Bulls and Bears - Bob Mackin

B.C. sport shakeup

2012-02-29T12:02:00.007-08:00

A new era in British Columbia sport will begin March 1 when Scott Ackles is announced as the chief executive officer of the B.C. Sport Agency.

It is part of an overhaul in the province's sport system in the wake of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

Ackles was the general manager of Vancouver's 2005 and 2011 Grey Cup festivals and replaces interim B.C. Sport Agency CEO Cathy Priestner Allinger, the Own the Podium blueprint author and VANOC executive vice-president of sport who was named last August to head of Vancouver's 2014 Special Olympics Canada Summer Games.

Ackles effectively becomes the most powerful executive in amateur sport in B.C. Former VANOC sport vice-president Tim Gayda has left his post as Sport BC CEO to be a consultant. Gayda's position will not be filled.

Sport BC and the B.C. Sport Agency will be working in concert for the betterment of sport in the province. The B.C. Sport Agency takes over management of programs that were under the wings of 2010 Legacies Now, such as the Aboriginal Youth Sport Legacy Fund and First Nations Snowboard Team. The former 2010 Legacies Now group rebranded as Lift Philanthropy Partners.

The Battle for Bodog

2012-02-29T08:03:00.007-08:00

I have had Bodog on my radar for more than seven years, as Calvin Ayre's Vancouver-founded online gambling company has very publicly targeted gamblers in North America despite federal laws to the contrary. The Americans enforce theirs, Canada doesn't.

Here is my 2005 feature from the Vancouver Courier.

Bodog has been, in one word, dynamic. It branched out into mixed martial arts events and a record label. Ayre operated secretly in Vancouver before remaking himself in the image of Richard Branson and Donald Trump: a celebrity, jet-setting CEO through which others may live vicariously. It took until 2010 before many in the Canadian media took notice. Here is CTV's W5 profile on Ayre and Alwyn Morris, the Los Angeles 1984 Olympic gold medallist who is behind Bodog operations on the Kahnawake Mohawk reserve near Montreal.

Bodog was a sponsor of the 2011 Grey Cup in Vancouver, Canada's biggest annual, one-day sporting event -- under the guise of its dot-net "educational" and "free-to-play" website. The online gambling industry's dot-net sites are thinly veiled, yet vital promotional tools for the revenue-generating, dot-com websites.

The Grey Cup also receives federal and provincial subsidies. Yes, the same federal government which banned gambling (and the promotion of gambling) in the Criminal Code unless it is operated and/or licensed by a provincial government monopoly. See sections 206 and 207. In British Columbia, the B.C. Lottery Corporation's PlayNow.com is the only legal avenue (though it is still banned from taking bets on the outcome of single sporting events).

Here is academic background on the Legalization of Gambling in Canada.

In the fall of 2006, President George W. Bush signed the Unlawful Gambling Enforcement Act. Since then, U.S. authorities have methodically picked-off online gambling outfits that target Americans. It was a matter of when, not if, Bodog would become the target. That finally happened Feb. 27 when the U.S. District Court in Maryland authorized seizure of the Bodog domain. The company, Ayre, James Philip, David Ferguson and Derrick Maloney were also indicted on charges of carrying on a gambling business and conspiracy to launder money.

The whereabouts of the accused are not known, but a statement on Ayre's website says:

“I see this as abuse of the U.S. criminal justice system for the commercial gain of large U.S. corporations. It is clear that the online gaming industry is legal under international law and in the case of these documents is it also clear that the rule of law was not allowed to slow down a rush to try to win the war of public opinion... it will not stop my many business interests globally that are unrelated to anything in the U.S. and it will not stop my many charity projects through my foundation."

Ayre, ever the smooth operator, has constructed a complex web and in late 2011 even launched a whole new gambling site, called Bovada. (Get it? BOdog, neVADA?)

The question has to be asked: what is the U.S. government's end game?

Is it simply enforcing laws against unregulated gambling on moral grounds? Wherever gambling goes, the risk of crime seems to follow. There are also very real and reasonable concerns about gambling addiction. Teenage boys, who were weaned on video games and are passionate about pro sports celebrities, are particularly susceptible to online gambling. The CBC documentary Gambling Boys is enlightening. McGill University's Dr. Jeffrey Derevensky is the foremost researcher on youth gambling trends. Here is his presentation to a 2009 conference in Singapore.

