mr.x
September 15th, 2007, 02:41 AM
Olympic satisfaction
IOC pleased with VANOC progress on Sea to Sky highway, accomodations, sport venues
Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, September 13, 2007
The International Olympic Committee said today it's satisfied the organizers of the 2010 Winter Games have fixed two vexing problems that had the potential to interfere with running the Olympics.
For more than a year, the IOC has worried the Vancouver Organizing Committee wouldn't have enough rooms in the Whistler corridor for athletes, officials, technicians, and media.
That concern propelled Vanoc officials into a frenzied search for alternative arrangements and to double-check the availability of every room and home in the area.
The IOC had also been concerned about the state of the Sea to Sky highway, the treacherous road linking Whistler with the Lower Mainland.
Last week, two serious crashes and a rock slide today near Furry Creek closed the highway for hours at a time, serving to remind organizers that even with a $600-million upgrade, the highway remains a weak point in Olympic transportation plans.
But after three days of meetings with Vanoc officials during its bi-annual checkup, the IOC said it now believes it needs fewer rooms than expected, and that any serious road blockages on the highway will not interfere with operating the event.
In a news conference at the end of its meetings with Vanoc, Gilbert Felli, executive director of Olympics for the IOC, and Rene Fasel, chair of the IOC's Vancouver Coordination Commission, acknowledged there may still be problems in finding enough rooms for spectators, but the main objective of accommodating the key stake holders appears to have been resolved.
Felli said there has been a surge of requests from international media to cover the Games, but the IOC is limiting it to about the same number who covered the Turin 2006 Games. It also expects fewer local media will request accommodation, preferring to make their own arrangements.
"The local media often don't request rooms," he said, joking that here "either they live in Vancouver or they've got girlfriends or I don't know what."
"The experience we've had from the past Games is that the requests won't be there so we can reduce the number of rooms needed."
Vanoc CEO John Furlong said more than 93 per cent of the rooms needed in both Whistler and the Lower Mainland have been found. Over 20,000 rooms have been identified, and now staff are looking in detail at who actually needs them.
"We're going through this process of refinement, which is looking at each room and how many people (need them)," he said. "We are moving much closer to having almost everybody taken care of. We have moved a considerable distance on this in the last four or five months."
Felli and Fasel were asked if they had concerns about the continuing closure of the highway due to serious crashes.
"We are always confronted with the situation of a unique road to some venues. That is a fact of the Winter Games," Felli said.
As a result, the IOC always wants technicians, athletes, media, and officials housed close to the venues.
"That is why we put the pressure on Vanoc to get all these people accommodated in the mountains," he said. "Now we may have some problems with spectators and others if we have an incident on the road, but the Games can go on."
Like all other coordination commission meetings in the past, the IOC had little criticism of the work Vanoc, its franchise holder, is doing. In fact, Felli and Fasel were hard-pressed to offer up any concerns, noting that everything from the construction of venues to the status of operational finances appear to be in fine form.
For the IOC, this is a welcome relief from other Olympics, where often construction schedules were delayed or the events suffered from a national malaise.
During the 2006 Turin Olympics, for example, IOC President Jacques Rogge had to personally visit Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi to raise concerns over the lack of federal government participation in the Games. And the last Summer Games, in Athens in 2004, was marked by major delays in construction.
But Vancouver has avoided those kinds of problems, winning praise from Fasel for the fact its venues will be ready far in advance of the events. He said Vanoc, in completing most of its venues this year, has accomplished something that has eluded most other organizing committees.
Vanoc CEO Jack Poole, who is recovering from treatment for pancreatic cancer, was not at the session. However, he is expected to participate by telephone in next week's Vanoc board meeting, at which directors are expected to approve the selection of the executive producer for the opening and closing ceremonies.
The IOC was briefed on the search for the team that will organize the ceremonies, which will be the most-watched television event in Canadian history. The search for the executive producer was launched earlier this year and narrowed down to less than half a dozen finalists. But the makeup of the winning team is a closely-guarded secret.
One area of concern for Vanoc and the IOC is the competition schedule for various sports, since broadcasters want to be able to show popular sports in prime time. Because of the time difference, competitions run in the morning or afternoon might meet European or Asian markets, but not North American, Furlong said.
