been completed, according to a spokesman for Emerson's office, but the report is still being analyzed as part of the information going into the decision as to whether Ottawa will agree with the funding request.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 19, 2006

Friday, June 16, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1743

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

VANOC LINE OF CREDIT MAY NEED TO DOUBLE

VANOC Chief Financial Officer Rex McLennan says the organization may need to double its line of credit. At the moment, C$45 million of the organization's C$50 million line of credit is for working-capital requirements and other operational needs, while C$5 million is for capital construction. But, says, McLennan, "Those facilities may be increased in future, depending on the outcome of our business planning, which is underway. It will identify the extent of our working-capital requirements....as a ballpark figure, I would say that on the order of C$100 million is probably normal for an organizing committee, and I would expect [our credit expansion] would be in that order of magnitude." McLennan says the need for the line of credit comes from the imbalance between the costs that VANOC is incurring and which will grow as the Games progress, and the uneven nature and timing of funds coming in from sponsors. Those, he says, "tend to be lumpy receipts, but we need to have some capacity to manage that.... The [current] lines are floating-rate based on inter-bank or prime rates. Generally speaking, they are prime less 10 basis points." Other major revenue sources outside of sponsorships, which include funds from the sale of national broadcast rights, are ticket sales and the retail sales of branded items. VANOC was into its line of credit by about C$26 million as of the last quarterly report, to the end of April.

VANOC NO LONGER PUTTING UP WITH CANADIAN EXCHANGE RATE HIKE

McLennan also says that the next major business plan for VANOC, expected to be finalized in four to six months, will be based on the then-current US dollar and Euro exchange rates, "with an overlay of hedge positions." The 2002 Bid plan was based on a US dollar at a rate of C$1.55, one of the lowest exchange rates Canada has experienced in many years, but it is now hovering around the C$1.13 mark, and has appreciated quite strongly in the past year (the Euro is currently worth about C$1.42). McLennan says the hedge positions strategy is to guarantee minimum exchange rates. "We're not, as an organizing committee, willing to take much downside risk, from this point onward, on the Canadian dollar. We're going to protect it, so if the Canadian dollar appreciates significantly in the future, we will be protected by our hedge positions." According to VANOC's quarterly report, VANOC’s policy is to "formally designate each derivative financial instrument as a hedge of specific net future cash flows in foreign currencies, and to document, both at inception and over the term of the instrument, the effectiveness of the hedging relationship. Gains and losses on financial instruments designated as cash-flow hedges are recognized on settlement in the same period as the underlying hedged transactions." VANOC says it's not involved in specultative trading; instead, it's following a standard Canadian accounting principle, Accounting Guideline 13, which details how hedging is to be identified, designated and documented, and how its effectiveness is to be tracked.

RISK AND CONTINGENCY TO BE BUILT INTO FALL'S 2010 BUSINESS PLAN

McLennan says that as the business planning continues, VANOC will keep its eye on risk and the amount of contingency it needs to prepare and operate the Games. "We will continue to maintain some degree of contingency over all, and we'll manage within that contingency. That's one of the measures in the planning to manage risk." McLennan says that the contingencies won't be built up on a project-by-project basis, however. The final contingency amount built into this year's business plan will be constructed once all the project amounts and risks are integrated. VANOC has 51 functional areas, and each one contributes to the construction of the final business plan. "As we go through the summer, we will be refining those, and when we get into the fall, we'll be in a position to review them."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 16, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC, Government| #1742
2010 COMMITTEE ASKS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FOR TOUGHER OLYMPIC BRAND-PROTECTION LAWS

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has started negotiations with the federal government to have it approve brand-protection legislation for Olympic emblems and marks in the lead-up, during and after the 2010 Games.

VANOC CEO John Furlong says the legislation "will be unique to Canada; it'll be unique to our situation. Time will tell exactly what it will look like. We'll be asking for legislation that covers our particular circumstances, which will, perhaps, be different from that of other countries, at least a little bit."

The British government has already approved such legislation for the London Olympic Organizing Committee, which is building the 2012 Summer Olympics. VANOC, as has been the case with other Organizing Committees, promised to protect the Olympic brand and VANOC-branded clothing and hardgoods from knock-offs, ambush marketing and other types of commercial piracy, and legislation is just one component of that promise's implementation.

Most industrialized countries, including Canada, already has commercial legislation that deals with brand protection, but the new law would be specific to the Olympic brands, and be much more nimble. "We're looking for an upgrade in the existing legislation that would help us properly manage and protect the Olympic brand to the standard that's expected of us."

The executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications for VANOC, Dave Cobb, "The main intent is to put legislation in place that allows us to immediately stop infringements on our brand. If we're to rely on the system as it is now, if somebody inappropriately uses our mark, it could take a long time to stop it, going through the court system. The legislation that we're looking to put in place, which is the same as was in place during the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976... is to give us an immediate opportunity to stop the infringement. It would just be for Olympic intellectual property."

VANOC also hopes to have the law in place so it could use it to also "prevent or reduce ambush marketing of its sponsors during the period leading up to the Beijing Summer Games."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 16, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC, Government| #1741
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FUNDING DELAY DUE IN PART TO INDEPENDENT REVIEW OF VANOC CONSTRUCTION DECISIONS

One of the reasons the federal government has taken so long to decide whether to give the 2010 Games an additional C$55 million is that Ottawa has been conducting an investigation into the organizing committee's construction practices.

Pacific Liaicon & Associates of the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby fielded a team of several senior construction consultants, led by the company's chairman, Henry H. Wakabayashi, which completed a detailed construction-practices investigation of the Committee about a month ago.

The 36-year-old project-management firm, a wholly owned subsidiary of SNC-Lavalin Inc, was hired through the office of federal Olympics minister David Emerson. Wakabayashi confirmed his firm was involved and said the review was part of the federal government's due-diligence look at the Committee's construction file, but said it would be too strong to call it an audit. He declined further comment, however, instead referring further questions to the federal government.

Wakabayashi, who is a recipient of the Order of British Columbia, has more than 40 years of experience in engineering and project management, and is involved in the Vancouver International Airport Expansion project, among several others. His company, based in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby, was also one of the Friends of the 2010 Bid Corporation, a level of contributors above donors but below the Community Contributor section.

The comptroller for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), John McLaughlin, confirmed the federal investigation took place at VANOC headquarters in April and May, and also said it was part of the federal government's process of due diligence, which VANOC has said publicly several times would be expected as a result of VANOC's request for more money. McLaughlin said the investigation was also designed to ensure that VANOC would not need to make a request for a second round of additional funding later.

VANOC -- shouldering a significant, industry-wide issue with construction-cost inflation conservatively estimated at 40% since 2002 -- cut the scope of its projects and found more efficient ways to build them, but still needed to request C$55 million each from the BC and the federal governments to top up the capital budget to C$580 million, including a C$36.1 million contingency. The two governments, through the restricted-use capital budget administered by VANOC, have agreed to equally fund the construction of specific Olympic venues, although the federal government, for various reasons is still behind BC in contributing funds to that account.

VANOC's request for more money to the BC government was made last October, and the request to the federal government was made the following month. BC earlier indicated it will agree to the additional funding, but only to the extent of Ottawa's approval. As a result, VANOC has been forced to proceed with the first year of its three-year major construction effort assuming it will receive the additional funds, but, so far, its senior executives say that they have only committed to projects that account for two-thirds of that budget, about C$386 million.

In part, the delay has been due to the differences in the way the BC government and the federal government accounting systems work. The BC government, in working out its funding for the Games, included a sizable contingency that took its overall envelope for the direct-host costs to a maximum of C$600 million. The federal government, however, did not set up a contingency, and so is partly treating the request as if it was a new project.

Other delays have occurred because the Liberal government was defeated about the time the VANOC request went to Ottawa, and the new Conservative government wasn't able to take power until February, and while Emerson, when he was a Liberal cabinet minister for BC, the main Olympic file was handled by his then-colleague, Stephen owen. Still, the timing means Pacific Liaicon's investigation started about two months after the Conservatives took power.

The Pacific Liaicon & Associates report has been completed, according to a spokesman for Emerson's office, but the is still being analyzed as part of the information going into the decision as to whether Ottawa will agree with the funding request.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 16, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1740

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

RICHMOND TO HIRE ENVIROMENTAL WATCHDOG FOR OLYMPIC OVAL

The City of Richmond is in the process of hiring a consulting firm to monitor the environmental effects of building the huge sports complex on the banks of the Fraser River that will house the 2010 Olympics long-track speedskating oval. The firm, which will have the authority to order the construction manager to stop work if there's a sufficient environmental threat, will start its job when construction crews begin removing the tons of pre-load sand that's currently on the site to remove ground settlement. That's scheduled to start on Monday, July 6. The monitoring will continue, with the firm supplying regular reports to staff at the City of Richmond, until October 31, 2008. The project is scheduled for substantial completion in July, 2008, and total completion by that September, but the monitoring will continue a month longer as there will still be some final landscaping underway. Companies thinking about applying for the work need to have their applications into Richmond City Hall by Friday, June 30.

WASHINGTON STATE CONSTRUCTION SUGGESTS 2010 IS PART OF INDUSTRY MANPOWER SHORTAGES

The Seattle and Puget Sound-area construction business is booming, just as it is in the Greater Vancouver area, but the difference is that the American side is saying their in competition with the construction demands of the 2010 Winter Games. Seattle reports that permit applications for new construction were nearly US$100 million in April, a record for the largest dollar amount in a single month. Mark Martinez, executive secretary of the Pierce County Building and Construction Trades Council, said the South Sound area lacks skilled trade workers, from roofers and carpenters to people who drive heavy equipment. "I hear that from employers who call the union hall looking for workers," he said. "There's a lack of qualified folks for a lot of projects that are going on." Retiring baby boomers account for some people leaving the work force. Construction projects for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are siphoning other skilled workers from Seattle and north across the border, Martinez said. Brad Sayre, vice president of preconstruction for Absher Construction in Puyallup. "The only thing that is limiting us from going after more of what's available is the lack of (workers), more in the management area than in the trades, but trades aren't far behind."

FURLONG OFFERS CHILDREN A WAY TO FOCUS ON GOALS

"Do you have a dream? If you do, write it down, put it up on your bedroom wall and look at it every day." That was the message from VANOC CEO John Furlong as he spoke to the children at Royal Heights Elementary School in Surrey, a suburb of Vancouver yesterday during a school assembly. It was the annual launch of a series of runs sponsored by the canadian section of Olympic international sponsor, McDonald's Restaurants.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 16, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1739
THE CALL IS OUT FOR COMPANIES INTERESTED IN PRODUCING 2010-BRANDED HARDGOODS, NOVELTIES AND SOUVENIRS

From belts to whistles -- and a whole lot of hardgoods in between -- the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has started one of its most important processes for business since it began operations.

It is asking for Canadian-based companies to contact it by July 7 if they are interested in bidding on producing and distributing 42 categories of hardgoods, novelties and souvenirs that will carry the 2010 Olympic brands under a royalty-based licensing system, and which will eventually be sold in retail stores throughout Canada.

These items include such things as 2010-branded board games, Christmas decorations, flashlights, key chains, lunch buckets, mugs, mouse pads -- even dog tags -- to name just a few. But the call also excludes 26 categories of products -- bobbleheads, jewelry, coins, cell phones, to name just a few -- because they are either being dealt with separately, or will be the subject of future group deals.

In addition, the companies that end up with VANOC licensing arrangements will also have the option of supplying these items to VANOC's corporate sponsors, government connections, third-party direct-marketing firms that VANOC will eventually sign up, and suppliers, so they can use them internally or for marketing purposes.

VANOC says it wants to produce its branded licensed items within what it calls "an environment of controlled commercialization." And, it says, "In order to ensure this aim is met, VANOC is seeking the 'best of the best' of businesses with operations in Canada which can consistently design, manufacture and distribute a full range of attractive, high-quality, affordable licensed products." A few months ago, it issued a similar call for soft goods, primarily clothing.

Companies that are interested in being involved in the hardgoods process -- and VANOC is expecting dozens of firms to let it know they are -- will first be evaluated to see how well they match VANOC's initial criteria -- basically it wants firms to be as all-encompassing as possible -- and the list will be winnowed down to about 30 companies. These firms will get a much more detailed request about July 24, and will then need to provide much more detailed plans, offers on how much of a royalty percentage they are willing to offer, as well as detailed distribution and financial documentation, so that a team of VANOC staffers can select the firm, or firms, that will be awarded licensing contracts. The contracts will be good until December 31, 2010.

VANOC says all of its brands, from those that now exist to those that it creates, can be added to the items by the winners of the contracts, except for those connected with its torch-relay program, which will be handled separately. Although VANOC works closely with the Canadian Olympic Committee, that organization's brands can't be used.

On the other hand, the marks that can be used in addition to VANOC's own emblems include the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic mascots -- which are due to be created in 2007 -- Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic pictograms -- which are used as way-markers in and around the 2010 venues -- and marks relating to the Vancouver 2010 Arts, Cultural and Environmental Olympiads, which are all programs related to the Olympics, but which have yet to be flushed out.

There are also a couple of types of firms that needn't bother submitting a request for consideration. They include big retailers, because VANOC's corporate sponsor, HBC, already has that category. Also in the needn't-bother group: any sporting-goods retail stores or general-merchandise retail stores that carry a similarly wide number and variety of product lines, or any specialty retailer which has previously held licensing rights to produce apparel, team uniforms and merchandise bearing Canadian Olympic Committee marks.

The terms of the licenses could be full -- that is, one deal right through to the end of 2010, including sell-off rights -- or partial. That might mean a deal that's renewable annually. VANOC might also choose some licensees to produce a broad range of hardgoods, novelty and souvenir products for all of its target consumer groups, or it might select licensees to produce only particular products, and it might also choose firms that are targeted only to particular consumer groups, such as just men, women, or children.

RESOURCES

If you make the "Top 30" of firms selected to get a detailed request for proposal, you can expect to be asked to provide VANOC with information such as:

A forecast of projected sales of licensed products during the term of the license;

A comprehensive marketing plan for the licensed products, including a proposed rollout plan by distribution channel -- such as specialty stores, souvenir, gift, tourist, duty-free, sports stores, general retail stores and that sort of thing -- to be implemented during the term of the license;

A financial proposal in connection with the licensed products, including a royalty structure and any advance on signing, and minimum guarantees to be paid to VANOC during the term of the license;

A demonstrated record of actions taken to ensure brand protection and anti-piracy;

A demonstrated ability to make the licensed products according to what VANOC terms, "a high ethical standard, social responsibility and sustainability, and a willingness and commitment to fully participate in VANOC’s sustainability program including evaluation and audit activities." VANOC will provide detailed documentation in the request for proposal about what it means by sustainability and ethical standards.

---

The categories of products INCLUDED in this call to companies:

Baby accessories (such as pacifiers, baby bottles, sippy cups)

Bells

Belt Buckles

Board Games

Bottle Openers

Business Card Holders

Christmas decorations

Coasters and Placemats

Collectible Plates

Dog Tags

Figurines

Flashlights

Gift Tins

Glassware (excludes premium sales)

Key Chains

Lanyards

Luggage Tags

Lunchboxes

Magnets (Refrigerator, Frame)

Money Clips

Mouse Pads

Mugs (ceramic, Porcelain, for example)

Non prescription sunglasses

Organizers / day planners

Paperweights

Pens, Pencils and erasers

Pet leashes and accessories

Picture Frames and Photo Albums

Playing Cards

Pucks

Puzzles

Reusable water bottles

Snack pails

Snow Brush and Scrapers

Snow globe

Souvenir tea spoons

Travel Mugs

Umbrellas

Wallets

Wastebaskets

Welcome Mats

Whistles

---

The categories of products specifically EXCLUDED from this call, but there may be others:

Bobbleheads

Bumper Stickers and Strips

Buttons

Calendars

Cell phone / PDA accessories

Coins and Medallions

Decals, Clings and Stickers

Flags, Banners and windsocks

Hard Hats

Helmets, Multi-sport (for bikes, snowboarding, skateboarding or rollerblading)

Jewellery (precious metal or costume) including rings, earrings, pendants, bracelets, timepieces

Lapel Pins and Accessories

License Plates and Frames

Pennants

Postage stamps

Postcards

Posters

Rooter Pom-poms

Seat Cushions

Stick Flags

Tattoos

Thunder-sticks

Timepieces, including watches and clocks

Tokens

Toys including Plush

Wristbands

--

RESOURCES

Jim Bornholdt,
Manager, VANOC Procurement
3585 Graveley Street
Vancouver, B.C. V5K 5J5, Canada
Telephone: (+1) 778.328.2010
Facsimile: (+1) 778-328-2011
E-mail: procurement@vancouver2010.com

The expression-of-interest document that provides all the details of the process is EOI NO. L2010-05. It's available for downloading from BC's electronic tendering system, BC Bid, at:
www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 16, 2006

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1738

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC SEEKS SKI-LIFT CONTRACTORS

A new phase of the construction work near the 2010 Whistler Nordic Centre in the Callaghan Valley southwest of Whistler opens today with VANOC asking contractors to propose how they would design and build the chairlift for the temporary ski jump. VANOC wants four stations built: a base station, 2 mid-stations and top station. The stations will be located on the south side of the ski jump. The work involves clearing and roughly grading the areas for the tower foundations and under the lift alignment, temporary construction access, designing and building the tower foundations, the towers, arranging for and installing the lift mechanical and electrical systems and chairs, incorporating communications and lighting; designing and building the passenger-loading sitefacilities and commissioning. The project also includes providing spare parts, manuals and doing the training. The closing date for responding to the RFP at VANOC's headquarters in Vancouver is June 29.