Or is the U.S. government playing catch-up with technology in a bid to ensure all forms of gambling available to American citizens can be regulated and taxed? The U.S. is a major debtor and grabbing a piece of the gambling pie has been bandied about as a means of mopping up the red ink.

The U.S. government's website seizure and indictment notices against Bodog are below. This will be one of the biggest sports business stories of 2012.

Bodog Website Seizure Warrant

Bodog Indictment

Gaglardi coy about Stars, doesn't dismiss a Canucks deal

2012-02-27T08:49:00.004-08:00

Tom Gaglardi is the newest owner in the National Hockey League, having bought the Dallas Stars in last fall's bankruptcy auction. The president of Vancouver's Northland Properties, and majority owner of the Western Hockey League's Kamloops Blazers, lost a bitter court battle with Francesco Aquilini for the Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena in 2008.

During a morning interview on Feb. 27, I tried to get hints about whether the Stars would be buying or selling players before the trade deadline.

"I don't really know, our team's core and our best players are our young guys in their 20s... We're listening to a lot of teams, teams pursuing some of our assets. If we can make our team better, then we might do something. We need to get better on the ice and build around our young core of guys.

"We like our team, it's kind of a disappointing middle frame of the season. But we've won four in a row and played the way we always thought we could. It wouldn't surprise us to do very little, if not nothing, by this afternoon."

Could there be a deal with the Vancouver Canucks?

"Oh, sure, Joe (Nieuwendyk) talks to every general manager in the league, i know he talks to Mike Gillis regularly as well. It's as possible as any team in the NHL."

NFL juggernaut touches down in Vancouver

2012-02-05T21:44:00.000-08:00

The roof of B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver was lit with New York Giants' blue after the Tom Coughlin-coached squad completed the second most impressive end of a season in football on this continent by winning Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis. (The Grey Cup champion B.C. Lions had an even better comeback season.)

In Vancouver, the National Football League's marketing juggernaut (driven by Bud Light) took over the Commodore Ballroom, where the big game was screened. Team 1040's Scott Rintoul hosted the event with special guests like Oakland Raiders' wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh (right) and Football Hall of Famer Marcus Allen (below), the brother of Canadian Football League legend Damon Allen. (Photos: Ryan Harris)

Members of the Seattle Seahawks' SeaGals performed and the Sheepdogs of Saskatoon rocked.

There was even a spotting of Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics women's skicross gold medallist Ashleigh McIvor.

And the nominees are...

2012-01-13T22:00:00.001-08:00

I had the pleasure of being part of the group of British Columbia amateur sport boosters that gathered Jan. 10 at Sport BC’s head office in Richmond to vote on the finalists for the 46th Annual Athlete of the Year Awards.

As always, the jury was faced with a high-quality crop of athletes of all ages and abilities (and from all regions) from which to choose. The winners will be announced March 8 at the River Rock Show Theatre in Richmond.

Athlete with a Disability, presented by the Province of British Columbia
Braedon Dolfo (Langley, BC) – BC Blind Sports Athletics
David Scott Patterson (Vancouver, BC) – Swimming
Michelle Stilwell (Nanoose, BC) – Wheelchair Athletics

Coach of the Year, presented by Canadian Sport Centre Pacific
Anatoliy Bondarchuk (Kamloops, BC) – Athletics
Peter Lawless (Victoria, BC) – Wheelchair Athletics/ Handcycling
Bruce Wilson (Victoria, BC) – Soccer

College Athlete of the Year
Li (Melody) Liang (Burnaby, BC) – Badminton, Douglas College
William Quiring (Abbotsford, BC) – Volleyball, Columbia Bible College
Preston Tucker (Vernon, BC) – Volleyball, UBC Okanagan

High School Female Athlete of the Year, presented by Scotiabank
Georgia Ellenwood (Langley, BC) – Athletics, Langley Secondary School
Alexandra McCawley (North Vancouver, BC) – Field Hockey/Basketball/Rugby, Carson Graham Secondary
Emily Oxland (North Vancouver, BC) – Volleyball, Handsworth Secondary

