'With Glowing Hearts' is 2010 Olympics slogan

[CielOnTap]

Thursday, April 29, 2010
Olympic team sports at risk
By ALISON KORN, QMI Agency
Last Updated: April 29, 2010 9:55pm
Are Canadian team sports at risk because of our quest to own the podium?

Even though team sports are where almost all elite Canadian athletes get their start, individual sports deliver more bang for the buck in producing medals — and therefore attract more funding and fanfare.

In contrast to speed skater Cindy Klassen, who won five medals at the 2006 Turin Olympics, the women’s hockey team members, all 21 of them, can only win one medal per Games. Granted, it’s usually gold. http://www.torontosun.com/sports/columnists/alison_korn/2010/04/29/13769931.html

[CielOnTap]

B.C. spent nearly $1M on Olympic tickets
Last Updated: Thursday, May 6, 2010 | 4:19 PM PT
CBC News
A report by the provincial government says B.C. spent $970,000 on Olympic tickets for politicians, dignitaries, business leaders and members of the public.

The report says just over half of the 4,600 Olympic tickets the provincial government bought were used to host dignitaries and business leaders at the Games.

It says another 43 per cent were handed out to members of the public through contests and other means, while three per cent were used by cabinet ministers and MLAs as part of their hosting duties.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/05/06/bc-olympic-ticket-report.html