CODE 39, WHERE ARE YOU?

Potential suppliers of barcode readers and tags have only about a week to respond to a VANOC request for a company to supply at least four readers and two types of Code 39 tags, to help VANOC keep track of its assets. The organization wants the barcode tags, which look like the kind of thing found on supermarket items, in two colours so it can distinguish visually between an asset that is owned, and one that is leaded. The portable readers have to be rugged enough that they can survive being dropped from about chest height, and they have to be able to talk to VANOC's asset-tracking database, which is a module of Microsoft's Navision. The company that wins the contract needs to provide the readers and tags by August, and the contract will go through the end of the Games, in March, 2010. VANOC says it may need more barcode readers next year, but at the moment, four are enough. Companies only have until June 23 to respond to VANOC's purchasing department at its Vancouver headquarters.

TSN, CANADIAN CURLING ASSOCIATION REACH DEAL THAT INCLUDES 2010 RUN-UP

Canada's The Sports Network (TSN) says today that it and the Canadian Curling Association have reached a six-year broadcast and multi-media deal that will allow TSN to cover all of the curling competitions leading up to the 2010 Winter Olympics, the 2009 Tim Hortons Canadian Curling Trials. The Trials involve a competition by teams across the country for the right to represent Canada at the 2010 Winter Games. The deal includes rights for broadband -- which will allow the national championships to be watched outside of Canada -- mobile, video-on-demand, interactive television, podcasts and radio broadcasts. The arrangement starts in 2008 and runs through the 2013/14 season. The value of the contract was not released. Les Harrison, the president of the World Curling Federation, says his organization "recognizes the value of securing long-term predictability in a broadcast partner and is very pleased that the CCA's agreement with TSN will span two Winter Olympic Games."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 15, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1737
COMMISSIONING AGENT SOUGHT FOR HILLCREST 2010 CURLING VENUE

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) has begun looking for a company to act as commissioning agent starting in August for the new Hillcrest Curling Venue it's building in conjunction with the Vancouver Parks Board at a budget for VANOC of C$37.1 million.

The point of a commissioning agent shifts during the course of a project's construction. The agency starts by reviewing designs as they're produced by others and, as construction proceeds and machinery, software and other technical systems are ordered and installed in the project, the firm ensures it all works properly. When it's time to start up the project, the job supervises the commissioning of the project before it's used, then monitors and reviews all the procedures and processes for two years afterward.

The curling venue is being built at the same time, and adjacent to, a new swimming pool being built by the Parks Board and the City of Vancouver, and they'll share heating and cooling systems. VANOC has promised the IOC to build the curling venue to a LEED Silver standard for environmental reasons. The Parks Board wants to build the pool to LEED Gold standards, and it wants VANOC to bring the curling venue up to that standard as well. The commissioning agent's job, among many other things, is to help the two reconcile the standards within the project, while keeping within VANOC's budget. VANOC has already spent C$219,000 for a geotechnical review and curling rink pump testing during its current fiscal year to the end of April, as part of the heating, it hopes, is to come from an underground geo-thermal field.

Companies who want to be considered for the job need to apply to VANOC by June 27.

RESOURCES

Initial site planning studies, functional programming and a re-zoning process have begun; the schematic design was finished in April. The start of construction is scheduled for next March with substantial completion of the Olympic Venue in October 2008. A part of the arena will be converted to a community centre after the 2010 Games are finished in March that year, with a target for completing the conversion in early 2011.

VANOC and the Vancouver Parks Board have hired Hughes Condon Marler Architects to design the curling facility. Reads Jones Christoffersen is the structural consultant, Stantec Consulting is the mechanical and electrical consultant, Hunter Laird is the civil consultant, Bunt Associates is the traffic consultant and BTY Group is the cost consultant.

The new facilities will be located in Riley Park in central Vancouver, next to Nat Bailey Stadium and the new Millennium Centre. The proposed size of the curling venue about 10,800 square meters (about 116,000 square feet) and the aquatic centre facility is about 5,200 square meters (about 56,000 square feet).

RESOURCES

The standards website for a LEED-designed building:
www.leedbuilding.org

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 15, 2006

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1736
PART 1 OF 2 -- A STATUS REPORT ON VANOC CONSTRUCTION

A 90-minute management discussion that opened up a wide range of details on the status of the 2010 Winter Olympics was one of the highlights that accompanied the release of the first public quarterly report by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) in Vancouver today.

This is part 1 of two reports on the information provided by VANOC about its status.

VANOC has provided quarterly summaries of its financial situation for the last couple of years to its Board of Directors and to senior BC and federal government officials, but this is the first time it's issued a formal public report, which covers its third fiscal quarter to April 30, comparing it with its second fiscal quarter and providing a nine-month status to put them in context. VANOC's year end is July 30. It's also the first time any Olympic organizing committee has done so, according to CEO John Furlong. The next quarterly report is expected in September. The annual audited financial report is expected in November.

Here are the highlights from the management discussion conference call, to which some of VANOC's executives and Board of Directors, as well as representatives of sponsors, government and the media listened. The call included comments from CEO John Furlong, CFO Rex McLennan, executive vice-president Terry Wright for construction, executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications, Dave Cobb.

CFO REX McLENNAN:

Venue Budget: "I want everybody to know that from a financial and risk-management perspective, the venue budget [at C$580 million, which assumes full funding from BC and the federal governments] is in good shape. Actions to mitigate cost pressures have limited the increase in construction costs from the 2002 bid amount to 23%, about half of the increase experienced by the construction market's conditions in BC. About two-thirds of our venue-development budget is committed or spent. By the end of this calendar year, we will have committed or spent about C$415 million... C$348 million is budgeted for the venues that VANOC is responsible for constructing. We are carrying a budget contingency of C$36 million against this remaining exposure. This is an adequate amount for the stage that we are now at."

Business Plan: "We're in the middle of an in-depth, company-wide, business and operational planning process. This will benefit greatly from a week-long de-brief with the Torino Organizing Committee here in Vancouver in mid-July. This work will result in our second business plan and a detailed, comprehensive Games budget by the end of the year." This will be the first public business plan and budget; the first one, provided in June, 2005 to the BC and federal governments, as required by agreement in 2002, but it has never been made public as VANOC at the time didn't have sufficient information for it. It's also the first time that VANOC has suggested the second budget's time frame may be as late as December; earlier planning put it for release in September or October.

New Events for 2010: An analysis by VANOC is underway about the implications of adding five new sports events in luge, alpine and ski jumping. The International Olympic Committee's Program Commission will review the requests in September and make recommendations to the IOC Executive Board for a final decision in November.

As expected, the Torino Debriefing conference will include as observers representatives of the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics in Beijing and London, and the 2014 Winter Olympic candidate cities.

-- EXECUTIVE VICE-PRESIDENT OF SERVICE OPERATIONS AND CEREMONIES, TERRY WRIGHT.

Wright was sitting in during the briefing for newly hired EVP Dan Doyle. Doyle replaces Steve Matheson, who was fired last month. Doyle, a retired deputy minister with the BC Government's Transportation ministry, and is "currently transitioning into full-time activity" with VANOC, and Wright is helping him with the transition.

For the first time, Wright provided venue-by-venue costing now that most of the contracts have been let. First, let's look at the 2006 construction program of venues constructed by others with VANOC financial contribution, with total VANOC-budget figures in millions of Canadian dollars:

-- UBC Winter Sports Centre ice hockey arena -- $37.6 million -- Phase 1 Demolition and start of construction

The decision to upgrade the facilities from the bid book of two rinks with a refurbishment of the existing Thunderbird rink has prompted UBC to increase the budget and VANOC is helping by adding "additional Value In Kind funding, and a C$4 million addition from UBC." UBC is using a design-build strategy for construction of the venue. Demolition of the old arena and construction of the new one is underway. The practice arena and upgrade are scheduled to be completed about a year from now, while the major arena is scheduled to be completed in 2008,

-- Richmond speed skating oval -- $62.7 -- Site clearing preparation and start of construction

The work program for this year involves substantial completion of the foundation works; the land is still under pre-load due to delta soil conditions. The completion schedule for September 2008 remains in effect. (Richmond's senior manager of Corporate Communications, Ted Townsend, separately reported today that the tenders for a substantial portion of the complex which are being advanced, as we reported earlier this month, doesn't have to do with the schedule, which he says hasn't changed, "Instead, we are simply moving to award these tenders sooner than we would normally so that we can get the contract price secured now. If we were to wait to award these tenders on the normal timeline suggested by the project schedule we could expose ourselves to higher costs as the construction market continues to escalate.")

-- Whistler Athletes Village -- $37.5 -- Site clearing and preparation

The work for the summer, supervised by the Whistler 2020 Development Corporation, involves the previously reported public hearings and rezoning hearings this month, site clearing and grubbing; servicing the site and starting construction is scheduled to occur about a year from now. Completion of the residential buildings is scheduled for late 2009.

-- Whistler Paralympic Sledge hockey arena -- $20 -- Public consultation/master plan development

It's still not a done deal, but everybody's assuming it is or it won't get built in time. As Wright puts it, "We expect Whistler to make a final decision on the development of this project by the fall of 2006. Preliminary design work is underway to maintain the schedule while [the municipality] works through their final due-diligence. Public consultantion and master-plan development are underway, and we expect the schematic design and the beginnings of the detailed design to occur [this year] -- if they proceed with this project. The venue is expected to be completed by the fall of 2008, to allow for test events in the spring of 2009."

-- Vancouver Athletes Village -- $30 -- Site preparation and shoreline rehabilitation

"We share the City's confidence that work is proceeding on schedule and on budget."

-- Training venues/other grants -- $8 -- Design work underway by the City of Vancouver

This includes VANOC grants of C$5 million to the City of Vancouver for upgrades to two municipal arenas, so they can serve as warm-up and practice venues during the Games for ice hockey. It also includes the C$3 million earlier budgeted for the Whistler Conference Centre to help it pay for the enviromental upgrades that were done two years ago.

Subtotal $195.8

Venues constructed or upgraded by VANOC

-- Whistler Sliding Centre -- $99.9 -- Track foundation and footings, start of track structure and support buildings

"This is our most challenging project, and during the bid was the most difficult to cost-estimate." The bid estimate was based on the average cost of the three other sliding centres in North America, says Wright. The Torino track was "in excess of C$110 million and probably more reflective of current market conditions to build a sliding centre." Inflation in prices for steel, pipe and concrete over the last two years has affected the price significantly, Wright added, and the complexity and fussiness of the job limited the number of contractors who could bid on the work, so there was "little room to save capital construction costs." The project is 90% contracted. Civil, track and refrigeration work is underway this year.

-- Whistler Nordic Competition Venue -- $115.7 -- Site preparation, grading, bridge construction, start day lodge and sport buildings

About 70% of the contract work has been awarded, with additional tenders still to come connected with the temporary ski-jump and trail grading next year.

-- Cypress freestyle and snowboarding venue -- $14.6 -- Site clearing/grading, start construction of snowboard venue and snowmaking reservoir

Work is underway on the freestyle course and should be completed this year; environmental approvals and park-use permits from the BC government have been completed. Snowmaking improvements start this year, as will construction of the snowboard section.

-- Whistler alpine -- $26.2 -- Snow-making system and course improvements

This is about 70% contracted. "Over the last week, we've been able to resolve an issue involving the finish corrals. With the approval of FIS (International Ski Federation], we've been able to simplify the finish corral significantly, reducing it in size and easing our [construction] work." Course improvements are underway this year, and preparing for snowmaking work.

-- Whistler Athlete Centre -- $16 -- Environmental approvals/site preparation
-- Hillcrest curling venue -- $37.1 -- Environmental approvals/site preparation
-- Hastings Park skating venue -- $25.7 -- Ice slab widening to international size

Hillcrest and Hastings Park venues in Vancouver, and the Whistler Athletes Centre, are last on the construction schedule. These are in an early stage of design. "We are in the preliminary stages in [Hillcrest, Whistler Athlete Centre, Hastings Park] and final cost estimates will be prepared as part of the design process. We have a reasonable level of confidence in the budgetary target, but it will take continued innovative thinking to complete the design and meet our financial targets." Hillcrest will be designed to have extra, temporary 5,550 seats during the Games. Environmental review is underway now for the site. The detailed design is expected to be completed this year; there's expected to be some site services work this year as well, with completion in November, 2008. The Athlete Centre will be part of the Olympic Village there during the Games -- it is to be completed by fall, 2008 -- and can be used before the Games for team support for training and practice. The Hastings Park ice slab and plant upgrades to international size will continue this year because the facility is for events other than ice hockey. The work is scheduled for this summer, and those of 2007 and 2008 so there's not so much impact on its regular operations.

-- Other C$12.9

This involves upgrades to BC Place and General Motors Place stadiums, and some general and sustainability planning costs.
Subtotal $348.1 million

Contingency -- $36.1 million
Total Venues -- $580 million

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 14, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1735

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

IPC OK WITH NHL-SIZE SLEDGE RINK

The International Paralympic Committee has approved a change requested by VANOC to a North American sized ice sheet for the 2010 Sledge Hockey tournament, currently scheduled to be held in Whistler. The Resort Municipality of Whistler was informed about the approval on Monday, according to VANOC executive vice-president Terry Wright. VANOC earlier this month received approval from the International Ice Hockey Federation to do the same thing with Olympic hockey. Whistler's sledge-hockey rink has not yet been built, although work has begun on it on a number of fronts. A final decision from the municipality is not expected until the fall, although the work is proceeding on the assumption it will be approved, to stay within construction timelines.

VANOC, MCDONALD'S EXECUTIVES TO LAUNCH OLYMPIC DAY RUN PROGRAM TOMORROW

VANOC CEO John Furlong and Chris Stannell, the Communications Manager for McDonald's Canada Restaurants is expected to be at Royal Heights Elementary School in Surrey, a Greater Vancouver suburb tomorrow morning at 9:30 to take part in a sponsorship activation project of McDonald's an Olympic international sponsor. A six-time Canadian Olympic medalist, Cindy Klassen, is to lead school students and the others in the first of five country-wide Olympic Day Runs. Royal Heights Elementary School was selected based on its participation in McDonald's "Go Active Fitness Challenge" -- an annual program the company runs as part of its community-relations program, in which Canadian elementary schools participate with the goal of helping keep students active.

MEDIA SPREE STILL ON TRACK

From our "Quotes with a Few Comments" Department: Here's the general Canadian media's understanding of the first quarterly report and management commentary by VANOC, after a 90-minute briefing by VANOC executives and release of a detailed 26-page financial report today: "The Vancouver Organizing Committee's spending spree appears to be right on track." -- CTV National News, the news department of the company that will be broadcasting the 2010 Games, and which is paying millions to do so. "The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Winter Games says it's still waiting for word the federal and B.C. governments will top up its construction budget." -- Canadian Press (also picked up by the CTV's corporate cousin The Sports Network (TSN), the Calgary Sun newspaper, among several other newspapers and media across the country). "Vancouver Olympics on schedule and on budget, report says" -- Canada's national newspaper, the Globe & Mail in Toronto. "2010 Games budget said back on track" -- Reuters news agency (also picked up by Vancouver's "Dose" tabloid, and Toronto's "Metro" newspaper. "The first quarterly budget report from Vancouver’s Olympic organizing team shows venue construction is on time and budget, so far." -- CKNW Radio, Vancouver, the major news station in Greater Vancouver. "There are far too many unknowns at play for VANOC to accurately come up with a final tally for hosting the 2010 games. An Olympic watchdog group says you just have to look at Athens, Turin, and Salt Lake City as examples of overspending." -- CKWX, Greater Vancouver all-news radio station. And, finally, "Olympics still $110 million over budget" -- Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a headline reminiscent of an old Saturday Night Live comedy skit about General Franco.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 14, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1734
2010 COMMITTE'S FIRST PUBLIC QUARTERLY FINANCIAL REPORT SHOWS VENUE-FUNDING WORRISOME

The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) issued its first public quarterly financial report today, outlining its revenues and expenses for both its operations and, separately, its capital construction to the end of April.

It's in good financial shape for this point it its life span, with the major worry dealing with funding its construction program, which has to do primarily with federal government approval of a C$55 million request late last year. It makes no mention of the significant time pressures on development of the Vancouver and Whistler Olympic Villages, and the Richmond sports complex housing its Olympic speedskating oval.

Over the next 12 months:

It will have advance ticket sales about six months earlier than previously expected. Planning activities for VANOC’s ticketing program are expected begin this year in order to be ready for the anticipated public sale of tickets beginning in the spring of 2008. It's still on track with its mascot program for both the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The program is to be developed by year-end, says VANOC, for launch in 2007.