High School Male Athlete of the Year, presented by The Province
Sunny Dhinsa (Abbotsford, BC) – Wrestling, WJ Mouat Secondary
Adam Keenan (Victoria, BC) – Athletics, Lambrick Park Secondary
Reiner Theil (West Vancouver, BC) – Basketball/Football, Vancouver College

Junior Female Athlete of the Year
Shirley Fu (Burnaby, BC) – Table Tennis
Jisoo Keel (Coquitlam, BC) – Golf
Emily Schmidt (Victoria, BC) – Diving

Junior Male Athlete of the Year, presented by Triple O’s
Curtis Lazar (Vernon, BC) – Hockey
Kevin Kwon (Pitt Meadows, BC) – Golf
Filip Peliwo (North Vancouver, BC) – Tennis

Master Athlete of the Year
Christa Bortignon (West Vancouver, BC) – Athletics
Margaret Hudson (Port Alberni, BC) – Badminton
Stephanie Keifer (Vancouver, BC) – Triathlon

Official of the Year, presented by MyBackCheck.com
Jim Mitchell (Abbotsford, BC) – Wrestling
Terry Mosdell (Surrey, BC) – Lacrosse
Wayne Van Osterhout (Victoria, BC) – Rowing

Senior Female Athlete of the Year
Paula Findlay (Victoria, BC) – Triathlon
Amanda Gerhart (Vancouver, BC) – Wrestling
Rebecca Marino (Vancouver, BC) – Tennis

Senior Male Athlete of the Year, presented by TELUS
Dylan Armstrong (Kamloops, BC) – Athletics – Shot Put
Ryan Cochrane (Victoria, BC) – Swimming
Vasek Pospisil (Vancouver, BC) – Tennis

Team of the Year, presented by the TEAM 1040
Surrey United (Surrey, BC) – Soccer
TWU Men’s Volleyball (Langley, BC) – Volleyball
UBC Women’s Volleyball (Vancouver, BC) – Volleyball

University Athlete of the Year, presented by the Vancouver Sun
Helen Crofts (West Vancouver, BC) – Athletics, Simon Fraser University
Jacob Doerksen (Langley, BC) – Basketball, Trinity Western University
Shanice Marcelle (Vancouver, BC) – Volleyball, University of British Columbia

Coach sounds off on international bobsled fed

2012-01-06T14:45:00.000-08:00

Canada’s skeleton team remained in the Altenberg world cup in the former East Germany, but the bobsledders withdrew from racing because of coach Tom De La Hunty’s safety worries.

“In my mind they should have cancelled the race,” De La Hunty said on a Jan. 6 media conference call, the day after Canada 2 pilot Chris Spring was seriously injured in a training crash at turn 16.

After Spring lost control of the sled, it broke through wooden barriers at the roof of the track. A steel girder ripped off the front axle, which was dragged through the sled to the rear axle, with the athletes in side. De La Hunty withdrew his bobsledders because International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation officials did not follow through on a pledge to repair the turn and improve safety at the track.

"There was no change at all except some new shiny bits of wood, therefore the track was equally as dangerous," De La Hunty said.

The 27-year-old from Australia, who is based in Calgary, was airlifted to hospital Jan. 5 in Dresden with a broken noise and serious cuts and bruises. Bill Thomas of Queensville, Ont. suffered bruised lungs and minor trauma while Graeme Rinholm of Saskatoon, Sask. sustained a broken fibula and cuts to upper legs, buttocks and underlying musculature. Tim Randall of Toronto suffered minor injuries. When the quartet will return to Canada and how long their rehabilitation will take is not yet known.

“It's just a miracle the guys got out of it without having their limbs ripped off,” De La Hunty said.

Spring learned bobsledding in 2008 and raced for Australia at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics before joining Canada last season. He successfully completed four two-man training runs in his first visit to Altenberg, but completed only one of three four-man training runs. Canada 1 pilot Lyndon Rush speculated that Spring may have been nervous from the first crash and could have been distracted by falling snow, but said “crashing in bobsledding happens, but you never go through the roof.”

“You always have concern when you go to Altenberg, but Chris Spring has driven Whistler and Lake Placid, and they’re two of the other toughest tracks in the world. He’s done well there,” De La Hunty said.