Citizen watchdog groups will be keeping a watch for reports of the new businesses and economic growth that comes to BC this year due to the Olympic hosting program and business meetings. What will the return on taxpayer investment be?

~~~~~

I spotted an item on the Olympic Village housing, which was to be entirely turned over to social housing. There is another wrench in that plan:

Vancouver cuts Olympic Village social housing
Last Updated: Friday, April 23, 2010 | 8:23 AM PT Comments145Recommend66CBC News
Vancouver's Olympic Village was supposed to be a showcase for green and sustainable living, but ended up becoming a symbol for financial mismanagement for the 2010 Winter Games in February. (CBC)
Vancouver city council has approved a plan to halve the amount of social housing in the Olympic Village development.

Councillors spent hours Thursday debating how to keep an Olympic promise to provide 252 social housing units at the athletes' village, but in the end they approved a $32-million plan to rent out half of the city's units at market rates,

Under the plan, the market-rate units will be used for what the city calls essential workforce housing, targeting police officers, nurses and paramedics, and other key civic workers earning a maximum of five times the monthly rent.

The city's other 126 rental units will be reserved for low-income residents.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/23/bc-olympic-village-social-housing.html

Given that the city had to underwrite the financing to finish the buildings last year, I can understand why the city would like to ensure some market rental income to help pay down any debt from that commitment.

Laura Stannard, an activist with the Citywide Housing Coalition, said the city has repeatedly scaled back its commitment to provide social housing in the 1,100-unit Olympic Village.

"The promise that was made by VANOC, and in fact even before Vancouver got the bid [for the 2010 Games], the promises that were made if we got the Olympics were for thousands of units of social housing. And then it came down to 250 and now it's down to 125."

[CielOnTap]

Protest shuts down Olympic Village condo sale
Last Updated: Saturday, May 15, 2010 | 6:28 PM PT
CBC News
Protesters and police clash as officers move in to shut down the open house at the Olympic Village on Saturday. (CBC)Protesters crashed an open house at Vancouver's Olympic Village on Saturday, forcing police to lock the area down.

Brandishing signs and chanting, dozens of people were there to protest what they say is a lack of social housing at the development. "This project was once going to be used as a way to deal with the city's issues and now it's just making them worse," said protester Maxim Winther. "With real estate speculation, rents are going up and people are being moved out of the city — people that live [and] work [here], and their community is here."

Police tangled with the demonstrators as they attempted to push their way inside the building. Police shut down the open house at about 4 p.m., an hour earlier than scheduled, and locked down the area.http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/05/15/bc-olympic-village-condos-sale.html#socialcomments

The condos are hot pototoes politically. If the city needs that $193m that badly, I can understand the city's need to recoup market rate sales where possible. However, its social housing statement needs some commitment too. Maybe City Hall can convert some of its space for social housing?

[CielOnTap]

So someone will be paying for the gas bill to light the cauldron one more time? Can residents hope that no fence will be between them and photo opportunities?

Olympic cauldron to be lit on Canada Day
Last Updated: Monday, June 21, 2010 | 11:15 PM ET
The Canadian Press

Vancouver's Olympic cauldron is coming out of retirement.

The four-armed cauldron, which sits along the Vancouver waterfront and drew thousands of spectators during the 2010 Winter Games, hasn't been lit since the Paralympics wrapped up in March.

But organizers of Vancouver's marquee Canada Day event say the cauldron will once again burn bright during a July 1 ceremony.http://www.cbc.ca/sports/amateur/story/2010/06/21/sp-cauldron-lit.html

[smitty]

Good gosh, more expenses, for I thought that stupid "cauldron" thing was being toren down. Really have the political people run out of ways to spend out tax dollars?????????

[deja vu]

American charter bus companies that provided much of the transportation for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics say they are owed millions of dollars by the Vancouver Organizing Committee.

The companies say they are caught in a dispute between Vanoc and its transportation contractor, Florida-based Gameday Management Services over additional expenses Vanoc has denied. But Vanoc said Friday it has paid everything it owes to Gameday and that any monies owed are between the management company and its sub-contractor charter companies.


http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/Smal ... story.html


Vanoc never did get their act together. They just jumped from one mess to another.

[smitty]

I see you ALSO noted the mess in money from the Winter Olympics as I was raving about well before the money started to be wasted. I am surprised that the RCMP were not sent to my home for my outlook on the B.C. Olympic Govt & anyone crazy about more & more tax payers money being spent on this of that.

The so called Olympic Village housing was just many of the mix-ups the Winter Games had along with the additional taxes to us B.C. residents that did not have the money of want to waste that money on being with crowds of onlookers in some of the games. After all we could see far more on TV then have costly tickets, costly places to stay, costly figures of where we parked out cars & on & on it goes.

No we will NOT be influnced to travel to the next Winter Games in Russia, but have any of you thought of how much money will be wasted by our B.C. Province & the Olympic Games TO TRY & HELP OUT THE RUSSIANS?????????? Believe it or not but Russia is asking the above for help.

[pretzels]

The small businesses might have to go after the big contractor in Florida--that's where the company Gameday is based, right? But the games were 5 months ago and with the credit crunch on business by banks, I don't give the small businesses much time to stay in business. Not a happy ending to all of the effort marshalled to get the logistical parts covered.

As for the Sochi games---well, Moscow is smoking hot right now due to fires. The venue towns had issues with pollution and expropriations going on to get game venues made/started. Could be a big mess going over there without financial and legal teams beyond you. Take insurance too.

[CielOnTap]

British gold medallist trashes Vancouver Olympics for training favouritism

By Randy Boswell, Postmedia News September 7, 2010
Britain's only gold medallist at the Vancouver Olympics claims Canada "lost a bit of respect" internationally during the 2010 Games by unfairly exploiting its home-field advantage in pre-competition training.

Women's skeleton champion Amy Williams — who felt cheated of practice runs ahead of the Games and then weathered a failed Canadian protest after her victory in February — urged her own country to adopt a more gracious attitude when it hosts the Summer Olympics in 2012.

"The Canadians lost a bit of respect over their strategy to 'own the podium,'" Williams told the British newspaper The Mirror ahead of her speech at the opening ceremonies of the U.K. School Games, a national competition for top young athletes held over the weekend in Britain. http://www.vancouversun.com/sports/British+gold+medallist+trashes+Vancouver+Olympics+training+favouritism/3490563/story.html

Will the British decide on home team advantage to favour their athletes in the 2012 Games or be a model host and share the facilities with all athletes?

[CielOnTap]

The condo housing made the news again--the units are not selling at a clip to help the city recover its loan money. Apparently the area is not established as a residential area and even the residents who are in the building are allowing time for their neighbours to show up in other units.

Time for a timeshare option for fall-winter 2010? Use some the sporting event glow for city lodging and promote skiing away during the day?

Vancouver taxpayers on hook for $1-billion as most Olympic Village units unsold
By Damian Inwood and Kent Spencer, The Province September 8, 2010 11:27 AM

Sixty-six per cent of Vancouver’s pricey Olympic Village condos remain unsold — a total of 483 units at the massive False Creek development that served as athletes’ housing during the two-week 2010 Games.

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, whose city remains on the hook for more than $1.03 billion of the cost of the project, predicts it will take a “full two-year term” to sell the remaining units. “There is some concern we’re going into another [economic] dip,” Robertson said last week. “[But] I have full confidence in the developer and the marketing taking place. “I hope the market kicks in and they get sold. I’d like to see it fill up sooner rather than later.”

A spokeswoman for condo king Bob Rennie, who is handling the sales, said Tuesday a major marketing campaign will begin later this month for the unsold units. http://www.theprovince.com/business/Vancouver+taxpayers+hook+billion+most+Olympic+Village+units+unsold/3496091/story.html

Had I some spare money to buy a couple of units, I'm sure that I and some Ontario friends would a) want to visit Vancouver and b) scope out job market opportunities had we the units on hand as lodging, so the price of staying in the city would not scare us off.

Could there be some lottery winners wanting a West Coast address in Vancouver?