Venue construction is heavy this summer and fall, marketing activities will be peaking and the development of the 2010 sport program will be concluded.

Most of the people in its top 50 functions will have been hired, and by year end it will have about a third of its 1,300 staff on the payroll.

It still plans to issue its first public (and second actual) business plan and budget late this year

It's begun what it calls a "Pre-Games Volunteer Program" that is to increasingly provide help with transportation and event organization in Vancouver and Whistler.

VANOC is still on track to sign about six to eight new sponsorships by the end of 2006.

We'll have coverage of various components of the full report, which includes management discussion, over the next day or so.

On the fiscal side for the quarter end April 30:

The organization had a net operating loss of C$16.6 million, compared with a C$12.1 million surplus the immediately preceding quarter ending January 31. That's mostly due to the fact that the prime generator of operational revenues is from sponsorship rights, which tend to make payments annually and due to a C$9 million royalty installment payment VANOC made to the Canadian Olympic Committee as part of a royalties deal reached earlier.

There are a number of differences in the way the organization presents its report than a normal Canadian business does. For instance, in dealing with the quarterlies, it compares its latest numbers with the quarterly immediately preceding, not from a year ago. That's because the organization has a limited life-span, and is changing significantly from year to year, giving such comparisons little meaning.

Revenues for the latest quarter came from cash sponsorship revenue of C$2.5 million, value-in-kind sponsorship revenue of C$3.3 million and licensed merchandise royalties of C$2.6 million.

Expenses were C$25.1 million, including the COC's payment, for personnel, infrastructure and the supply of furniture and equipment related to the new VANOC headquarters office space.

On the venue-development side, which has separate accounting from operations, for the quarter ending April 30:

Revenues were C$25 million, virtually all of it from the federal government finally paying funds it was supposed to pay during its fiscal year from April 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006. VANOC continues to wonder if it will get the C$55 million it requested seven months ago for additional capital funding. An equivalent amount from BC is tied to the whether Ottawa chooses to approve the request.
VANOC says it is "currently working towards the completion of contribution agreements between Canada and British Columbia for the funding of its venue development expenditures for the government fiscal year April 1, 2006 through March 31, 2007." VANOC hadn't recorded, as of April 30 contributions from either Canada or BC for the C$1.8 million spent during April. However, it says, "All other expenditures for venue development activities incurred by VANOC to date through March 31, 2006, [the fiscal year ends of BC and Canada] have been funded in full."

Venue development expenses were C$6.9 million during the quarter, mostly for construction at the Whistler Sliding Centre, the Whistler Nordic Centre, the Hastings Park skating venue in Vancouver and VANOC's portion of the speed skating oval being built by Richmond.

On the liquidity side for the quarter:

VANOC had cash and restricted cash balances of $18.3 million, but was into its C$50 million line of credit by $26 million. VANOC says it believes that "future cash flows from sponsorship, licensed merchandise, broadcasting, government contributions and other sources, along with the borrowing capacity under the existing demand credit facilities will provide sufficient funds to meet cash requirements for at least the next twelve months." VANOC also has commitments on the operations and venue construction sides, but it thinks their funding is in good shape. However, as the report puts it, "Depending on the amount of revenue generated and the timing of the receipt of such revenue, it may be necessary to increase its available credit facilities in order to finance its future operations as the planning and organizing for the Games approaches 2010." VANOC says its confident, "that such credit facilities will continue to be available throughout the course of the project."

Other interesting highlights from the report:

VANOC has notionally lost about C$108,000 on its US$1 million deposit for the Games which it paid to the International Olympic Committee when it won the bid in 2003. The notional loss comes due to the surge in the last few months of the Canadian dollar against the American currency; the actual loss won't be recorded until VANOC and the IOC settle up after the Games.

VANOC has begun using hedging as a way to offset potential notional losses in funding, mostly from future broadcast revenues, that are to come to it in the next few years. These are to be paid in either US dollars or Euros. As a result, during the three months ended April 30, VANOC was able to confirm US$240 million and EUR50 million in future cash flows. It now has forward foreign-exchange option contracts with the Royal Bank of Canada to sell these foreign denomination cash flows at specific dates to the end of March 2009. The downside weighted-average rates protected with these forward contracts: 1.087 for US dollars and 1.405 for Euros.

RESOURCES

VANOC's interim financial statements were prepared in accordance with Canadian Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) for interim financial information. The results were reviewed by Ernst & Young LLP, VANOC's auditors, and approved by VANOC's Audit Committee of the Board of Directors.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 14, 2006

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1733
CANADIAN MINT TO PRODUCE UNUSUAL $25 OLYMPIC COIN FOR COLLECTIONS

The Royal Canadian Mint intends to produce a $25 non-circulation coin between 2007 and 2010 to commemorate the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. And it's now received special federal government approval to mark that specific, unusual value.

Although they bear a denomination, numismatic coins are not meant for circulation. Usually they are considered an intricate work of art, which the Mint notes are "often worth far more than its face value." The coins are acquired by dedicated collectors; others are purchased by people seeking commemorative gifts. It's expected the Olympic coin program would involved a number of coins marking specific aspects of the Games.

It's not the first time the Canadian Mint has done this. It produced non-circulation coinage for the 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics as well as the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics. For the Montreal Olympics program, starting in 1973 and ending in 1976, the Mint produced two non-circulation coins to mark the event, however one had a notional value of $5, the other, $10. In that case, they were new and unique to the Olympic program and had not been done before by the Mint on non-circulation coinage. The Mint again produced a special $20 coin to mark the Calgary Olympics program, from 1985 to 1988). The Mint also created a commemorative coin called the Lucky Loonie in 2004, in connection with that summer's Olympic games in Athens.

Like the previous two Canadian Olympic coin programs, the $25 coin denomination would be new and introduced specifically for the Vancouver Olympic non-circulation program. The key to the program is the unusual notional value of the coin, which would be packaged in sets for retail marketing. The Royal Canadian Mint Act only allows the mint to produce coins of specific denominations, but now a schedule of the Act has been officially changed to allow the $25 coin. According to documents supporting the change, the Mint felt that using existing denominations, such as $5, $10 or $20, "would not create appeal or uniqueness to the Vancouver Olympic Coin Program as has been done in the past two Olympic coin programs."

Coin collection expert Joe Iorio, president of Chantou International of Vancouver, says, however, the $25 value and the fact that it's an Olympic branded coin would not be the main determination of the value to collectors. He says that the Mint, and other mints around the world, produce a lot of specialty coinage now. The main determining factor would be what he calls "the mintage"; the number of coins manufactured. "If they produce millions of them, it's not going to have much value," he says. Normally though, he says, the Mint produces about 20,000 coins for commemorative runs, to keep the supply beneath expected demand. The Mint also typically puts them in a one-coin package that retails for a markup of about three to 3.5 times the notional value. That would put the retail value of a $25 coin around C$80.

The coins are expected to be sold in Canada and internationally, through Canada Post outlets, the Royal Canadian Mint's direct mail-program, coin shops, coin dealers and distributors.

From the Mint's point of view, the benefit of the additional denomination, to Part 1 of the Schedule to the Royal Canadian Mint Act, is "the uniqueness that it will bring to the Vancouver Olympic Coin Program and also the flexibility in the number of denominations that could be used to produce numismatic coins. A new coin denomination would appeal to the coin collector and, in turn, generate additional revenues for the Royal Canadian Mint."

The Mint says that because the new denomination will only affect non-circulation coins, it will not be noticeable to the general public and will have no impact on the vending industry.

RESOURCES

The Italian Mint, under an agreement with the 2006 Olympic Organizing Committee, TOROC, produced a series of 11 gold and silver commemorative coins, introducing them in a two-hour program at the World Money Fair in Basel, Switzerland about a year before the Games began. The introduction garnered wide-spread publicity in Europe, and in numismatic circles around the world. The coins are to be issued in stages through four different releases starting next month, starting with the least expensive and ramping up in price, to capitalize on public collection interest as the start of the Games nears. Coins range in nominal value from e5 to e50 (about C$8 to C$80). TOROC's official pictograms -- symbols of various winter sports at the Games -- which are being used in a number of different marketing ways, from signage to magazine articles, are reproduced on the less expensive silver coins in the series, while some prominent monuments of Torino and its territory are on the gold coins. The Italian Mint saved an issue of gold coins with the Torch image for the last few months of the Games lead-up, when interest would have been highest.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 13, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1732

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONSIDERS VANOC, WHISTLER REQUEST FOR BRIDGE

Transport Canada is mulling over a request by the Whistler 2020 Development Corporation and VANOC to construct an additional bridge over the Cheakamus River to improve access to the Whistler Olympic Village. The bridge is to be located on unsurveyed BC government land next to 1221 Cheakamus Lake Road on the south side of Whistler. Transport Canada, a federal agency, is involved because the river is considered navigable waters, and so comes under federal government jurisdiction. The request was made a month ago.

VANCOUVER CITY AIMES TO PUSH OLYMPIC VILLAGE AREA RESIDENTS OUT OF CARS

The basic road infrastructure of the 2010 Winter Olympic Village and its surrounding neighbourhood is forecast by City engineering officials so that at least 60% of daily trips by south-east False Creek residents will be made without a car. The city says that "a quality public transit system will support SEFC as a transit-oriented development, and decrease vehicular usage and automobile ownership." The area will have two nearby rapid transit lines, be on a cross-town bus route, and False Creek ferries "will make commuting easier." The area will also integrate the proposed downtown streetcar. "SEFC will have the broadest array of transit service next to downtown," according to one engineer. City staff say the area do its best to shift travel behaviour from automobiles to alternative modes. Automobile ownership, they hope, will be limited through "parking-demand management" coupled with measures to turn that demand to other modes of transportation. When it's finished, they say, they expect it to be the first community in Canada, "possibly in North America," to provide car-sharing vehicles and spaces throughout an entire neighbourhood as part of the development process. "The most profound effect that proactive car-sharing will likely have in SEFC is the ability to prevent a significant portion of its residents from moving into the community with more than one vehicle, while allowing those without any vehicle to function as well." And, they suggest, that compared to similar neighbourhoods, the infrastructure will decrease greenhouse-gas emissions by 25% to 50% a"nd produce as little as one third when compared to a low-density suburban development." The City's Property Endowment Fund is the land developer; The Millennium Group is developing the buildings.

BANK ACTIVATES RBC OLYMPIANS PROGRAM FOR ANOTHER YEAR

The RBC Financial Group, the financial sponsor of the 2010 Winter Olympics has started its RBC Olympians Program for another year. The program is part of its sponsorship activation for the Olympic movement. It gives Olympic and Paralympic athletes from across the country an opportunity to work at RBC and give talks about their athletic experiences while continuing to compete and prepare for life after sport. RBC also uses the athletes in community projects, talking about their experiences in schools, with community groups as well as to RBC clients and employees.

RESOURCES

A satellite map that shows the location, marked by the point of the green arrow, of where the bridge over the Cheakamus River would go:
tinyurl.com/e9en5

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 13, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Business
Government| #1731
COSTS OF PUBLIC AMENITIES IN AND AROUND VANCOUVER OLYMPIC VILLAGE SWELLS, AND SO HAS THE PAYMENT METHODS

Vancouver City Council will be told during a meeting Thursday that the cost of providing low-cost housing, parks and daycare centres in the Olympic Village property and adjacent land has swollen to C$254 million from $183 million. And, to pay for it all, city staff are proposing a special combination of development-cost levies totalling C$32 per square foot -- that's nearly five times the average.

A report prepared by city staff for the City's Standing Committee of Council on Planing and the Environment, shows that even with the additional funding, which is tempered by the idea full funding would price the property out of even today's hot market, it still won't be enough to pay for the cost of all the public amenities added by city council meetings over the last two years. Staff estimate they will only cover up to about 85% of the costs.

Private landowners are expected to appear at the meeting as delegations.

Of that C$254 million in costs, the cost to the City's Property Endowment Fund and other accounts for the levies would be just over C$122 million, while the cost allocated to private lands, including some property owned by TransLink, is C$132 million. Even so, says the report, costs allocated to the private lands don't count the estimated C$6.1 million of direct costs, which are the value of the in-kind contributions, such as providing or improving public rights-of-way through dedications or site-specific charges.

The rate for 2006 for the levies would be C$156.08 per square metre (C$14.50 per square foot) for all uses except cultural, recreational, institutional facilities. In addition, the city would begin negotiations with the privately held lands who are in the process of rezoning the lands in the area in hopes of persuading them to pay a Community Amenity Contribution at about C$11.50 per sq. ft.

The new numbers calculated by city staff are based on updated estimates of costs now that the detailed design is now available for streets, infrastructure improvements, and a portion of the park that will be delivered in time for the Athlete’s Village in 2010. The costs also include an estimate of current construction costs for a library, construction rights-of-way and various restrictions on roads in the area to force people living there to use transit. It also includes updated estimates of land values in the area, and a definition of "a compatible affordable housing strategy for the private lands that would have the objective of achieving contributions of an equivalent value to the land required to provide 20% affordable housing."

The report suggests that in addition to the standard Development Cost Levy (DCL), that council approve an area-specific levy district that follows the property lines of the southeast false creek project.

The SEFC area in the Official Development plan is 32 hectares (80 acres), about 20 hectares (50 acres) of which is in public ownership.

City staff say they met with the private landowners, who focused on questioning the city's methods of calculations and construction time-lines, including those with rezonings in process. They questioned the analysis of the City's assumed base value of properties in the study area under industrial use and zoning, projected revenues, construction costs, net saleable area -- building efficiency, marketing costs and financing costs.

The City only made some minor changes to its proposal; it increased construction financing costs to reflect potentially longer construction time. The higher than normal levels of construction activity in the lead-up to the Olympic Games pose a risk of delays of construction material delivery or difficulties retaining trained construction crews to carry out the work."

City staff still want the low-income housing to be applied to the private lands as well. One third modest market housing are in the City's requirements for the later phases of the public lands, which will be developed only after the Olympics in 2010. Modest market housing is encouraged in the Olympic Village, but staff say that could be achieved through nonfinancial means, such as making those units smaller or in less desirable locations, but is not required. The Director of the Housing Centre recommends forcing the 20% affordable housing policy onto the private lands, and that the so-called "modest market housing policy adopted for the Olympic Village be applied to the private lands.

RESOURCES

The current SEFC ODP requires the following public benefits:
- 10.4 hectares (25.8 acres) of park space;
- Greenway walkways and bikeways;
- Public infrastructure to accommodate long-term servicing requirements;
- "Public realm" improvements throughout SEFC; these include street trees, lighting fixtures, street furniture and special paving;
- Three 69-space childcare facilities;
- A 2,800 square metre (30,000 sq. ft.) community centre and non-motorized boating centre;
- 20% affordable housing units in City Lands only. The ODP does not detail the Private Lands contribution towards affordable housing, but calls for the development of “a compatible affordable housing strategy."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 13, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1730

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

GOVERNMENT HIGHWAY BLASTING KILLS MAN, HALTS WORK ON ACCESS TO OLYMPIC CONSTRUCTION SITE

A blasting accident yesterday on a BC Ministry of Transportation project to construct a two-lane highway and a temporary road to the VANOC's Whistler Nordic Centre near Whistler has killed a British Columbian man, 45-year-old Gary Michael Greer of Knutsford, a village a few kilometres south of Kamloops BC's central interior. The mishap occurred while the contractor hired for the C$11.9 million project, Murrin Construction of West Vancouver, was clearing a rock outcropping on the road bed. Investigations are underway by the RCMP, WorkSafeBC (BC's equivalent of a Workers Compensation Board), the BC Coroners Service and the Ministry of Transportation. The project has been shut down until investigators have finished their work. A blasting accident itself is rare in mountainous British Columbia, and the government and industry have a number of safety programs in place to ensure that's the case; it's the first time in several decades in BC that a person has been killed in such an accident. The project is not under the control, nor part of the budget, of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, however, VANOC CEO John Furlong has expressed his condolences to the family of the victim. The job involves almost 10 kilometres of grading and paving a two-lane highway, construction of three small bridges, plus some curbing and culverts. Generally, the main road, which connects to Highway 99 just south of the Callaghan Creek bridge, about four kilometres south of Whistler, tends to follow an old forestry road. It goes toward the northeast about 7.5 Km along the west side of Callaghan Creek, then crosses the creek and runs for 2.2 Km along the east side of Callaghan Creek to where the main entrance and parking lot for the Nordic site are located. The road, once completed, will also cross two minor creeks, Dority and Edna. The temporary road follows the east side of the valley and although access will be controlled by a gate once it's in place and it will be used as a secondary supply and emergency-services road during the 2010 Olympics, it's expected to be used by the logging industry, the construction industry and recreational users during the time leading up to the Games, and afterward.