“This wasn't a mental problem, this was a physical problem with the bobsleigh track, and I would not be doing my job if I sent the team down on a track that I knew was dangerous, really dangerous.”

Spring finished 14th in four-man and 19th in two-man at the 2011 world championships in Konigssee, Germany.

The Altenberg track officially opened in 1986 and was renovated for the Feb. 10-12, 2012 FIL world championships. FIBT executive director Heike Groesswang said Friday that “an official statement would be published by tomorrow.”

The crash was arguably the biggest incident in sliding sports since Feb. 12, 2010 when Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died from a training crash on the Whistler Sliding Centre on the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics. The 2010 Games facility hosts the bobsled and skeleton world cup on Feb. 2-4.

2010 Games live forever in B.C. Sports Hall of Fame

2012-01-05T20:00:00.000-08:00

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics opened and closed at B.C. Place Stadium, and that’s where the tangible memories are now housed.

Almost two years after the Games, the B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum doors reopened Jan. 6 at Gate A with its marquee Vancouver 2010 Gallery.

The 2,000 artifacts in the Olympic and Paralympic collection include gold, silver and bronze medals, mascots Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, a podium, torches, the late Jack Poole’s Olympic Order award, athlete uniforms and equipment and gifts brought by national Olympic committees. For Olympic pinheads, the Hall purports to have every single one of the keepsakes made for the 2010 Games.

The treasures were gathered via the tireless efforts of president Sue Griffin, curator Jason Beck, operations director Allison Mailer and trustee Joanie McMaster. Griffin reasonably feared before the Games that cash-strapped VANOC was going to put everything up for auction.

Much of the collection is organized in five display cases resembling each of the Olympic rings and representing the venues where the Games took place. You will find artifacts worn, used or signed by Canada's stars of the Games, like Alexandre Bilodeau, Joannie Rochette, Maelle Ricker, Jon Montgomery, Sidney Crosby and Hayley Wickenheiser. But there is a plethora of other nuggets that might surprise you.

There is a suit, helmet, goggles and practice snowboard that belonged to Johnny Lyall, who flew through the air on a ramp from level 4 and landed on the floor of B.C. Place to greet opening ceremony viewers from around the world. His script on a folded white piece of paper in large Helvetica type is included in the display case: "Welcome to the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games! Bienvenue!"

Nancy Greene-Raine’s torch relay uniform and the torch she used to light the ceremonial cauldron was autographed by Wayne Gretzky, Steve Nash, Catriona Le May Doan and Rick Hansen.

Two dozen of the 84 nations of the Games donated a set of ceremonial uniforms.

"Azerbaijan, they've got some good pants, just as good as the Norwegian curling crew,” said the hall’s operations director Allison Mailer during a preview tour.

Hockey superfan Dave Ash, who owns Regina-based Dash Tours, donated his white hockey helmet with the red siren light and his giant Canada flag that Corey Perry borrowed for Team Canada’s victory celebration. Ash paid $3,000 for his front-row seat to the Feb. 28, 2010 gold medal hockey game.

Pakistani alpine skier Muhammad Abbas, who was 79th in the giant slalom, donated the hand-carved, wood plank skis on which he learned as a child.

"Our wish list has been completed, we're just so thrilled,” Mailer said. “The only thing we really want is a Shaun White snowboard. I think we'll still work on it. Maybe we'll send him pictures of the gallery and tell him what's missing."

The provincial sports shrine also reopens with a redesigned Hall of Champions that features a touchscreen multimedia archive of all 325 individuals and 54 teams inducted since its 1966 establishment. Nearby is a display case that include mementoes of Vancouver visits by the 20th century’s greatest athletes -- a Santos jersey worn and signed by Pele and handwraps autographed by Muhammad Ali -- plus the puck used to score the Vancouver Canucks’ first National Hockey League goal and a stopwatch that timed the famed 1954 Miracle Mile between Roger Bannister and John Landy at Empire Stadium.

Elsewhere, the hall includes jerseys, trophies and gear spanning the histories of the B.C. Lions, Canucks, Vancouver Whitecaps and Vancouver Canadians, plus galleries devoted to Hansen, late race car driver Greg Moore and national hero Terry Fox.