Conversely, events broadcast prime time in North America may not get high viewership in other parts of the world.
Furlong said Vanoc staff are working on their fourth version of a competition schedule that he thinks will satisfy all the stake holders.
Fasel, who met Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan on Wednesday, said he wasn't concerned the festering civic strike, now in its eighth week, would put people off from visiting during the Games.
Fasel said those are domestic problems that every city encounters and he believes the world will look at Vancouver through a different lens at Games-time.
jefflee@png.canwest.com
Friday, September 14, 2007
IOC Reviews Vancouver 2010 Progress
Posted 1:50 pm ET (GamesBids.com)
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is reviewing the progress of the plans for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
All seven Olympic Winter Sports Federations took part in meetings being held this week and discussed with VANOC the state of preparations for their respective sport.
Vancouver 2010 CEO John Furlong said, “every IOC visit presents an invaluable opportunity for collaboration. These meetings have been highly productive and confirmed that we are on track in all key areas including our venue construction program, which is on time and on budget”.
The first test will be the Alpine World Cup in February said organizers and Olympic officials Thursday. It will be held in the ski resort of Whistler where many of the Olympic events will take place.
Furlong said, “we are moving from construction to operational phases”.
Rene Fasel, chairman of the coordination commission said, “we were all impressed about the venues and the sites. They will be finished next year and this is just unbelievable, it never happens in the Games. This timing, to have the different sites ready, is for the federation very impressive”.
But there are some issues including finding more lodging, especially in Whistler, and broadcasting-related disputes about the timing of some events because of time differences in North America and Europe, reports AFP.
Gilbert Felli, Games Executive Director, said that organizers “don’t have any specific concerns about security. We trust fully the Canadian government to take the right measures”.
The Coordination Commission met with David Emerson, Federal Minister of International Trade and the Vancouver Olympics, Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, and Vancouver’s Mayor Sam Sullivan.
The IOC commission will be returning to Vancouver in six months.
A well-deserved big pat in the back for John Furlong and his VANOC team! On budget, on-time: the earliest sports venue completion in Olympic history!
Eat your heart out Beijing, Torino, Athens, Salt Lake, Sydney..........Athens again?
IOC pleased with VANOC progress on Sea to Sky highway, accomodations, sport venues
Jeff Lee, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, September 13, 2007
The International Olympic Committee said today it's satisfied the organizers of the 2010 Winter Games have fixed two vexing problems that had the potential to interfere with running the Olympics.
For more than a year, the IOC has worried the Vancouver Organizing Committee wouldn't have enough rooms in the Whistler corridor for athletes, officials, technicians, and media.
That concern propelled Vanoc officials into a frenzied search for alternative arrangements and to double-check the availability of every room and home in the area.
The IOC had also been concerned about the state of the Sea to Sky highway, the treacherous road linking Whistler with the Lower Mainland.
Last week, two serious crashes and a rock slide today near Furry Creek closed the highway for hours at a time, serving to remind organizers that even with a $600-million upgrade, the highway remains a weak point in Olympic transportation plans.
But after three days of meetings with Vanoc officials during its bi-annual checkup, the IOC said it now believes it needs fewer rooms than expected, and that any serious road blockages on the highway will not interfere with operating the event.
In a news conference at the end of its meetings with Vanoc, Gilbert Felli, executive director of Olympics for the IOC, and Rene Fasel, chair of the IOC's Vancouver Coordination Commission, acknowledged there may still be problems in finding enough rooms for spectators, but the main objective of accommodating the key stake holders appears to have been resolved.
Felli said there has been a surge of requests from international media to cover the Games, but the IOC is limiting it to about the same number who covered the Turin 2006 Games. It also expects fewer local media will request accommodation, preferring to make their own arrangements.
"The local media often don't request rooms," he said, joking that here "either they live in Vancouver or they've got girlfriends or I don't know what."
"The experience we've had from the past Games is that the requests won't be there so we can reduce the number of rooms needed."
Vanoc CEO John Furlong said more than 93 per cent of the rooms needed in both Whistler and the Lower Mainland have been found. Over 20,000 rooms have been identified, and now staff are looking in detail at who actually needs them.
"We're going through this process of refinement, which is looking at each room and how many people (need them)," he said. "We are moving much closer to having almost everybody taken care of. We have moved a considerable distance on this in the last four or five months."