BLASTING ACCIDENT COVERAGE FOCUSES ON VANOC, INSTEAD OF GOVERNMENT

Two projects of the 2010 Olympics has been getting some pretty tough coverage in the last couple of days in the local news media, though it does not warrant it. The coverage of the blasting accident was immediately lain at VANOC's door by most news media, even though it is a BC government funded and controlled project. The Vancouver Sun's report, for instance, didn't mention that fact until the 12th paragraph of its feature-length article, which was headlined "Site of Olympic road blast near Whistler remains closed". and that information was in a single paragraph well buried in the story on page 4, even though the article started as the main headline item on page 1. Most radio and television station news casts, and papers elsewhere in Canada, picked up their information from the Sun's story, or wire service copy based on it. The Vancouver Province newspaper report carried the information in the ninth paragraph of its much shorter story, which carried a neutral headline, "Blast at road construction site kills man".

RICHMOND FINANCE CHIEF CHALLENGES MEDIA CLAIMS OF BUDGET OVER-RUNS

Meanwhile, CTV, one of Vancouver's major television stations, claimed on their local newscasts last night that the Richmond Olympic speedskating oval's budget was "spiraling wildly out of control", even though the project, budgeted at C$178 million, has not yet been constructed. The claims, which were stated by the anchor as though they were fact but were unattributed, were used to introduce an unrefuted interview with Sara McIntyre of the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation, a fundraising group which describes itself as "Canada’s leading taxpayer advocacy organization." McIntyre made several additional claims, also unsubstantiated and unrefuted in the story, about perceived wastage by Richmond City council. And CBC Radio's popular local morning show program "Early Edition", which consists entirely of news, sports and 10-minute interviews, was brought up short today when announcer Rick Cluff, in introducing the chair of Richmond's finance committee, Councillor Evelina Halsey-Brandt, by saying the Olympic Oval's budget "was ballooning." Halsey-Brandt interrupted her own comments on another Richmond topic by saying to Cluff, "You claim the oval costs are ballooning, and their not." Cluff interrupted her, saying, "Whoa, yes they are, they're up, aren't they?" Halsey-Brandt replied, "No, they're not." Cluff said the costs had risen by C$23 million. Halsey-Brandt said, "I'm not sure where those figures came from. We have gone into an absolutley transparent model, that I've worked so hard on. Everything is now available for the public in one particular [web page] so that they'll be able to look at them. None of the costs have ballooned. They're indexed." Cluff tried to interrupt her, but she overrode him, saying, "Let me clarify this. Has council committed to going over and above what they have committed to the capital construction budget of the oval building itself? Yes, we've made some of those decisions, such as spending additional money [C$5 million over four three years] to provide an artistic aspect to some of the components. That was never budgeted in the C$178 million." Halsey-Brandt also noted that council chose to build an underground parkade, at C$23 million, beneath the oval, to provide additional downtown-core parking. Richmond council has several public advisory committees working with it on various aspects of the oval, the related sports complex, and the new adjacent housing project that is being used to help pay for the complex.

RESOURCES

A satellite photo of the location of the accident, in relation to Whistler. The centre of the photo marks the area where the accident took place.
tinyurl.com/jhnoe

--

Richmond's web page focused on the Oval:
www.richmond.ca/discover/events/oval/oval.htm

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 13, 2006

Monday, June 12, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1729

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

TIME CANADA SALUTES OLYMPIC WOMEN'S GROUP

The Canadian issue of Time Magazine, in the annual list of its "Heroes", published in this week's edition, has included Canadian Olympic women as a group. It writes: "Clara Hughes, one of four athletes in the world to win medals at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, has a theory. 'Canada is not afraid to allow women every single opportunity men have. Compared to most other countries, it's a very forward-thinking attitude,' says Hughes, 33, who won speedskating gold and silver in Torino in February, a bronze in 2002 and two cycling bronzes in 1996. 'Canada isn't afraid to celebrate its women athletes.' With more events for men than for women at the Games -- and with many women's events added only during the 1990s -- Canada's female athletes have a knack for rising to the Olympic occasion," writes Mary Jollimore for TIME. "In Torino, a woman -- Albertan Jennifer Heil -- set the tone for Team Canada, uncorking two airborne backflips and bouncing on moguls down the freestyle-skiing course for gold on Day One. Then, as Canada's men's hockey team, a crew of millionaire NHL misfits, fizzled to seventh, the women outscored all comers by a combined 46 goals to 2 to defend their 2002 Olympic gold and salvage national pride at the rink. But Canada's brightest star was Cindy Klassen. A hockey player since age 4, Klassen was devastated after being cut from the national team in 1998. She persevered, took up speedskating and collected five medals in Torino to go with a bronze from 2002. She's now Canada's most decorated Olympian ever." After a look Canada's 2006 female Olympians, Jollimore concludes "that modesty-and a desire to inspire others about what one can achieve in sport-qualifies Canada's 2006 female Olympic champions as heroes."

ICE DECISION CHANGES PORT MOODY'S OLYMPIC TEAM MARKETING FOCUS

Port Moody, a city northeast of Vancouver, says it will no longer focus on its Olympic-sized ice-hockey arena now that the IIHF and VANOC have agreed that Olympic hockey games will be played on NHL-sized ice. The city had hoped to attract teams to its Olympic-sized rink for practices prior to the 2010 Winter Games, giving it an advantage over communities that didn't have such a large rink. But Ron Higo, the city's director of community services, says the larger rink can still be used to attract figure skating and short-track speed skating practices by national teams before the Games.

BEIJING CITY OFFICIAL FIRED OVER OLYMPIC CONSTRUCTION FINANCIAL SCANDAL

Beijing vice-mayor Liu Zhihua, 57, whose office was in charge of construction of the 2008 Summer Olympic venues as well as the US$40 billion upgrade of the city's infrastructure before the Games, has been fired. Olympic Committee spokesmen said Liu was not under BOCOG's control and so had no comment other than to say that he understood that issues of corruption were being investigated by authorities. "His case will not affect the preparations for the hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games," he added. Liu's responsibility for Olympic-venue construction also gave him control over some of the US$2 billion operating budget for the Games, around half of which is provided by the IOC. China's National Audit Office began investigations into the construction spending last December. China's government has been focused on dealing with corruption throughout the country over the last few years.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 12, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1728

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC OFFERS LARGE EARTHMOVING CONTRACT FOR OLYMPIC VILLAGE LAND PREPARATION

The City of Vancouver is offering a large new contract for preparation work on the foreshore of southeast False Creek, where the city's Olympic Village is to be built next year. The latest contract package involves excavating, draining and disposal of a significant amount of industrially polluted soil -- about 33,000 cubic metres (1.2 million cubic feet) of existing fill, soft native soils and seabed sediments, then replacing it with about 6,800 square metres (about 8,100 square yards) of geo-textile filter cloth and 57,000 cubic metres (about two million cubic feet) of fresh gravel and sand. Also included in the work is a request to supply and place about 200 granite blocks, some to be installed and the remainder to be stockpiled for later installation. The work also involves demolition and off-site disposal of an existing steel sheet-pile bulkhead as well as for single and multi-pile dolphins (a type of piling). The tendering window closes on July 5.

VANOC SIGNS MARKETING AGREEMENT WITH NATIONAL, BC, FRENCH CULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS

VANOC has signed a marketing protocol agreement with the Fédération des francophones de la Colombie-Britannique (FFCB) and the Fondation canadienne pour le dialogue des cultures (FCDC) to "enhance the preparation and delivery of the 2010 Games in Canada's two official languages." The goal of the protocol is to encourage Canada's Francophone community, "in particular the Franco-British Columbian community," to support Vancouver 2010 in "cultural, economic and community-related areas." The protocol specifies that the FCDC (Canadian Foundation for Cultural Dialogue) will be the "catalyst for Vancouver 2010 in terms of observations and advice from Canada's Francophone and Acadian communities, except for British Columbia." BC's relatively small French-speaking culture, according to the protocol, will be represented similarly by the FFCB (BC Francophone Federation). Over the next few months, the three organizations plan to set up a national coordinating committee, "whose objective will be to mobilize support from the Francophone and Acadian communities for the 2010 Winter Games."

IOC'S NOVEMBER BOARD MEETING TO CONSIDER FIVE NEW EVENTS FOR 2010 GAMES

There are now five sporting events that representatives want the IOC Executive Board to consider adding to the 2010 Winter Games when the Board meets in late November. They include ski cross, women's ski jumping, team skiing -- all backed by the powerful International Ski Federation (FIS) -- plus individual curling and team luge. Ski cross is similar to snowboard cross, which was popular when it was introduced last February at the Torino Winter Games. The IOC is expected to discuss with VANOC officials the implications of accepting these for inclusion before making its decision on what to recommend for confirmation to the full IOC meeting about a year from now. The IOC executive board's, which is to meet June 21-23, will hold its last meeting of the year from November 29 to December 1.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 12, 2006

Friday, June 09, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1727

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

TORONTO LIKES ICE-SIZE CHANGE

Initial reaction from the decision by the IIHF to allow VANOC to play Olympic hockey on North American-sized ice: From Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun newspaper's sports department: "Canadian hockey got a huge boost with news that the 2010 Vancouver Olympics will be played on NHL sized-ice surfaces. If anything baffled Canada in Turin, it was its inability to adapt to international ice. On a smaller rink, the game is more physical, more forechecking, more Canadian style. Can you say gold medal?"

VANOC REPORTS TO IOC EXECUTIVE BOARD JUNE 22

The agenda for the IOC's Executive Board meeting at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, shows that VANOC's IOC Commissioner Rene Fasel will report on the status of the 2010 Winter Games during a three-hour session on Thursday, June 22. That same session will also hear about the status of the London, England's 2012 Summer Games. Fasel is expected to summarize the two days of briefings his commission received this week from VANOC. His report is to come only two hours after IOC president Jacque Rogge announces the culled list of candidate cities for the 2014 Winter Games. Those cities will have about a year to finalize their bids and be inspected in technical detail by IOC staff and committees before the decision about which city will be awarded the Games. The current list of cities, which will likely be shortened by two, are Sochi (Russia), Salzburg (Austria), Jaca (Spain), Almaty (Kazakhstan), PyeongChang (Republic of Korea), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Borjomi (Georgia). Salzburg and PyeongChang are expected to be safe from the cull. The winner will be involved in VANOC's closing ceremonies, among other things.

LOTS OF CHEAP SEX AND POLICE TURF WARS - IT'S THAT KIND OF A DAY TODAY

A couple of odd-duck stories have emerged in Vancouver over the last 24 hours. The stories are currently camped just outside VANOC's influence fence. An ad-hoc group calling itself "Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity" has been talking about the reportedly heavy demand for cheap sex around major sporting events, such as the World Cup soccer tournament that started today. So, of course, a radio-station reporter asked VANOC CEO John Furlong, what he thought about the issue. He replied, "It's certainly not something that anyone has brought to our attention in any formal way." And the Vancouver Sun newspaper is reporting that the decision by Vancouver police to form their own small anti-terrorist squad has caused a long-standing jurisdictional fault line to open slightly between the city police and the integrated security group dealing with the 2010 Games. A spokesman for the security team, which is led by Canada's national police, the RCMP, said as part of the squabbling that it wasn't "officially" aware the City was setting up the squad and that one, or perhaps two (depending on which side is talking) of the Vancouver police positions on the team have been vacant for a while. The RCMP operate in Vancouver -- its BC regional headquarters is in the city -- but the city's own police force patrol it and have jurisdiction. The RCMP, however, have contractual agreements to police Richmond and Whistler, two other VANOC venue municipalities. West Vancouver, the remaining venue town, has its own small police force.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 9, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1726
CANADIAN WEATHER DEPARTMENT TO BUY C$350,000 WIND, TEMPERATURE EQUIPMENT TO HELP 2010 FORECASTING

The Canadian government is expected to issue a sole-source award for about C$360,000 to the American branch of a Finnish company for two pieces of sophisticated equipment that will give Environment Canada and the Meteorological Services of Canada a wind and temperature profile to support the 2010 Whistler snow events.

Public Works Canada says it intends to buy a Lap-3000 Wind Profiling Radar System and a Radio Acoustic Sounding System (RASS) from Vaisala Inc of Woburn, Massachusetts. It won't be going to tender on the equipment for a variety of reasons, one of which is that Vaisala has software-processing expertise tied to the equipment that will allow the weather office to compile an 11-year-wind profile from data previously collected.

The equipment, software and processing would help Environment Canada and the Meteorological Service provided improved weather forecasting in time for test events in the Whistler area in 2009, and for the 2010 Winter Games. It's expected to be installed by next March. It will provide the organizations with the ability to measure and record the velocity and direction of winds, and provide virtual temperature readings that are produced by a combination of wind and precipitation.

Environment Canada says the wind profiler will operate in a narrow portion of the Sea to Sky highway valley. "This environment is complex," it says, "and generates data artifacts due to reflections from the adjacent mountains. These are abnormal operating conditions for wind profilers. Vaisala has developed specialized, proprietary signal processing techniques (multi-peak) to remove these data artifacts.

Environment Canada will be working with three research groups in Canada to support the 2010 wind-and-temperature profile project. Two of the groups are within Environment Canada, one is located at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia and the other at King City, Ontario; the third is with McGill University in Montreal. All of the groups are described by Environment Canada as "participants" in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics project "and will contribute expertise to the project." The lead scientific and technical expertise will be provided by the King City research group for the 2010 wind profiler, and it will share spare parts on an as-required basis. The Nova Scotia group has offered their expertise to support the wind profile for the project as well.

As part of its justification to go sole-source on equipment, Public Works says, "Procurement of non-Vaisala equipment would require several years of operation to duplicate this expertise, and would mean that Environment Canada would not meet [it's] contractual obligations to the Vancouver Olympic Committee."

This is not the first time that the Canadian weather department has contracted for expensive equipment on a sole-source basis to upgrade its forecasting abilities for the 2010 Winter Games. The Meteorological Service of Canada spent at least C$100,000 to buy six automated weather stations in July, 2004. The stations, from Campbell Scientific Canada of Edmonton, were integrated into Environment Canada's grid of weather stations, which are operated by MSC, and they were placed in strategic locations in the atmosphere's weather flow as it comes off the Pacific Ocean and heads for the Callaghan Valley, Whistler/Blackcomb and Cypress Bowl.

RESOURCES

How it works:

During the last 20 years, Doppler radars were developed to probe the atmosphere and derive the wind profile -- the speed and direction as function of height -- from echoes of the transmitted radio waves. The echoes are produced by turbulence and are compared to the same echoes that occur in clear air. Sequences of high power pulses are radiated in the vertical and in oblique directions. By analyzing the received echoes, the radial velocity and the turbulence intensity can be computed. A wind profiler is the operational application of radar originally developed to measure the echo intensity and the wind profile up to about 30 kilometres, with resolutions of between 100 to 1,500 metres in height.

The Radio Acoustic Sounding System provides temperature profiles by transmitting a strong, short acoustic beep vertically upwards. This tone burst travels as a compression wave with the speed of sound in the atmosphere. The wind-profiling radar is then used to measure the speed that the sound burst propagates, which also produces an echo of the radar signal. The speed of sound depends on the air temperature, so the temperature can be computed from the echo.

RESOURCES

Vaisala Inc contact info:
www.vaisala.com/aboutvaisalagroup/contactus/offices

The order for the equipment is going to the Woburn, Massachusetts office.

The Helsinki-based company is public; here's its investor-relations page:
www.vaisala.com/investors

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 9, 2006

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1725

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

GOVERMENT OFFICIALS TO DISCUSS 2010 AT FRIDAY MEETING

The mayor of Vancouver, Sam Sullivan, says 24 elected representatives from civic, provincial and federal governments have confirmed they'll attend a closed-door, round-table discussion about four major topics, including the 2010 Winter Olympics. Those who confirmed they'll attend include several Members of Parliament, Members of the BC Legislature, city councillors, park board and school board reps, and two representatives from local aboriginal groups. The four-and-a-half hour morning meeting will take place at Simon Fraser University's high-tech Segal discussion centre in SFU's downtown Vancouver campus on Friday. The 2010 topic will be led by a presentation by Dave Rudberg, the city's general manager for Olympic Operations, about the city's goals for the Games. Other topics include sustainability, housing and homelessness, and transportation. According to the agenda, all of the Vancouver city councillors will have an opportunity to make a brief presentation, followed by a roundtable discussion in which all participants are encouraged to ask questions and raise issues. The meeting will conclude with a luncheon.

TOWER EVENTS WINS CONSULTING CONTRACT FOR TEMPORARY SEATING AT VANOC VENUES

VANOC has awarded a contract for temporary-seating consulting services connected with its venues to a little-known company, called Tower Events and Seating Western Canada Incorporated. It's actually an 18-month old subsidiary of a slightly better-known firm located in Etobicoke, Ontario, a suburb of Toronto, called Tower Scaffolding. Tower Events also has two other sibling companies by essentially the same name, one for Quebec and the other for English-speaking eastern Canada. They're all owned by John Ferano, and were formed when the parent firm began to branch out to deal with bleacher-style seating opportunities. Corporate promotional material says, the firm provides consulting engineers and "scaffolding for major restoration, industrial, institutional, and special event projects. We are experts in engineering scaffolding solutions for challenging environments where structural integrity or environmental impacts are a concern." The contract was effective May 31 and is expected to be for 18 months to two years, ending in the fall of 2007, if the final agreement is similar to that requested by VANOC's RFP. VANOC, does not, however, publish any details of whether the agreements it reaches with any of its contractors is similar to that originally requested, nor the value of the arrangement itself, and its contracts typically prevent companies from discussing any arrangements they have with VANOC. Tower Scaffolding is located in a heavy industrial area of the city.