The grand reopening is planned for Feb. 10, two days before the second anniversary of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Canada withdraws from dangerous German bobsled track

2012-01-05T16:18:00.000-08:00

JAN. 6 UPDATE: Citing track safety, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton pulled all of its bobsledders out of this weekend's Altenberg world cup after the Jan. 5 crash that seriously injured pilot Chris Spring.

“This is a highly technical track that has a history of crashes,” said head coach Tom De La Hunty in a Jan. 6 Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton news release. “I reviewed the corner this morning, and the track crew simply replaced the piece of wooden board that was damaged. Repairs to the corner were not enhanced, or done to an acceptable safety standard so there are no guarantees the same thing cannot happen again.”

“My ultimate responsibility is the health and safety of the team of athletes I represent,” De La Hunty said. “I am simply not comfortable sending them down this track under these conditions, and I am confident this is the right decision for the best interest of our entire team and national program.”

Spring is a 27-year-old newcomer to the German track where he crashed, according to statistics on the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation website.

Spring and teammates Graeme Rinholm of Saskatoon and Bill Thomas of Queensville, Ont. suffered serious injuries at turn 16 of the Altenberg course on the last day of training before the world cup. Toronto’s Tim Randall had only minor injuries.

Spring, who was airlifted to Dresden University Hospital, suffered a broken nose and serious cuts and bruises. Thomas has bruised lungs and minor trauma. Rinholm has a broken fibula, cuts to his upper legs, buttocks and underlying musculature.

“All of the athletes are resting comfortably, there is no life threatening injuries,” said Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton chief executive Don Wilson from Calgary in a Jan. 5 media conference call.

“The major injuries were quite a severe laceration to the buttock and upper leg area; obviously in the position they’re sitting in debris in the sled ended up cutting them, and in the pilot’s case, ending up in him.”

Wilson said Spring lost a substantial amount of blood because he was the last person extracted from the heavily damaged sled. Fears that Spring suffered a punctured lung or broken ribs were unfounded.

“The German medical people have gone through CT scans and ruled those out,” Wilson said.

Darwin, Australia-native Spring earned bobsledding in 2008 in Calgary and slid for Australia at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics before joining Canada full-time last season. He was 14th in the four-man event and 19th in two-man at the 2011 world championships in Konigssee, Germany. Spring piloted Canada to 10th place despite a snowstorm in the Dec. 18 world cup race at Winterberg, Germany. He was preparing for his first world cup appearance at Altenberg when the crash happened. The 1986-opened track, renovated for the 2012 luge world championships, is considered one of the most difficult on the international circuit.

Canadian high performance director Nathan Cicoria said from Calgary on Jan. 5 that the sled exited the corner at the wrong angle and traveled in an upwards trajectory before hitting a wall. He said he had not seen video footage of the crash but denied limits on training runs contributed to the crash. Teams are supposed to get six runs over three days before the two competition runs.

“We’re not getting into conversations about whose fault it is or whether or not it is a function of the race organizers -- it’s a risky sport,” Cicoria said. “You always want to have more training runs and want to be more prepared, but we felt this crew was at world class-calibre and they were competing at that level. Chris’s results to date reflect that. We need to make sure that we’re focussed on their daily condition versus who's to blame here.”

BCS scheduled a midday teleconference on Jan. 6 to offer more details. Canada's skeleton team will remain in the Altenberg competition. Bobsledders will resume wold cup competition Jan. 13-15 in Konigssee.

Whistler Sliding Centre, the 2010 Olympic track, hosts the world cup tour Feb. 2-4. The tour moves to Calgary for the Feb. 9-11 races and ends with the world championship at Lake Placid, N.Y. Feb. 17-19 and 24-26.

After last month's luge world cup, the Whistler Sliding Centre launched bobsled rides for tourists. The track was the site of the fatal crash of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili on the opening day of the 2010 Winter Games. Actual speeds on the track were faster than design estimates, but VANOC made no major pre-Games safety changes. The British Columbia coroner ruled Kumaritashvili's death an accident but ordered a safety audit of the track.