Felli and Fasel were asked if they had concerns about the continuing closure of the highway due to serious crashes.
"We are always confronted with the situation of a unique road to some venues. That is a fact of the Winter Games," Felli said.
As a result, the IOC always wants technicians, athletes, media, and officials housed close to the venues.
"That is why we put the pressure on Vanoc to get all these people accommodated in the mountains," he said. "Now we may have some problems with spectators and others if we have an incident on the road, but the Games can go on."
Like all other coordination commission meetings in the past, the IOC had little criticism of the work Vanoc, its franchise holder, is doing. In fact, Felli and Fasel were hard-pressed to offer up any concerns, noting that everything from the construction of venues to the status of operational finances appear to be in fine form.
For the IOC, this is a welcome relief from other Olympics, where often construction schedules were delayed or the events suffered from a national malaise.
During the 2006 Turin Olympics, for example, IOC President Jacques Rogge had to personally visit Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi to raise concerns over the lack of federal government participation in the Games. And the last Summer Games, in Athens in 2004, was marked by major delays in construction.
But Vancouver has avoided those kinds of problems, winning praise from Fasel for the fact its venues will be ready far in advance of the events. He said Vanoc, in completing most of its venues this year, has accomplished something that has eluded most other organizing committees.
Vanoc CEO Jack Poole, who is recovering from treatment for pancreatic cancer, was not at the session. However, he is expected to participate by telephone in next week's Vanoc board meeting, at which directors are expected to approve the selection of the executive producer for the opening and closing ceremonies.
The IOC was briefed on the search for the team that will organize the ceremonies, which will be the most-watched television event in Canadian history. The search for the executive producer was launched earlier this year and narrowed down to less than half a dozen finalists. But the makeup of the winning team is a closely-guarded secret.
One area of concern for Vanoc and the IOC is the competition schedule for various sports, since broadcasters want to be able to show popular sports in prime time. Because of the time difference, competitions run in the morning or afternoon might meet European or Asian markets, but not North American, Furlong said.
Conversely, events broadcast prime time in North America may not get high viewership in other parts of the world.
Furlong said Vanoc staff are working on their fourth version of a competition schedule that he thinks will satisfy all the stake holders.
Fasel, who met Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan on Wednesday, said he wasn't concerned the festering civic strike, now in its eighth week, would put people off from visiting during the Games.
Fasel said those are domestic problems that every city encounters and he believes the world will look at Vancouver through a different lens at Games-time.
jefflee@png.canwest.com
Friday, September 14, 2007
IOC Reviews Vancouver 2010 Progress
Posted 1:50 pm ET (GamesBids.com)
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is reviewing the progress of the plans for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
All seven Olympic Winter Sports Federations took part in meetings being held this week and discussed with VANOC the state of preparations for their respective sport.
Vancouver 2010 CEO John Furlong said, “every IOC visit presents an invaluable opportunity for collaboration. These meetings have been highly productive and confirmed that we are on track in all key areas including our venue construction program, which is on time and on budget”.
The first test will be the Alpine World Cup in February said organizers and Olympic officials Thursday. It will be held in the ski resort of Whistler where many of the Olympic events will take place.
Furlong said, “we are moving from construction to operational phases”.
Rene Fasel, chairman of the coordination commission said, “we were all impressed about the venues and the sites. They will be finished next year and this is just unbelievable, it never happens in the Games. This timing, to have the different sites ready, is for the federation very impressive”.
But there are some issues including finding more lodging, especially in Whistler, and broadcasting-related disputes about the timing of some events because of time differences in North America and Europe, reports AFP.
Gilbert Felli, Games Executive Director, said that organizers “don’t have any specific concerns about security. We trust fully the Canadian government to take the right measures”.
The Coordination Commission met with David Emerson, Federal Minister of International Trade and the Vancouver Olympics, Gordon Campbell, Premier of British Columbia, and Vancouver’s Mayor Sam Sullivan.
The IOC commission will be returning to Vancouver in six months.
A well-deserved big pat in the back for John Furlong and his VANOC team! On budget, on-time: the earliest sports venue completion in Olympic history!
Eat your heart out Beijing, Torino, Athens, Salt Lake, Sydney..........Athens again?