COSPORTS/JET SET DETAILS SOME MARKETING FIGURES FROM TORINO OPS

CoSports, a subsidiary of Jet Set Sports in the United States, was the official travel agency of the Canadian and US Olympic Committees, although it has other operations. The company deals in high-end travel packages for people, businesses and families going to the Torino Winter Olympics last February and March. It reports today that it handled 20,000 visitors who were involved with packages, which included rooms, meals, transportation and Olympic tickets for those Games. It also reported "5,000 bed nights with over 90% occupancy, and more than 30,000 meals served in A and B-level hotels and restaurants, had more than 300 ground staff, spent about US$75,000 on fuel for cars it provided in the packages, and handled 67,000 Olympic tickets, which it said was about 7% of the Torino ticket inventory. And those ground staff racked up 200,000 mobile minutes. The company is currently scouting Beijing and Vancouver/Whistler locations for the 2008 and 2010 Games.

RESOURCES

John Ferano
President
Tower Events and Seating Western Canada
(aka Tower Scaffolding)
365 Attwell Drive
Toronto, ON M9W 5C2
Canada
Phone: (+1) 416.213.1666
Fax: (+1) 416.213.1667
www.towerscaffold.com

Here's a satellite view of the head office:
tinyurl.com/gc9n2

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 8, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1724
WHISTLER, BC, STRIKE TENTATIVE DEAL OVER 2010 ATHETE VILLAGE SUPPORT

The Resort Municipality of Whistler and the BC government have reached tentative agreement on how the Whistler Olympic Village will be funded so that the municipality can go ahead with scheduled public discussions and public hearings later this month.

Whistler municipal officials say the open houses are scheduled about the Athlete Village for Thursday afternoon, June 15, 4 to 7 pm at MY Place, while the Public Hearing is expected to be held the following Thursday, June 22, starting at 4:30 pm at the same location. The municipality is legally required to go through specific steps before it can start work, and the one-week spread between the public forum and the public hearing on the Village is the shortest legally allowed.

In the meantime, the open house about the current status of the Lot 1/9 Masterplan -- the expected site of the 2010 Sledge Hockey arena -- is set for Saturday, June 24. There will also be a public information meeting about Whistler's experience at the Torino Games held the day before the Athlete's Village public hearing.

Whistler and its Whistler 2020 Development Corporation, which is developing the facilities, needs to start the Village project this month in order for it to make the necessary deadline schedules, but there have been delays on the BC government side as it analyzed various ways of dealing with the costs of the various projects.

The tentative deal is expected to include four components, although this won't be confirmed until later this month:

Additional funding through a special agreement from the BC government's 10% hotel tax, the possibility for which was announced two weekends ago by BC premier Gordon Campbell when he announced resort financing changes;

Changes to a document called the Community Land Bank Covenant, which would allow a portion of the Olympic village lands, which are to be transfered from the BC government to Whistler for the project, to be sold at market value to help pay for the project. The covenant originally specified that the buildings of the project could only be used for what Whistler calls "resident housing", for resort employees;

More funding from the BC government's contingency in its notional C$600 million envelope of funds it has earmarked for specific development expenses of the Olympic Games (VANOC was to contribute a total of C$26 million for the Village originally with the top-up set at C$8 million, but it's now been adjusted to C$9.5 million in the latest discussions), and,

Some low-interest financing for the project that is expected to come indirectly from the BC government through an unidentified agency.

The first three components have been discussed before, but the low-interest financing component is new.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 8, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1723

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANOC CONSTRUCTION PROGRAM NOT YET TETHERED BY FUNDS SHORTAGE

VANOC CEO John Furlong says there have been no significant changes to the organization's construction program and timing other than its hockey-rink size adjustments, even though when it applied for an additional C$110 million from the federal and provincial governments seven months ago, it said it would need to make changes if if it didn't get confirmation of the funding within two or three months. "No, but we continue to look at that program. We're moving the program forward the way we should; we're keeping the schedule together. Obviously, we would like to have an answer to the request as soon as we possibly can. We're hopeful the answer will come shortly, and we can press on and not have that concern going forward." Furlong says that, "Today, on Blackcomb Mountain and in the Callaghan Valley venues, we're ahead of schedule and we're on budget. We're in fairly good shape." Furlong says VANOC has not initiated any part of its construction schedule knowing that it's not fully funded. "No, the construction program will not be completed until the end of next year for most of the venues and, in one case, the year after. There's a lot of the construction still to come. All of the work we have done so far, and have committed to today, we have funds for." Furlong sidestepped a question about when the go/no go date might actually be, saysing only that he's "anticipating getting good news over the summer -- we hope" on the request for the additional funding, which is so far being held up by the federal government. "We're pretty optimistic it's going to work out."

VANOC, IOC TALKS OVER REVENUE SHARING EXPECTED IN FIVE OR SIX MONTHS

VANOC's executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications, Dave Cobb, says he now expects discussions with the IOC over the revenue split between VANOC and the IOC over broadcast revenues will likely start sometime around October. "We need to [compile] the really detailed version 2 of our budget before we will approach the IOC. We need to have a much better understanding of our overall budget before we talk to them about television. Plus, it makes sense for them to get through more of their international agreements, so that we both know what the pot is before we start talking about dividing it up. They still haven't [negotiated with] Japan or Australia, and others yet." Cobb said that VANOC needs to get more certainty in its revenues and costs "fairly soon" because, he said, "As we get further along, there is less time to adjust our program. But we're still under 10% spent of our [total] operations budget -- or, at least, what we anticipate. So it's still relatively early to adjust our program if we have to." Cobb makes it clear that he's talking just about operations, that the construction side of the Games, which has its own capital budget process, is much more advanced and less able to be adjusted now. "Come this fall, we're going to want to start getting closer" to knowing what revenues and costs of the Games are likely to be. Meanwhile, Cobb says he expects VANOC will announce another sponsorship agreement "before the end of this month", and another "six to eight" within a few months from now. VANOC CEO John Furlong had said in June, 2005, he expected the revenue sharing talks would begin before the end of last year. "We don't anticipate making a formal proposal to the IOC until late this year," he said at the time.

VANOC SLIDING TRACK EXPECTED TO BE "FAST AND TECHNICAL"

VANOC's director of the Whistler Sliding Centre is quoted in the Whistler Question newspaper today as saying he expects the track will be more challenging than Calgary's Olympic track, and its because of the short, steep area on which it is being built. “It is a fast and technical track for a number of reasons. The track provides variety in terms of facilities in North America. The track in Calgary is challenging in its own regard but this brings things up a notch,” Jansen said. “We had some site constraints and a small parcel of land to work with. The track follows the ground closely and results in quite a twisting track at a steep pitch." The track has 16 corners -- two more than in Calgary -- and Jansen and the designers expect speeds of up to 140 kilometres an hour could be achieved.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 8, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1722

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

COC, CPC LAUNCH SUMMER GAMES VERSION OF "OWN THE PODIUM"

The Canadian Olympic Committee and its Paralympic equivalent in Toronto have finally launched their "Road to Excellence" plan to improve the Canada's medal chances at upcoming Games. It's the summer sports' equivalent to the winter-focused "Own the Podium 2010" program introduced last year. The "Road to Excellence" program sets out plans to lobby for federal and corporate funding of C$58.8 million per year for specific high-performance sports-related programs for Olympic and Paralympic Olympic Games. It also sets out a plan to generate another C$29.6 million annually from provincial governments to improve junior and senior national athlete development. By comparison the winter version of the program aims to raise C$110 million over six years. The plan says the idea to put Canada in the top 16 medal-winning nations at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, and a top 12 at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. At the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games, the goal is for Canada to place in the top five.

FIS TECH COMMITTEES SUGGEST RANGE OF CHANGES TO SKIING

A technical committee of the influential International Ski Federation (FIS) is proposing the organization's executive fund a scientific study of the flight paths of ski-jump athletes. The committee says the study on the trajectories would provide standardized data and formulas for the geometric elements of jumping-hill side profiles, the extension of the start permission time to 10 seconds as well as better specifications for competition equipment, such as that for the jumper's running surface, the shape of the jumping skis, and other dynamics of the suits. Meanwhile, FIS's Alpine Committee has also submitted a number of proposals for the approval of the Council, including rules changes dealing with the starting order for downhill and super combined races, the definition of slalom technical data based on the number of direction changes in relation to the vertical drop, rather than on the number of gates, and making crash helmets compulsory in all FIS Alpine Skiing events, among others. That Committee also reported what was termed a "rapid increase in lower leg injuries, primarily knees, and particularly to juniors." As a result, both ski and standing heights will be altered the 2007-08 season. The widths of skis are to be expanded; the new maximum height of skis, plates and bindings will be reduced; the boot height will be restricted; and the radii of giant slalom skis are to be regulated. And, a freestyle skiing technical committee also focused on new technological studies. The committee decided to study the different measurement systems for athletic performance based on technologies such as real-time digital video and biomechanical analysis software, and to begin developing new performance criteria. The goal, said a spokesman, is to figure out what can, and can't, be measured efficiently. It is anticipated that there will be a shift toward more refined measurement criteria as of the season of 2007/08. A report will be presented in the fall meeting. The committee also considered introducing compulsory back protection for athlete safety. Many freestyle-skiing athletes already wear back protectors specifically made for their events.

US AMERICAN WOMEN'S HOCKEY TEAM BLUEPRINT FOR 2010 DUE IN DECEMBER

Dave Ogrean, USA Hockey executive director say they will have a "blueprint" by December on how the organization will get the women's Olympic hockey team back to gold-medal contention by the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. The team won bronze in Torino last February. Ben Smith, the only coach the national team has known, is stepping down and the team’s residency program is up in the air. The organization is holding its annual congress session in Colorado Springs, Colorado, this week.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 8, 2006

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Paralympic| #1721
PARALYMPIC FLAG FINALLY, CEREMONIOUSLY, RAISED AT VANCOUVER CITY HALL

There was a lot of pomp, and about as much ceremony, but eventually -- and about a half-hour behind schedule -- the 2010 Paralympic flag was raised, with help from British Prince Edward, to fly at Vancouver City Hall beside the Olympic flag.

About 500 people gathered around the City Hall grounds, in hopes of meeting the prince and his wife, Sophie, as they walked about a long-planned circuit half way around the building, accompanied by the chairman of the Board of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), Jack Poole, Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, himself a quadraplegic, and a host of other dignitaries and VIPs. As they did so, they were met with various cultural groups, from singers, Chinese dragon-festival dancers and other performers.

Among those that turned out for the flag-raising ceremony were most of the Vancouver aldermen, representatives from the federal government (Conservative BC Senator Pat Carney, standing in for the minister in charge of the Olympic file, David Emerson, currently the object of protesters for switching political parties a few days after being elected. He, said Carney, was kept in Ottawa by his duties, which, she said, included raising money for the Olympics. Also there were representatives from Whistler, who were barely acknowledge, even though all of the Paralympic events will be held in Whistler. There were also executives from the International Paralympic Committee, an aboriginal leader who thanked "the Creator" a great many times for a great many things, including "giving comfort to people who's relatives had died", 12 Paralympic athletes, a translator for the blind, and several children in wheelchairs who had a great deal of trouble getting their vehicles over the temporary tunnels made by various crews for their cables, which snaked everywhere.

All the while, the Fire Department band played majestic music under a tent, in periodic batches.

The tour group, in turned, were flanked by dozens of news media with heavy layers of TV and still cameras, most encumbered by sound crews, more or less kept to four locations by long strings of blue ropes on aluminum stanchions, batches of brass from the fire department, and dozens of City police officers in dress uniforms. And the Eagleridge Bluff protesters politely waved their signs at the back of the crowd, hoping to be in some of a news camera shots.

This whole official group, in turn, were extended by a handful of people from VANOC's Communications department, and a couple of dozen people from city hall given bright yellow vests with Protocol written on the back, each of which carried clipboards, cell phones and walkie-talkies. They, in turn, were extended by a couple of dozen heavy-set men with dark glasses who, like the police officers, faced the crowd, which pressed forward to face the VIP group.

There were a lot of nice speeches -- the prince, true to his word, was the by far the shortest and last -- and then the flag was raised, with the help of all those fire-department brass, with white cotton gloves, to handle the flag.

It was a beautiful day, with a light breeze, which made for some great photographic shots, and everybody agreed the Prince and Princess, who had lunch at City Hall afterward, looked very nice.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1720

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

VANOC LOOKING FOR COMPANIES TO SET UP PERMANENT ANTI-DOPING LAB FOR GAMES

The VANOC executive vice-president in charge of medical support and anti-doping at the 2010 Games says she expects a Memorandum of Understanding will be reached shortly with the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport so it can deliver "a lot of the services required for the Games." The CCES, based in Ottawa, Ontario, administers Canada's domestic drug-free sport program. Cathy Priestner says the CCES "has the expertise, the training and a lot of the knowledge to do that. We'll be making an announcement not too long from now about the arrangement that we'll have with them." There was no working group session at this week's IOC Commission briefings on anti-doping, but she expects there will be such sessions in future meetings, scheduled for next year. "Next time round, we'll be in a better position to talk about it, and the IOC will be in a better position to hear about it. A lot of our emphasis now is on our business planning, as far as anti-doping is concerned, and also looking at what we're going to do for a lab here." Priestner says VANOC has also begun working with the Institut national de recherche scientifique (INRS; National Institute of Scientific Research), which has a major anti-doping lab in Montreal. "They will be significantly involved [with VANOC's anti-doping program] as well because of their expertise. We're trying desperately not to have a temporary lab. If we could ever find a solution that would work in a partnered arrangement here in [Greater Vancouver], it would be ideal. We're putting quite a bit of effort into seeing if there are some synergies with other organizations that might work." Current VANOC budgeting only allows for a temporary anti-doping lab during the Games. Priestner also says athletes should have no concern about the state of the construction program because of the decision by John Furlong to fire former construction head Steve Matheson. "No, not at all. Our planning and construction is well ahead of what it typically is for an organizing committee."

IOC ONLY MONITORING 2010 ENVIROMENTAL PROTESTS

IOC executive director Gilbert Felli says the organization is "fully aware" of the protests and demonstrations by a small group opposed to the route of a new portion of the highway connecting Vancouver and Whistler in West Vancouver. "When you open your e-mail in the morning, and you know there's a protest, you know you will have a certain number of e-mails coming." Felli also said that the IOC was also aware of the discussions "since the beginning of the process". And, he added, "our understanding is that the process went through the normal process in your country, there was a debate, and then a final, democratic decision. Of course, we are always concerned that when the Olympic goes somewhere that we don't have anger, but some people are difficult to bring into the tent. It's difficult, but so far, at the end of the day, people seem to benefit from the Games." Felli says the IOC will continue to monitor the situation.

OCTOBER IOC EXECUTIVE MEETING TO DETERMINE 2010 EVENT MENU

Felli says decisions will be made in about five months, following discussions between VANOC and the IOC, about recommendations that will be made to the IOC executive about changes to medal events at the 2010 Winter Games. The IOC Charter requires that a review of the plans for the next set of Games takes place after each set of Games, such as those which were held last February in Torino. Felli says the international sports federations are first consulted about possible changes, and they had until May 15 to advise on potential changes to medal events for 2010. "We receive those requests, which will be given to the IOC's Program Commission when it meets in September. It will have a proposal for the Executive Board, and we will consult with VANOC to try to understand what would be the implication if we go to support some of these requests, and then the final decision will be taken by the Executive Board by the end of October when we meet in Lausanne, Switzerland." Felli says no decisions will be made on whether to add or subtract disciplines for 2010, because that's a seven-year process.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC, VANOC| #1719
IOC COMMISSION COMPLETES THIRD BRIEFING, TWO SCHEDULED FOR NEXT YEAR

The International Olympic Committee's Commission that oversees its 2010 Games franchise has completed two days of meetings, briefings and tours of the venues under construction in Vancouver and Whistler. It's the third such visit by the 2010 Coordination Commission.

The executive director of the IOC, Gerard Felli, who always attends these sessions, says the meetings between the IOC and VANOC covered many areas of Games preparations, such as VANOC’s structure, venue planning and construction, sport, legacy, communications, medals plaza and the Paralympic Games. The Commission also held working groups that looked at the service levels that different Olympic Games client groups can expect during the Games in Vancouver. These groups includ spectators, sponsors, the media, national Olympic committees and the international sports federations.

Felli said the topic of security was discussed generally, as part of a larger operations briefing, during the session, a topic which considerably interests reporters since the Canadian security service CSIS (prononuced "SEE-sis") last weekend arrested half a dozen men they allege were terrorists from the Toronto area, thousands of kilometres to the east of Vancouver, and reporters are constantly trying to get VANOC and Olympic officials to say the C$175 million budgeted in 2002 for Games security is far too small, not realizing that those funds are for specific, limited areas of the Games, and that the federal government's military will be involved in much larger ways outside of that budget. On the other hand, the spokesman for VANOC's security team has been careful to say in the last few months that the C$175 million is "adequate for what we're working with at the moment," implying it too could be revised by the time VANOC offers to the public its second business plan.