2010goldrush@gmail.com

Luge slides back to 2010 Olympics venue

2011-12-09T23:46:00.001-08:00

Felix Loch has mastered the Whistler Sliding Centre.

The German won the Olympic gold medal at the track during the 2010 Games and he was atop the podium again Dec. 9 during the second International Luge Federation world cup stop of the 2011-2012 season.

Loch’s combined time of 1:36.48 was 0.278 better than fellow German Johannes Ludwig. David Moller, the 2010 Olympics silver medallist, completed the German podium sweep.

“I like the fast track here, the start is good for me, it's not too steep. It's good for all Germans. The sled was today very fast,” Loch said. “The track became more safe, those nations that are not on the level of Germany, they are learning and getting better on this track.”

Calgary's Sam Edney was fifth in 1:37.061. Edney's seventh-place in the Olympics at Whistler was a best for a Canadian in men’s singles.

“Five Germans and a Canadian (among the last six) -- it's clear to me where they have that edge, at the start,” Edney said. “This has got to be the best track in the world. The feeling you get when you're sliding down you can't express it, the speed and that feeling of that adrenaline rush. Hearing the crowd as you're sliding down is one of the coolest things you can ever feel as you're sliding.”

Italy's Armin Zoggeler, the 2002 and 2006 Olympic champion and bronze medallist in 2010, was a disappointing 13th.

The first FIL world cup in Whistler was in 2009 when Moller won gold, Zoggeler silver and Loch bronze. Ludwig was fourth and Edney 12th.

* * * * *

In the men's doubles, 2010 Olympic champions Andreas and Wolfgang Linger of Austria won gold, beating countrymen Peter Penz and Georg Fischler by 0.244. Italians Christian Obsertotz and Patrick Gruber were third.

Linger and Linger established a doubles track record of 41.255 seconds. Penz and Fischler, however, are FIL leaders after two rounds of the nine-stop World Cup tour, which continues next weekend in Calgary. The Lingers are second.

Canada's Tristan Walker and Justin Smith were 10th.

* * * * *

No sliders from Georgia have competed in the first two rounds of the FIL world cup. But Georgia’s flag was displayed in memory of Nodar Kumaritashvili.

The 21-year-old died after crashing near the end of his last training run on Feb. 12, 2010, the opening day of the 2010 Winter Olympics. A small flag marks the spot where the tragedy happened.

A bigger flag is outside the track offices, near the Olympic podium.

The start area for women’s races continues to be used, as it was the day after Kumaritashvili’s crash. A safety audit ordered by the British Columbia Coroners Service was conducted by the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. The results are expected to be made public in the first quarter of 2012.

During the summer of 2010, concrete on curves 12 to 16 was modified with the blessing of FIL and the International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation. More changes are coming.

Whistler Sliding Centre begins its second season of public skeleton rides on Dec. 16. On Dec. 22, it launches a public bobsled program. The two-hour courses are $149. The bobsled experience includes professional pilots. Retired Canadian legend Pierre Lueders, the 1998 Olympic champion and two-time world champion, will be among the guest pilots this winter.

* * * *

The official attendance wasn’t announced. In diplomatic terms, other things must have occupied the collective interest of Whistler locals and visitors. There were more athletes and reporters at the end of the track than there were fans.
Whistler is host of the 2013 world championships.

Scenes from a super Sunday... with a lower-case s

2011-12-02T22:56:00.000-08:00

B.C. Lions (and Toronto Argonauts) owner David Braley and president Dennis Skulsky.

KISS's Gene Simmons and his Canadian wife Shannon Tweed pose for photos in the B.C. Place Stadium press box with Canadian Forces members during halftime.

This door will need a new paint job. The B.C. Lions are six-time world champions of three-down football!

B.C. Lions fans win the CFL's best signs of 2011 championship

There goes the Grey Cup to the dressing room where Molson Canadian was spilled in a stadium where Budweiser has pouring rights. The beer wars continue...

Suite dreamers at Grey Cup

2011-12-01T08:53:00.000-08:00

Nearly every seat was filled for the 99th Grey Cup at B.C. Place Stadium. Every suite on level 3 was. If you were lucky enough to be on level 3, you would've seen legendary B.C. Lions' quarterback (and Angelo Mosca combatant) Joe Kapp and KISS's Gene Simmons and his Canadian wife Shannon Tweed. Who were the occupiers? Here's the exclusive list.

BC Place Suite: Premier Christy Clark and visiting Premiers and dignitaries
1 Davis Management
2 Pacific Newspaper Group
3 Dueck GM
4 BMO
5 Rio Grande
6 Wayne Davies
7 Jardine Lloyd Thompson
8 Pepsi
9 Scotiabank
10 BCLC
11 BCLC
12 Rosedale on Robson
13 Macklem Mortgage Service
14 Walker Group
15 Petcurean Pet Nutrition
16 PCL
17 TSN
Goalpost Scotiabank
Balcony Telus
20 Sandman Hotel Group
21 Telus
22 Safeway
23 Scotiabank
24 Mackenzie Investments
25 BC Place
26 Chameleon Enterprises 26
27 Molson
28 Weststone Capital
29 Atlas Truss
30 Blakes
31 Nissan
32 Stresscrete
33 ZLC Financial
34 Trades Labour Corp
35 Orange Capital
36 Knight Inlet Grizzly Tours
37 CT Control Temp
38 Imining.com
39 Encana
40 Sussex Insurance
41 Super Save Disposal
42 Norcon
43 Scotiabank
44 Telus
45 Quorum Construction
46 Terus Construction
47 Mail-o-Matic Services
48 Canadian Tire Corp
49 Drake Towing
50 Shadow Lines Transport
51 B.C. Pavilion Corporation
52 Whitecaps

Grey Cup nuggets…

2011-11-24T20:25:00.000-08:00

The University of B.C. Thunderbirds didn't make it to the first Vanier Cup in Vancouver, but their quarterback was named the top player in Canadian college football in 2011.

Billy Greene picked up the award at the Vancouver Convention Centre Thursday night at the same ceremony where B.C. Lions' quarterback Travis Lulay won the Canadian Football League's most outstanding player award.

Earlier in the day, the Lions had lunch at the Radisson Harbourside Hotel with the media, where centre Angus Reid got up close with the Grey Cup as part of his duties with TSN. For the record, he was very careful not to touch the prize for the winner of Sunday's game.

B.C. Place Stadium's roof is leaking again.

Yes, the centrepiece of the $563 million renovation. A tent was covering a painted logo on the Polytan Ligaturf field near section 18 on Thursday, as Vancouver was battered by heavy rain and heavy winds.

Grey Cup Committee general manager Scott Ackles told me Tuesday that the roof is most likely to be closed on game day, even if the weather is immaculate. TSN wants consistent lighting and the halftime show producer Patrick Roberge wants a controlled atmosphere. It is ultimately the CFL's call.

Luxury suites on level three are coming with 3-D glasses. Each suite contains a Samsung TV that will display 3-D content during the big game. This is a smart move, since the stadium's centre-hung, shoebox-style video board cannot be seen from much of level 3 during football games.

When will they tell us the new name? Not this weekend. The stadium's telecommunications and technology provider Telus won't slap its name on the marquee before the Grey Cup. Telus was the frontrunner for naming rights and the deal was supposed to have been announced in mid-September. The stadium will remain B.C. Place for the time being. Telus also scored a $1 billion, 10-year deal with the government, Crown corporations and health authorities in the summer.

Will Vancouver get riot redemption or Eskimo jinx?

2011-11-20T09:46:00.000-08:00

The Edmonton Eskimos are back in Vancouver for the third time in less than two months to seek their first win under the new roof at B.C. Place Stadium.

If they win Nov. 20, they will get a chance the next week to get their second win -- in the 99th Grey Cup.

The more times the teams play on the new synthetic turf field, the greater the odds that the Eskimos will finally win one. But will that win spoil the B.C. Lions’ ambition to finish the season as the home team in the Grey Cup?

Edmonton has rained on the parade before. Enough that you might suggest there is a green and gold jinx.

Every time the Lions have met the Esks in the West final of a B.C. Place Grey Cup hosting year, the Esks have eliminated B.C.