"Security," said Felli, "could change as the result of the international situation at the time of the 2010 Games. The country has to take care of the situation, and I'm fully confident the Canadian government will assume the full security of the Olympic Games."

Coordination Commission chairman Rene Fasel said that "an important subject that was raised by the IOC in these meetings was the desire to accommodate additional media and national Olympic committee members in Whistler and the surrounding area. VANOC is pursuing a number of options in this regard and the Commission has asked VANOC to further explore their options and to report."

John Furlong, the CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), said the Commission had left VANOC "encouraged about where we are, and the work we have done, and how we have tackled the challenges... it was positive."

The Commission, favoured with clear, sunny skies and warm temperatures, toured VANOC's three major competition venues in the Whistler area while construction was underway: the Whistler Sliding Centre, the alpine skiing venue at Whistler/Blackcomb and the Nordic Centre in the Callaghan Valley, southwest of Whistler. Fasel said the Commission saw that VANOC is "integrating the important aspects of legacy and sustainability in its planning, such as the use of applied sustainability planning and design principles in Vancouver’s Olympic venues and Olympic Villages and in the legacy that these facilities will leave not only to British Columbians but to all Canadians once the Games are over."

The Commission congratulated VANOC on limiting construction cost increases to 23% when costs in the marketplace have risen by more than 50% in the same period. "We say that's a good point for VANOC. They are working very hard to keep the budget as best they can. It's not easy to work in the Vancouver environment where we have this inflation in construction costs." The capital budget for the Games, according to Fasel, was C$470 million during the bid phase in 2002, but is now at C$580 million -- assuming the federal and provincial governments contribute an additional C$110 million on a cost-sharing arrangement first requested by VANOC last October and November.

Fasel says the 10-person international panel was "encouraged to see the progress that VANOC has made since the last full visit of the Commission in April 2005. They are clearly meeting their goal of preparations that are on time, particularly in critical areas such as venue construction and building a strong and experienced team. We are delighted that the partners of the Organising Committee continue to work closely together towards Vancouver 2010’s ultimate goal of putting on Canada’s Games that will inspire their nation and promote the Olympic spirit both within Canada and world wide. Indeed, this appears to already be well underway, as VANOC presented to us some market research that shows a significant increase in the positive impression that Canadians have of the Vancouver Games.”

Fasel said the Commision was also encouraged "to see how VANOC and its partners are taking on board the lessons that they have learned through the IOC’s Knowledge Transfer program, and through the time that the VANOC staff and partners spent in Turin, as either secondees or with the IOC’s Observer Program.”

The Commission’s next full visit to Vancouver will be in March 2007, although the exact date has not yet been settled, with a fifth meeting in September 2007. The Commission’s full meetings in Vancouver are supplemented by the regular visits of smaller IOC teams involving Fasel, specific members of the Commission and members of the IOC administration. Fasel and Felli, with some IOC staff, are expected to return to Vancouver for a smaller briefing in November.

RESOURCES

Here's the full 2010 Commission and its contact information:

CHAIRMAN
René Fasel - Switzerland (Member of IOC, president of the International Ice Hockey Federation)

MEMBERS (In alphabetical order and the countries they're from)
Fraser Bullock - USA (IOC Member, past Organizing Committee representative)
Ottavio Cinquanta - Italy (IOC Member, International Federation representative)
Rita Van Driel - Netherlands (International Paralympic Committee representative)
Gian-Franco Kasper - Switzerland (IOC Member, International Ski Federation)
Gunilla Lindberg - Sweden (IOC representative and one of four vice-presidents of the IOC)
José Luis Marco - Argentina - (IOC Member, a customs and immigration consultant, he is an expert on skiing)
Le Prince d' Orange - Netherlands (IOC Member and IOC representative)
Tsunekazu Takeda - Japan (President, Japanese Olympic Committee, equestrian expert)
Pernilla Wiberg - Sweden (IOC Member, Olympic alpine ski champion, athletes' representative)

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Gilbert Felli - Switzerland (Executive Director of the Olympic Games for the IOC)

ADDRESS
Coordination Commission
XXI Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver 2010
Château de Vidy
1007 Lausanne
Switzerland

TELEPHONE: (41.21) 621 61 11
FAX: 41.21) 621 62 1

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC, VANOC, Sports| #1718
2010'S ICE HOCKEY GAMES TO BE PLAYED ON NHL-SIZED ICE FOR SAVINGS OF C$10 MILLION TO VANOC

The men's and women's ice hockey tournaments of the 2010 Winter Olympics will be played on North American-sized ice, not the standard European-sized rinks of the past half century.

The decision by the International Ice Hockey Federation will save the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) "at least" C$10 million, reduce VANOC's operational complexity and allow it to sell 35,000 more hockey tickets during the course of the two-week-long Olympic tournament.

The announcement was made by VANOC CEO John Furlong in Vancouver this afternoon as Rene Fasel, president of the Federation and chair of the International Olympic Commission overseeing the 2010 Games, sat beside him. The Commission had just finished a two-day, closed-door, briefing by VANOC of the status of the Games preparations. Furlong said that it was VANOC's decision, about two years in the making, to approach the IIFC and the IOC about the change. "It was a highly responsible, sustainable decision for us. It means a lot less complexity for the Organizing Committee in preparing the venues, less to do."

Furlong said the extra 35,000 people who could attend the 2010 hockey tournament Games, which are expected to be sold out through the two weeks they'll be played, will mean extra revenue for VANOC. However, the executive vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communications, Dave Cobb, says VANOC hasn't done the math to figure out how much more because ticket prices won't be set until 2008.

The decision, said Furlong, was initiated between the IIHF and VANOC, and supported by the IOC. The IOC, in effect, prepares, through its city franchises, the stage for the Games, but how the events approved by the IOC are run is largely the decision of the international sports federations. "It was our idea, and it was discussed at VANOC for a considerable length of time, something like 18 months to two years. I attended a meeting in Riga [during the IIHF world championship games] a few weeks ago for a discussion with the IIHF executive and staff." Fasel said the IIHF also had closed-door meetings with the teams during the Torino Winter Olympics last February in Italy.

Aa standard North American or NHL-size arena measures 61 metres long by 26 metres wide (200 feet long by 85 feet wide). Olympic, or internationally sized ice measures 61 m by 30.4 metres (200 feet long by 100 feet wide), which also affects the numbers of seats that can be installed in a building.

In large part, VANOC's portion of the idea was based on the fact that during the bid phase it planned to renovate the size of the ice sheet at General Motors Place in downtown Vancouver, requiring significant changes in the refrigeration plant, and in other locations to accommodate the larger ice surface for the medal hockey games, and remove seats in order to do it. Then, when the Games were finished, VANOC would be required to pay for restoring the ice surface and seating to its original configuration. Furlong said that while VANOC is still negotiating a Games operations contract with Orca Bay, the corporate owners of GM Place, the IIHF decision wasn't prompted by the talks, nor does he expect the discussions to be affected by them. "Our discussions on that particular venue agreement are continuing," Furlong said.

It will not have the same impact at the two new ice rinks that are to be built at the University of British Columbia for tournament games, as the were always designed to be convertible between the two sizes of ice sheets, but Furlong said there would be some savings through a reduction in "operational complexities."

Felli said the IOC asked the IIHF, when it was discussing the concept, that it involve the teams, officials and the athletes concerned. "We wanted to have the support of all the teams involved in the tournament, and that was the reason it was successful in approving the concept. It goes to reducing the cost and complexity of the Games, and it follows the trends in what is happening in the sport. We want to adapt the Games to what venues are at our disposal. If we have Games in countries with a certain size of ice, then we will go in that direction." Felli noted that it is not just the IIHF that is changing, alpine sports are also adjusting, which is why there is only one skiing finish line in Whistler.

Fasel told Morgan:News:2010 afterward that while the decision by the IIHF was "not an easy call" because Europeans are not used to the smaller North American rinks, it was permanent and meant a switch by the IIHF in which faction it supported in a long-held argumentative discussion between the European and North American branches of the game about which size of ice sheet made for a better game. It was, however, he said, not an experiment. "No, we should never experiment with the Olympic Games. It's an old, old competition. The Europeans would say we should be careful of the NHL, they didn't like the NHL."

Fasel also said the new IIHF hockey rules, which are quite similar to those of the NHL, gives more room to skilled skaters no matter what size the rink. "We are going to be playing [at the 2010 Games] by our rules. I think it will work. More than 50% of the players participating in the Olympics are NHL'ers. It was not an easy call, but we have to help [reduce the cost of the Winter Olympics], we have to work together. To be honest, it would be stupid to spend so much money to do the [rink-expansion construction]... We are going to see how well it works. I think it will be good for the game; we'll see."

On the other hand, he said, since the 2014 Olympic Games bid cities, now nearing completion of the first phase of their bids, are in Europe, except for a bid by Pyeongchang, South Korea, which lost the 2010 Games to Vancouver. "I expect the game will be played on larger ice" in the next Winter Olympics to follow 2010, Fasel agreed. "We're going to be on the 30/60. and that's OK by me."

Fasel said the decision made sense. "I remember a discussion I had with [Team Canada coach] Wayne Gretzky during the 2002 Salt Lake Games about the size of the ice rink. Nobody knows if the small ice is better than the big ice. Certainly the old ice was much better when we played with the old rules. But today, in speaking with a lot of players, nobody is really sure about what is a good size. You can only make progress if you try to change things that are established. I'm really looking forward to seeing how it will work. playing with the new rules. I can say that the women's game is better on the small ice.... We had the same discussion with [NHL president] Gary Bettman. He fought very hard to get the NHL size in the Olympics in Salt Lake.... It's just responsible, it just makes sense. 'What is the best size of ice?' I asked Wayne. And Wayne says 28 metres [long].' I agree that, maybe, 26 metres is, maybe, small. But 30, for him, is too big. And maybe in-between, the 28, would be nice. But this is the discussion we should have together, with the NHL."

Fasel says there was no vote by the executive of the IIHF, whose congress, which meets annually, must still ratify the decision. However, Fasel noted that the Congress, at its last session, had given the executive authority to make the decision because of VANOC's construction timing. But, said Fasel, after a discussion by the executive there was a consensus, and everybody agreed. We have a very good atmosphere in our group. It just made sense." Fasel says a strong, small forward, like Igor Larionov, who was instrumental in breaking the barrier that prevented Soviet players from joining the NHL, prefers the smaller ice surface.

Fasel says he asked the IIHF's general secretary, Jan-Ake Edvinsson, to come to Vancouver last January for a 24-hour visit to see GM Place. "I wanted to show him the construction," said Fasel. "Look at the concrete. They want to have the same thing back again, I told him. It makes no sense. Why don't we take this opportunity, I said, to go to the small ice."

Fasel said a thorough discussion still needed to be held with the North American and European factions to decide on a standard sized ice sheet, and decide what is best for the game. "Our goal is to bring the North American and European games together. We should have the same rules. I am working very hard on that. Our goal is to bring them together, and work together to promote the game."

About 53% of the men's hockey players who competed in the Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games played on North American-size rinks during their regular seasons, while about 47% competed in European leagues. The international women's game has largely been played on North American-size ice, with five of nine women's world championships on the smaller surface between 1990 and 2006. The 2007 women's world championship will be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

The IOC's Commission of 10 IOC members was, according to IOC spokesman Robert Roxbourgh, "happy to learn that an agreement had been reached between the International Ice Hockey Federation and VANOC following a lengthy process of negotiations concerning the size of the ice rinks to be used for ice hockey during the Games in 2010."

Cathy Priestner Allinger, executive vice president of Sport, for the Paralympic Games and for Venue Management, whose primary job is to ensure that everything the athletes touch or encounter during the 2010 Games is satisfactory, says the majority of the hockey athletes attending the 2010 Games should be satisfied playing on the smaller surface. "I believe so. The athletes were consulted through the Federation process, and it was up to the IIHF to determine how it was going to go, and they did through a consultation process that included the national Olympic committees who participate in hockey tournaments, so we believe they'll be happy." Preistner said the decision shouldn't affect how hockey players will deal with the arenas in which they'll play. "Of the top seven hockey nations, almost all of them play, on a regular basis, on NHL-sized ice, and they'll be coming to our Games. The transition [for the players] will be far less than it has been in the past. There's always an adjustment, when they come out of the NHL and go to the Olympics, to the different ice size. In this case, the vast majority of the ice-hockey nations will have been playing on that ice size, so they might, in fact, be more comfortable when they come to the Games."

The decision is certain to flummox a number of BC communities -- such as Port Moody and Abbotsford, both east of Vancouver, Sechelt, north of Vancouver, and Armstrong or Merrit in BC's Okanagan Valley area -- which have been applying for -- and receiving -- thousands of dollars in BC government grants to rework their own rink surfaces to the larger standard on the belief that will help them entice national sports federations to consider using their town to practice during the run-up to the 2010 Games, which the towns see as lucrative for their businesses.

It also means more BC communities, which already have NHL-sized arenas, but which hadn't considered the expense of changing them, could join in the competition for national teams.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1717
PARALYMPIC LOGO UNVEILING POSTPONED FOR FIVE, SIX MONTHS

The senior vice-president of Revenue, Marketing and Communication for VANOC, Dave Cobb, says he has postponed the event that was to reveal VANOC's new logo for the 2010 Paralympic Games until sometime around September or October. The event was to have been held this month. "We have committed to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) that we would nail a date down soon. And we will do that in the next few weeks or so. They didn't so much care when it is as long as they knew when it was." Cobb also said that "I wanted it to be a little closer to the winter season. We wanted to include other people -- the International Paralympic Committee and the Canadian Paralympic Committee and our own Board of Directors -- in it. It was just coming too quickly, and the others weren't going to be able to be at the June event. I no real reason [for the postponement] other than I just wanted to have a little more time to prepare for the event." Cobb says he doubts if there will be a televised launch of the logo, like the hour-long event held more than a year ago when VANOC unveiled its corporate logo. "But that's the type of question that I asked, and we didn't have enough time to deal with that. So I said, let's just get it right and take a little bit of extra time and do a proper event in Whistler." All of the Paralympic events are currently scheduled to be held in the Whistler area.

FELLI, FURLONG SAY WHISTLER ACCOMMODATION STILL A PROBLEM FOR VANOC

IOC executive director Gerard Felli says that a lesson the IOC learned from the Torino Games is that once the distance between the city hosting the games and the mountain venues is more than about three-quarters of an hour drive, then "the needs of some of the people who are operating the Games prefer to have accommodation on site." These include technicians from the international sports federations, from timing and scoring, the broadcasters and the media that are reporting on the Games. He says that when the IOC, VANOC, sports and technical officials are here in Vancouver for the Torino debrief, "we will try to understand better the numbers of people for each category who need accommodation." Felli adds that, when the 2010 Games are held in Vancouver and Whistler, which are about two hours travel apart, "We know that the pressure will be on." VANOC CEO John Furlong says that's a difficult problem to solve in Whistler, which only has a population of about 10,000 and is in a narrow valley. VANOC has been operating a program for nearly two years trying to contract with hotels, condominiums and others in Vancouver and Whistler for their rooms for these categories of workers from about the summer of 2009 to March, 2010, using a specific, complex pricing formula, but has still not yet met the quota. In part, Furlong says, that's because of the complexity of some of the legal arrangements for shared condos. Many of them, he says, are owned by four parties, often living in four different countries, and so agreements, he says, have to be won "room by room." But it's worth doing, he says, because for every room acquired like this, it means four people from VANOC's stakeholder groups can be accommodated.

IOC SAYS EMPTY HOCKEY SEATS A TORINO-ONLY PROBLEM

The head of the IOC's 2010 Olympic Commission, Rene Fasel, says there were some problems withe Torino Winter Olympics that should not be repeated by the 2010 Organizing Committee. "The concern for hockey was, for sure, the empty seats" at most of the tournament games leading up to the full stands of the medal rounds. "But," he added, "Torino and Italy, they are not a hockey place." He also said that ticket pricing was "very high." But, says Fasel, "I expect all the hockey games will be sold out in Vancouver. Women's, men; they'll be sold out." Asked if he thought biathlon would be sold out in 2010, he over-rode an assistant's comment of "No." to say, "Why not? Canadians are crazy about winter sports. I expect it will be a big, big event. We will never have such winter games as we will have in Vancouver." There will be a debriefing of the Torino 2006 Games in Vancouver at VANOC headquarters next month, from July 10 to 15. VANOC, according to IOC figures, had 172 people in Torino either taking part or observing the Games operations.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1716

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

FASEL UNCONCERNED ABOUT QUALITY OF VANOC CONSTRUCTION

Rene Fasel, the chairman of the Commission overseeing the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, said he had no concerns about the quality of construction of the Games when he learned that the head of construction, Steve Matheson, was about to be fired. "No, we are in Canada," Fasel told Morgan:News:2010. "This is a country where people know how to construct things." When it was noted that Matheson knew how to build things, but had been replaced by a man who knew how to build highways, as opposed to things that were vertical, he added, "It's an internal decision made by VANOC. We should respect that. They know what they have to do, and they know what to do." Fasel said that he was also not concerned that Matheson's firing meant that the Games had been jeopardized in any way, "No, no, no, I trust VANOC very much in that area. This is more an internal question. To bring an [Organizing] group together is not an easy thing. Everybody has to fit."

FASEL READY TO SWIM FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDING FOR VANOC

Fasel says he is unconcerned that the Canadian government has spent more than seven months trying to decide whether to approve an extra C$55 million to the capital budget of the Games. "No, they are responsible people, and they want to be sure they are not throwing money out of the window. It's C$110 million from both the provincial and federal governments. It's good that they are having a good look at it." Fasel says that "we hope and trust they will give us the money, and I think they will." When asked if he has urged Ottawa to do so, he added, "If they want me to, I will even swim [from Europe] to Canada convince them to give the money to VANOC."

FASEL TREATED FOR FOOD ALLERGY BY VANOC'S CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

Fasel, who looked quite healthy this afternoon after a bout with what he believes was food poisoning as he was flying from New York to Vancouver Tuesday for the Commission hearings, said he was treated by VANOC's Chief Medical Officer, Jack Taunton. Fasel was only half smiling when he said that Taunton, who was hired last December to oversee all the medical aspects of the 2010 Winter Game, "brought me back from near death. I was really bad." Fasel says he is allergic to shellfish, shrimps and similar types of food, but he didn't eat at all on the airplane, nor does he think he ate such food in New York before leaving, "but sometimes you don't really check what you eat when it's 5 o'clock in the morning. But it was tough. I'm feeling much, much better now." Fasel missed much of the commission's first day of briefings yesterday but was involved today. He is, however, quite familiar with the status of the Games, due to regular discussions with VANOC executives between the annual commission briefings.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Government| #1715
BC SAYS TAXPAYERS SHOULD NOT BE CONCERNED ABOUT QUALITY OF VANOC CONSTRUCTION WORK

The minister in charge of the BC government's Olympic portfolio, Colin Hansen, says taxpayers should not be concerned about the quality of the work that has been done on venues up to the time when CEO John Furlong fired his executive vice-president of construction, Steve Matheson.

"No," he said, choosing his words carefully, "But I think we were at a stage in the process where the intensity of the work that had to be done was growing, and there was a need for a lot more focused management of the venue construction. I think the decision by VANOC to bring in one person who has no other responsibility than to oversee venue construction was certainly something we [the BC government] were supportive of."

Matheson was fired May 18 from his as senior vice-president of Venues for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), just as the first of two major construction years was about to get underway. He was replaced by Dan Doyle, who had retired in June 2005 as the BC government's Deputy Minister of Transportation.

Hansen noted that Matheson "had other responsibilities than just construction," but, when asked if it would be simpler to clear away the other responsibilities, Hansen said, "That's a decision that VANOC made. We're just one of the funding partners. It's up to VANOC to manage their staff."

VANOC had applied to the BC government last October, and the federal government last November, for $55 million each to help offset construction inflation in BC that had been running between 7% and 9% for the past few years. At the time, VANOC comptroller John McLaughlin had told the governments in a position paper that decisions would need to be made on the funding within two months or VANOC would be forced to make changes to its half-billion construction program and scheduling.

Seven months later, the BC government has confirmed it will only contribute the additional funding if the federal government does the same, and so far, Ottawa has not confirmed it would agree to the request. And VANOC has not announced any changes to its construction program, even though major building is underway now.

Hanson was also careful in his answer when asked if VANOC has started on a construction program for which full funding has not yet been approved. "We have indicated to [VANOC] they need to live within the approvals that they've received. The envelope that they have is C$475 million, and they need to proceed with that in mind until such time they get approval for any increase that might be coming from the province or the federal government."

Hansen added that BC is continuing to "put pressure on the federal government to get on with their decision." He sidestepped a question about whether he's had indication they are about to do that, but saying, "I think they recognize the priority and the importance of getting a decision sooner than later. I think [the delay] comes down to the fact that it's a new government and they have a ton of things on their agenda, and this is one of many, many things that are competing for time in Ottawa for their decision-making process."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC| #1714
WADA, UNESCO URGE WORLD GOVERNMENTS TO SIGN ANTI-DOPING TREATY

The president of the World Anti-Doping Agency and the director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization issued a joint statement in Montreal today to pressure governments around the world to sign a treaty against athletic doping.

Dick Pound, WADA president and a member of the Board of Directors of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), met with UNESCO's Koïchiro Matsuura in Montreal on a range of issues dealing with doping in sport. They did so, in particular, they said, to discuss cooperation between the two organizations and implementation of the International Convention against Doping in Sport, adopted by UNESCO.

Thirty countries must file their approval of the Convention for it to be recognized as international law. In last October, when the ratification process began, only 13 countries have done so, including, Canada, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
Matsuura and Pound, in their statement, said enforcement of the Convention is urgent. “The Convention represents the first time that governments around the world have decided to apply the force of international law to the fight against doping in sport. It is essential that governments complete this task quickly to ensure that future generations are able to enjoy and excel in doping-free sport. Governments must now do their part and match the commitments of the sporting movement,” they urged.

The two are also working on programs to develop anti-doping education and training programs for young people. They said, “we believe that it is essential to educate the athletes of tomorrow.”

The two executives say they hope to combine the resources of sports and governments "to enhance, supplement, and coordinate existing efforts to educate athletes about the harm of doping, reinforce the ideal of fair play, and sanction those who cheat. We are confident that if we can effectively instil values of fair play they will have a lasting impact."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1713

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

FASEL ILL FOR FIRST DAY OF 2010 COMMMISSION BRIEFINGS

The chair of the IOC's Co-ordination Commission overseeing the 2010 Winter Olympics, Rene Fasel, was reported ill and seen by a doctor when he landed in Vancouver on a flight from New York to attend a working briefing session with the rest of the Commission this week. There is no word on his condition, but the illness does not seem to be significant, as he was expected to be involved in today's last day of briefings. Meanwhile, one of the group of environmental protesters objecting to the route of a highway connector between Vancouver and Whistler says he was told by VANOC representatives on the weekend that two IOC Commission representatives were willing to meet with his group for up to 10 minutes to hear their point of view about the connector, which they link to the 2010 Olympics, but John Bannister said he was insulted. The group is expected to protest during this afternoon's Paralympic flag raising at Vancouver City Hall, which will be performed in part by British Prince Edward, who has done volunteer work for the IPC. The group also protested during the raising of the Olympic flag at City Hall earlier this year.

RICHMOND TO CONTRACT 2010-RELATED BRIDGEWORK

Richmond, which is working on a C$2 million project to reroute River Road in preparation for the 2010 Olympics speedskating oval sports complex, is asking for contractors to bid on building a relatively short bridge over the Hollybridge Way Canal as part of the project. The bridge is 28.4m wide by 17.5m long (93.2 feet x 57.4 feet), and done in pre-cast concrete. It will also have a steel pipe hanger for a 300mm diameter (11 inch) water main that runs about 70 metres (230 feet)

LA COMPANY WINS BIG INTERIOR-PAINT CONTRACT WITH 2008 OLYMPICS

Diversified Coatings of Los Angeles, California, says it has won a contract for its Morwear brand of architectural paints to be used as the interior paint for China's Tianjin Olympic Village project for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games. As co-host of the 2008 Olympics with Beijing, Tianjin will be the site of the Olympic soccer, ping-pong and gymnastics competitions. A spokesman for DCI says the project involves on million square meters of building area. There are five-star hotels, shopping malls, luxury residential buildings and apartments for the athletes to be built as part of the project. Morwear paint, says the spokesman, is a paint that is odorless and environmentally friendly. DCI had only bought the brand last October from a company that was going bankrupt. Companies that are contracted by Olympic Games as suppliers sometimes have a business edge in supplier competitions to future Games.

RESOURCES

Diversified Coatings, Inc.
www.diversifiedcoatingsinc.com

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 7, 2006

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1712

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

WHISTLER ENCOUNTERS BC GOVERNMENT DELAYS IN STARTING OLYMPIC VILLAGE WORK

Whistler mayor Ken Melamed says his officials are encountering some so-far minor delays in starting construction of one of VANOC's venues. They are awaiting BC government approval of the business plan for the 2010 Whistler Athletes Village, and the land transfer for it, before site clearing can begin. The mayor said the Whistler 2020 Development Corporation, which is developing the Athletes Village, needs to tell crews to begin site clearing early this month if the timeline for having the facilities ready for use in the summer of 2009 is to be completed on time. But, he says, "The province has said it may take as long as 20 days" for the approvals to be provided, putting the estimated decision about the third week of this month. Vancouver Sun newspaper reporter Jeff Lee writes that the business-plan negotiations involve discussion over various options to accomplish a permanent village at the Village site as a core for a larger Whistler planned housing area, while the amount of money provided by VANOC is only sufficient for construction of a temporary village.

WHISTLER MAYOR'S GOAL TO PROTECT INTEGRITY OF TOWN DURING OLYMPICS

Melamed was interviewed at length recently by the Western News of Penticton, a resort community in BC's south-central Okanagan area. The interview, published yesterday, focused on resort-community issues, but at one point he made a brief comment that gave a sense of how he feels about the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics setting up in the community. He had been saying that he felt the community was quite comfortable with its current population size of about 10,000. "We promised the community when we went into the bidding process," he said about the Olympics, "that the community shouldn't change in a massive way. The games are 17 days. So the challenge is to protect the community from massive changes. We said we are happy to have Olympics and we'd like to see that happen without massive change. Our mandate as a government is put on the best Games that we can and leverage the opportunities for Whistler, so it will drive business during the Games, as well as have pre- and post-games. But we also have to protect the integrity of the town and have it look [afterward] very much the way it does before the Games."

NHL CONSIDERS WORLD CUP CONTESTS AFTER 2010 OLYMPICS

The president of the National Hockey League, Gary Bettman, says the League remains committed to playing ice hockey in the 2010 Winter Olympics and that there are no Olympic Games scheduled beyond that, but he is now suggesting the anchor sport of Canada may switch to the less punishing schedule of World Cup contests after 2010 instead. The Torino Winter Olympics required eight hockey games between elite national teams over 12 days at a time when the NHL's teams were preparing for their run at the League's Stanley Cup contest. The Games meant that many key players for teams were exhausted and some injured, which affected either their play or their teams' chances in subsequent competitions. Reuters quotes Bettman as saying about 2010, "We're committed with the Players Association, assuming all the logistics are worked out, through Vancouver, but beyond that we'll have to take a look at what makes sense. Is the Olympics the right format for us, the right forum, or are we better off doing a World Cup on a regular basis? There isn't a World Cup scheduled for 2008 although there are a variety of discussions going on about World Cups and world championships."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 6, 2006

Monday, June 05, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Business| #1711
PARK CITY'S MALONE OFFERS ADDITIONAL TIPS FOR BUSINESS DEALING WITH 2010 ENVIRONMENT

Bill Malone, the executive director of the Park City, Utah, Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau has offered a even more advice to businesses to help them take advantage of the 2010 Winter Games. In an interview during this trip through BC, Malone offered the following tips and ideas:

Pay attention to the World Cup contests: "The Olympic venues host World Cup events during the years leading up to the Games. There are a lot of business relationships that are developed during that time. By the time the Olympics came, there were teams, coaches and managers and athletes that had a familiarity with the community. That's something that businesses in communities all around British Columbia can take advantage of. There are some that are already in place, such as some ski teams, that are locked into training in certain areas,"

Consider the tour operators: "One of the ways communities can get involved with the Games is through official tour operators, from all over the country, coming to the Games. One of the things that is unique to the Olympics is that each country has designated an official tour operator. People in a country can go their tour operator to get tickets for Games and travel. They're not limited to those agencies, but they are Olympic-recognized agencies. Some communities pitch their location to those tour operators, to capitalize on either the pre-Olympic travel or post-Olympic travel. When my family went to the 2000 Summer Games in Australia, we weren't going to limit ourselves to the closing ceremonies, then get on a plane and come home. We had travelled halfway around the world, and we wanted to take advantage of that and see Australia. I can see communities in BC talking to tour operators about people like us as well."

Band of cities: "Communities in parts of BC could band together to have a presence in Vancouver or Whistler. We had a situation in Park City where five communities in the state of Wyoming banded together and created a Wyoming hospitality house on our main street. It was a big hit for the people who were there, in the celebratory nature of the Games. They could go in and find vacation information on the state and on those communities. There were photo opportunities. They made it a lot of fun."

Tips: "Read everything that you can read, and go to every meeting that you can go to, to learn about how the Games work. All of the information is not in the newspapers. Information will come out in dribs and drabs over the next four years, and at different points. Sometimes that information will change, as well, so it really pays to stay current on the news that relates to the Olympics and how it impacts it may have on your business. And use all the resources you can find -- whether it's a service business or not. Scour the RFPs and bid opportunities to look for business. We had businesses that came to the conclusion that one of the best things they could do was to close their operations during the Games, and lease their space out. They looked at what things sold, and what didn't, and realized that they were in a great location but their product line wouldn't sell during the Games to the customer. They turned over their space to a corporate sponsor who paid them big dollars to use the space."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 5, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1710

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

RBC EXEC TO SPEAK AT COMOX VALLEY DINNER ABOUT OLYMPIC BUSINESS

Betty McLeod, the senior manager of Olympic Business Development at the RBC Royal Bank, will be speaking to the Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce's annual dinner on June 22. The valley is on Vancouver Island, northwest of Vancouver. RBC is the financial sponsor of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. McLeod says she'll offer complementary strategic business consulting services to companies, to help them plan for the opportunities she says the 2010 Olympic Winter Games are bringing. She will also be bringing an Olympian to the event.

CHINESE NATIONAL FIGURE-SKATING TEAM STARTS ROAD TO 2010

China's Figure Skating Masters, a two-day event held at in Beijing's Century Star Skating Centre, gets underway on Saturday. "The Masters marks the starting of the new season as well as the preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games," said Yao Bin, head coach of China's national team. According to Yao, after the Masters, the skaters will start to choreograph new routines and some members of the national teams will be changed. "We have just received a new technical judging document from the International Skating Union and we found the judging standard has become more specific," Yao said. "We have started to study the new standard and the new routines will be choreographed according to the updated standards." The Masters attracts almost all the top figure-skaters in the country.

IERODIACONOU TO FIGHT KNEE INJURY FOR 2010 SPOT

An Australian aerials skier whose pain-contorted face made a lasting memory for the country when she blew out her knee during a Torino Olympics qualifying competition will be able to start practicing for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Lydia Ierodiaconou, rated second in the world before her accident, expects to be skiing again by February or March. "I will take my time coming back and I won't be skiing again until early next year, but I have definite goals in my sport and the ultimate goal is the Olympic gold medal at Vancouver in 2010." She undergoes a further operation this week on the knee.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 5, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1709

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

VANOC ON THE HUNT FOR CAFETERIA OPERATOR

VANOC is offering a contract to food-service operators as it opens up the second of its two buildings at its headquarters, which it calls Campus 2010; the second building is at 1570 Kootenay Street in east Vancouver. VANOC wants the operator to provide design advice, as well as to implement, manage and operate a "non-branded cafeteria." It will be located in the so-called low-rise building, which already has a kitchen built in to it. The cafeteria area will be about 3,100 square feet, with the kitchen an additional 462 square feet. The company will also be expected to provide some catering services. It won't be an exclusive food operation at the buildings, although the low-rise will be used primarily for offices. VANOC already has a company that operates the retail food kiosk in the highrise building next door. The kiosk operator is also able to provide catering services. VANOC wants to see proposals with "related specific and significant experience providing cafeteria food services and catering operations, comparable to those in public institutions, privately run cafeterias and catering operations." The contract for the winner will be good until March, 2010, when the Games are over and VANOC all but shuts down. The application window closes June 22.

PROTOCOL PROMPTS PARTICULAR PREVIEWS

It'll be a busy two days for VANOC's protocol officers as they deal with the arrival today of the IOC commission that oversees the franchise for its annual briefing on the state of the Games. The meetings, which last for about a day and a half, start tomorrow morning. There will be brief appearances and an opportunity for TV cameras to get shots of the session just before it starts in the morning at 2010 Campus, but the sessions are closed to the public. The meetings finish on Wednesday, but at noon on June 7, VANOC and Paralympic officials, with the aid of Britain's "His Royal Highness, The Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex, and Her Royal Highness, The Princess Edward, Countess of Wessex," will raise the Paralympic flag on a flagpole near the Olympic flag that's been flying at City Hall for a while now. As you might expect, there's a lot of pageantry, and do's and don'ts involved with that ceremony and, no, the Prince will not be available to be questioned -- about anything. He and She will, however, go walkabout for a while, but the media and other rabble will be required to stay behind those stanchions over there. And bring a long lens. Wednesday afternoon, the IOC Commission heads off to their home countries, after touring Vancouver and Whistler venues, and there'll be a public discussion by IOC Commission chair Rene Faisel and VANOC CEO John Furlong about what was accomplished.

SECURITY FUNDING -- MORE MONEY, SAME BUDGET

From our Comparing Apples and Oranges Department: Expect to hear a news story that Vancouver Police Inspector Rob Rothwell is predicting more money will be needed to police the 2010 Winter Olympics, with the implication VANOC's security costs will exceed its C$175 million budget. "My expectation is that certainly we will require, as we move closer to 2010, additional funding and resourcing in order to properly address the threats," Rothwell has said. He's quite correct, but he's not saying what a batch of media think he's saying. The Vancouver City Police will need additional funding as the Games nears -- and they'll get it when the correct budget year comes up. That money's included in the C$175 million; it's to be used for additional policing and traffic enforcement immediately around the competition and non-competition venues in Vancouver, Whistler, Richmond and West Vancouver. Meanwhile, VANOC's first public quarterly financial report is due June 14. Up to this point VANOC has only released annual reports on operations, about four months after its fiscal year end.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 5, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1708

Here are three more moguls we ran into today:

WILLIAMS TO FOLLOW OLYMPICS TO CANADA'S CTV FOR 2010

The broadcaster Canadians have most connected with the Olympics for the past 30 years, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's Brian Williams, will jump to competing television network CTV in December as the first, and most significant, component of the network's coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Williams's contract runs through 2012, which corresponds with the contract CTV has for the Canadian broadcast rights for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England. CTV also named Williams the prime-time host for CTV/TSN's Olympic coverage of the two sets of Olympic Games. Over the next six years, he is expected to have several sport assignments for CTV, its sister cable channel, The Sports Network (TSN), and other CTV-related channels. These include developing and hosting "lead-up" programming in the period, known in the industry as "the build", to 2010, and again for 2012. He will also be seen on occasional programs and, in particular, host reports specifically targeting a West Coast audience for broadcast on CTV's Vancouver-area station. Williams has covered almost every Olympic Games since Montreal's Summer event in 1976. In July, 2003, Williams was in Prague when the IOC announced that Vancouver/Whistler had won the bid for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. He also hosted "Vancouver 2010: Inside the Bid" a behind-the-scenes documentary about the bid process. However, he won't be representing Canada as an Olympics host broadcaster at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, although it's likely he'll attend as a non-host media representative and do reports on that set of Games for CTV and its sister operations. The 2010 Games broadcaster contract auction for Canada won by CTV last year was the first time the CBC has lost the right to show the Olympic Games in Canada.

HBC OFFERS EGALITARIAN RATIONALE FOR LACK OF OLYMPICS PROMOS

HBC, which agreed to spend millions of dollars to be the retail sponsor of the 2010 Olympics, has explained why its recent promotions for Father's Day in Canada haven't mentioned any of its Olympic-branded clothing, pins and souvenirs, nor the boutique areas it's set up in dozens of stores in which to sell them. According to Patricia Pytel, who is HBC's Coordinator for National Special Events & Public Relations somewhere deep in the bowels of the HBC Marketing Department, "As the Olympic-branded product carries a strong 'Canadian' message, we will be featuring it in our Canada Day promotions. As you can imagine, HBC carries thousands of great brands and interesting products and we try to give them equal billing."

WHERE'S AN EDITOR WHEN YOU NEED ONE?

Journalism's blooper-of-the-week award (and it's only Monday) goes to John Bermingham, Vancouver's CanWest News Service correspondent from the Vancouver Province newspaper, who is among those covering a small but noisy environmentalist protest objecting to the portion of highway under construction in West Vancouver to ease transportation by 2010 between Vancouver and Whistler. Here's the lead paragraph to the story he filed today: "Four nests of migratory girls have been found on the Eagleridge Bluffs on top of the original one that was discovered last week."

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 5, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1707

Here are three moguls we ran into today:

VANCOUVER MAYOR WORRIES ABOUT BORDER CHANGES EFFECT ON 2010

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities, which includes Vancouver mayor Sam Sullivan, has approved a resolution during a conference in Montreal asking the United States to delay the legislation calling for increased documentation to cross the US border until cheaper identification documents can be approved. The law is scheduled to take effect on January 1 for air and sea travellers. Land crossings, including at the U.S.-Canada border, will require a passport by the end of 2007, though the U.S. Senate recently asked for a 17-month delay. Currently, Canadians and Americans are allowed to cross with a driver's licence and a birth certificate. Americans over age 16 must pay US$97 for a passport, about the same as a Canadian. Notes Sullivan, "Three months ago in Torino, I invited the world to come to Vancouver in 2010. We're going to be representing Canada to the world, and it's very possible that this new regulation will make it much more difficult for these Games ... to be a success." The proposed requirements are already affecting Canadian tourism and convention business, because of the lead times involved in planning.

GROVES SIGNS WITH AGENDA SPORTS

Kristina Groves, 29, of Calgary, Alberta, who won two silver speedskating medals in Torino last February, has signed with Agenda Sports Marketing, an agency in Calgary that also represents Olympic medallists Beckie Scott, Duff Gibson and Mellisa Hollingsworth-Richards. She says she intends to focus on speaking engagements via the agency. She indicates that she'll make the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver her last Olympic competition.

VANOC PROMOS GREEN

VANOC reports that it is supporting National Environment Week in Canada, from June 4 to 10, by "making an effort to educate employees and partners" about "sustainability awareness and education through employee communications." VANOC says it is asking staff to "reward their colleagues for sustainable behaviours." Last year, it notes, VANOC’s Vancouver and Whistler offices won the Commuter Challenge awards for "achieving among the top 5% of staff participation for organizations of comparable size, and we hope to achieve a similar level this year." VANOC says environmental innovation and footprint reduction" are among its goals. The key elements of VANOC’s Environmental Innovation and Footprint Reduction Program are:

-- Ecosystem health and biodiversity
-- Energy and climate
-- Air quality
-- Water quality and conservation
-- Waste management

Besides thinking about the environmental impacts of choosing the sites for the Whistler Nordic Centre, VANOC also says that in the venue’s day lodge and maintenance building, the waste heat from machines required to operate the venue will be captured and re-used within the buildings to reduce the need to supply heat from other sources. The concrete to be used in the construction "will be less concentrated than normal," in order to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 5, 2006

Friday, June 02, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |IOC, VANOC| #1706
OVERVIEW COMMISSION TO FOCUS ON MAJOR ASPECTS OF STAKEHOLDER SUPPORT DURING REVIEW

We've mentioned several times now that the formal, annual review by the International Olympic Committee Commission that oversees the 2010 Games will start in Vancouver June 6, for three days.

We now know a bit more about the agenda for the three-day session, lead by IOC member Rene Faisel.

During their meetings with CEO John Furlong and other senior executives of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC), the Commission members will hold working groups to will look at the services to be offered to several of the key groups at the Olympic Games that the IOC considers to be important. They include: the national Olympic committees (the Canadian Olympic Committee and the US Olympic Committee are examples), international sports federations (such as FIS, the International Ski Federation), corporate and government sponsors, the media and the International Paralympic Committee.

The Commission will also hear from VANOC on the progress, or lack of it, that it has made in other areas such as venue planning and construction, the medals plaza, legacy, sustainability, communications and VANOC’s structure. They'll also get a tour of VANOC's new headquarters, which is its first non-venue renovations project.

The Commission will also visit Whistler to see some of the venues that are currently under construction, such as the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Whistler Sliding Centre.

The last time the full Commission was in town was April, 2005. This is the Commission's third visit since the Games were awarded to Vancouver in the summer of 2003.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 2, 2006

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |General| #1705
ST’AT’IMC CHIEFS TO INVESTIGATE IMPACT AND OPPORTUNITIES OF 2010 GAMES DEVELOPMENT IN WHISTLER AND SQUAMISH CORRIDOR

BC government land treaty negotiations with a group of aboriginal bands have had the ripple effect of the St’at’imc chiefs planning to investigate the business potential of the 2010 Olympics, its impact on the lands they claim, and how to be a part of the Games themselves.

The St’at’imc Chiefs Council represents seven aboriginal groups that claim a wide swath of British Columbia that includes both Lillooet and Whistler, as well as some of the Sea to Sky corridor in which lies the highway that connects Vancouver and Whistler. The area includes the land on which the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) is building several of its major venues, including the Whistler Nordic Centre and the Whistler Sliding Centre. Although spelled "St’at’imc", it is pronounced "Shtat LEE um".

VANOC has reached protocol agreements with other aboriginal groups that also claim the same territory -- including the Lil'wat and the Squamish -- but it has not done so with the St’at’imc.

However, the St’at’imc say the BC government has reached a "government-to-government" protocol agreement with them that, among other things, "support new arrangements to address land and resource activities, including mutually beneficial economic development."

And, they add, "The 2010 Winter Games, in Whistler, part of St’át’imc Territory, are expected to have a wide range of potential opportunities and impacts for the St’át’imc. For example, in creating the transportation infrastructure to meet the needs of the 2010 Winter Games, major upgrades are been proposed for Highway 99: C$600 million will be invested between Vancouver and Whistler and C$40 million for highway upgrades near Lillooet; Highway 99 traverses St’át’imc Territory." It notes that, "The Province's proposed upgrades may provide additional opportunities for business development and outsourcing opportunities for road and maintenance work."

As a result, it will work over the next few months to "review potential opportunities and impacts of the 2010 Winter Games, before, during and after the games within the St’át’imc territory," with a final report expected on September 30.

Its research plans also include investigating how to co-ordinate all St’át’imc marketing initiatives for commodities and "administer contracts allocated to the aboriginal community that are directly and indirectly related to the 2010 Olympics." The idea is that this would eventually include major sectors -- federal, provincial, municipal and third parties. The research will also look for "a direct input to the Olympics as opposed to just subsequently." This, it says, "could be the vehicle for extending benefits beyond 2010, since the work on the Olympics is a small part of the large upgrades occurring in Vancouver. It also wants to know about opportunities for revenue sharing from the BC government's 10% hotel tax from approved developments across the territory.

It also wants its research to discover how a “St’át’imc Olympic Logo” could be used in conjunction with provincial logos "to raise visibility and enhance tourism opportunities," market aboriginal arts and entertainment employment -- including the Games venues. It will also look at how best to outsource Olympic opportunities, such as security, ticketing and concessions, deal with "ongoing tourism opportunities as a result of St’át’imc presence in the [2010 Opening and Closing] ceremonies and how to best take advantage of construction opportunities including direct awards from VANOC.

And, in splitting up the results of the research among the time leading up to the Games, during the Games and afterward, it wants to have a look at the resources needed to start-up and operating partnership opportunities, and "skill sets to meet opportunities," as well as dealing with adverse implications, such as any potential non-economic impacts, so it can work out mitigation.

The Council of Chiefs says that it anticipates "that in addition to whatever economic benefits the games can bring, there may also be challenging impacts, particularly impacts , such as urban sprawl, environmental, socio-economic, loss of cultural, traditional use, wildlife, fish, plants and marginalization to the St’át’imc culture, traditions and way of life as a result of the 2010 Olympics."

RESOURCES

British Columbia has about 60 aboriginal bands, but only a handful of them, mostly on southern Vancouver Island and the north, have treaties that establish their land areas, and all but one those were settled in the 1800s. The only modern-day treaty is with the Nisga'a, in northwest BC, and it was negotiated in 2000. The rest of the province is under claims, some of them overlapping. There has been a process underway for about a decade to resolve the outstanding land-claims issues, but it's complex and expensive. Thus, the areas, particularly near Whistler, where VANOC is building its venues, involve land still claimed by aboriginal groups.

The four aboriginal groups involved with VANOC were brought in during the bidding phase to help support the 2010 Games, and that relationship was formalized over the last two years with a series of protocols and agreements, eventually resulting in the Four Host Nations Secretariat.

The Squamish band, generally, covers the land from the Whistler area south to Vancouver. The Lil'wat covers the land in the Whilster area and north, the Musequeam covers a large part of greater Vancouver and the Tseil-Waututh (pronounced "SLAYL wah-tooth") involves the area around North Vancouver's Burrard Inlet. About a decade ago, aboriginal groups in Canada, for a number of practical reasons centred on public relations, began referring to themselves as "First Nations."

RESOURCES

The St’at’imc have published a draft land-use plan that shows maps of various aspects the bands' land claims. It's here:
www.statimc.net/slra/report/part1.pdf

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 1, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |Moguls| #1704
HBC SILENT ON VANOC PROMOTION

VANOC's retail sponsor, HBC, is doing a promotion to underscore products its customers can purchase for Father's Day, in mid-June. In an e-mail message that's part of the promotion, there's a section of suggested gifts for the "Sports Dad". The section focuses on branded clothing promoted by British soccer star David Beckham. But not one word about VANOC or Olympic-branded merchandise. HBC and its daughter companies, including Hudson's Bay Company and Zellers, have about 500 outlets in Canada, and have been offering Olympic- and 2010-branded merchandise for about a year.

CAMPAGNOLO TO SPEAK AT 2010-RELATED GRAD IN WHISTLER

B.C.’s Lieutenant Governor, Iona Campagnolo, will be the feature luncheon speaker June 16 in Whistler at the graduation ceremony of 16 business owners, municipal councillors, artists and aboriginal people from Whistler, and the nearby communities of Squamish, Pemberton and Mount Currie. For nine months, the group, Leadership Sea to Sky, has been holding monthly networking meetings to discuss the 2010 Olympics, leadership and the media. VANOC's Tina Symko has been working with the group, as well as with two Whistler Secondary students who are making a documentary to help orient young people who move to Whistler, so they can show the film at Whistler Blackcomb employee-training sessions.

TWO NORTHERN CITIES PUSH FOR SPEEDSKATING OVALS

Prince George, in British Columbia's north central region, and Fort St. John, in BC's Peace Country, in the northeast corner of the province, are both working on plans to build speedskating ovals in the hopes of enticing national Olympic teams to train for the 2010 Olympics in their communities. Fort St. John's oval plans are more advanced that Prince George's, but both are hoping to have their facilities open by 2008, and both are still working on securing government funding. Prince George, on the other hand, appears to be more advanced in its marketing of its city facilities to national teams, such as China, and those facilities include snow sports. The Outdoor Ice Oval Society of Prince George, led by Anne Pousette, is hoping to build a C$7.6-million, 400-metre, open-air oval track. Fort St. John city manager John Locher says that he intends to ask VANOC to switch the designation of back-up track from Calgary's Olympic oval to that of his city, should VANOC's speedskating oval at Richmond if it can't be completed in time. Richmond's oval complex will not be competing against any of the other tracks, because the Lower Mainland municipality intends to use its complex for other types of sports events after the 2010 Olympics are finished.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 1, 2006

Morgan:News:2010 |VANOC| #1703
SOCHI OLYMPIC BID CHAIR INSPECTS VANOC VENUES

The chair of one of the seven cities that is bidding on hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics, Elena Anikina of Sochi, Russia, today finished a three-day visit to the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games (VANOC) and its venues.

The visit, which was informal, was as part of the Russian Bid Committee's research for the city's 2014 Bid phase, known as Candidature. It's generally perceived to have the second-best chance, after Salzberg, Austria, of winning the bid. On the other hand, the Austrian doping scandal that rocked the Austrian Olympic team during the Torino Winter Games prompted the people involved in the bid by Saltzberg for the 2014 Winter Olympics to replace their CEO last March.

Anikina's trip, from May 30th to June 1st, included a tour of the sports venues and inspection of the permanent Games facilities, as well as informal meetings with senior VANOC personnel.

The goal of Anikina’s trip, according to reports from spokesmen, was "to experience first-hand how to balance the need for sustainable development with long term legacy and how best to implement the Games’ organizational strategy."

Anikina, however, said only that, “My time in Vancouver was a most enriching experience. I have come away with a better understanding of the sporting aspects, the structure and challenges faced [by VANOC].”

Her visit comes as Russian president Vladimir Putin was urging his Presidential Physical Culture and Sports Council to support Sochi's bid.

Putin told a meeting of the Council yesterday in Moscow, "Of course, Sochi can and must be a national modern center not only for recreation, but also for the development of sports. The center should target not only professionals, but also ordinary people."

Primarily, Russians need such a health resort, he said. "We have no other place with such climate and infrastructure. Of course, one should support Sochi's bid to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2014. But this is also a fight for the development of sports and recreation, for a unique place in our country," Putin said.

In addition, Putin stressed the necessity to incorporate traditional Russian sports in the program of the Olympic games.

Sochi, in addition to other expenditures made during the trip here, has also hired a marketing firm, Weber Shandwick Worldwide, which has offices in Vancouver, to help it with its work.

All of the Candidature cities must first survive a culling of the applications to four or five, which will occur when the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board meets in Lausanne, Switzerland, on June 21. The cities that make the cut will be invited to submit detailed technical bids, for a decision by the full IOC about a year from now. The others include Almaty, Kazakhstan; Borjomi, Georgia; Jaca, Spain; Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Sofia, Bulgaria. Whichever city gets the nod from the IOC in the summer of 2007 will become deeply involved with VANOC, and be part of Vancouver's Closing Ceremony.

Originally published to Morgan:News:2010:Gold subscribers on June 1, 2006

Morgan:News:2010:Bronze Edition

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