Nov. 23, 1986: Esks 41-Leos 5 in Edmonton (Mike Kerrigan and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats beat the Esks 39-15 in the Grey Cup).
Nov. 22, 1987: Esks 31-Leos 7 in Vancouver (Gizmo Williams and the Esks beat the Toronto Argonauts 38-36 in the Grey Cup.)
Nov. 20, 2005: Esks 28-Leos 23 in Vancouver (The Danny Maciocia-coached Esks beat the Montreal Alouettes 38-35 in overtime to win the Grey Cup).

What’s more, the Calgary Stampeders eliminated B.C. on Nov. 21, 1999, 26-24 at B.C. Place. The Stamps returned the following week to lose 32-21 to Darren Flutie and the Ti-Cats.

Could the Stanley Cup riot be a good omen?

The last year in which the Vancouver Canucks were losers and fans reacted by rioting in downtown, the Lions beat an Alberta team in the West final and won the Grey Cup at B.C. Place.

The Lions edged the Stampeders 37-36 in dramatic fashion in the snow at Calgary on Nov. 20, 1994. On Nov. 27, 1994, Lui Passaglia kicked the game-winning field goal on the final play to beat Baltimore 26-23. That remains the greatest sports moment in the history of 1983-opened B.C. Place and, arguably, the greatest 20th century moment in Vancouver sports history.

Vancouver was rocked by another Stanley Cup riot when the Canucks were losers on June 15, 2011.

Can the city end this year with a home-won Grey Cup as consolation?

Steel company names PavCo in lawsuit

2011-11-07T12:32:00.001-08:00

More trouble for B.C. Place Stadium, where the Sept. 30 reopening was anything but smooth.

The French headquartered cable erection company hired by a Quebec steel subcontractor is suing for almost $6.5 million. B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the taxpayer-owned stadium’s operator, is named as a defendant.

Freyssinet filed a lawsuit in British Columbia Supreme Court on Oct. 31, charging Canam with breach of contract, breach of statutory trust and equitable fraud. Problems have been festering for many months. Here's my update from Aug. 4.

PCL Constructors and Canam Group were awarded a $122,864,581 contract on Nov. 18, 2009, according to the Freyssinet court filings. Canam hired Freyssinet as a subcontractor for $30,124,377, “but were unable to agree on all terms.”

"Nevertheless, Freyssinet commenced work on the improvement in July 2010 and on Aug. 23, 2010, Canam and Freyssinet signed a subcontract, backdated to Nov. 20, 2009," said the lawsuit. "However the subcontract was signed without Canam and Freyssinet agreeing on the cost of the erection work budget."

Freyssinet claims Canam failed to keep work on schedule, directed labour and equipment without Freyssinet’s knowledge or consent, interfered with Freyssinet foremen and “permitted rates from Montacier International, a company related to Canam, for labour for erection of the cable which were higher than agreed upon.”

Canam announced in November 2010 that it would “follow an alternate method of erection of the cable, without consulting with Freyssinet and without Freyssinet’s consent.”

"Through 2010, payments were made by Canam on account of the invoices, but Canam then wrongfully ceased making payment to Freyssinet."

Freyssinet says it is owed $6,466,892 by Canam, which claims Freyssinet owes it $24,137.756.44.

A Sept. 29, 2011 letter by Canam alleged: "Due to Freyssinet's negligence in preparation of the cost budget and the construction methodology, there was a significant cost overrun which Canam was required to bear in the fixed price contract with PCL."

"Canam intentionally and wrongfully made the demand to recover alleged damages for financial losses arising from the completed work. This was a wrongful, tortious act constituting equitable fraud."

As of Oct. 19, certificates of completion had not been issued for the head contract. The stadium reopened Sept. 30.

The Freyssinet claims have not been tested in court. I am waiting for responses from Canam and PavCo.

Time running out for B.C. Place name?

2011-10-29T19:34:00.000-07:00

A news conference is in the planning stages for Tuesday, Nov. 1 at B.C. Place Stadium for an announcement regarding the B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps, who are expected to be involved in the event because they're the primary tenants of the stadium.

The silence has been deafening. Neither Telus, Cisco nor B.C. Pavilion Corporation's public relations firm Pace Group have responded to my queries to confirm or deny the event or their involvement.

Telus is the telecommunications and technology provider at B.C. Place and Cisco's StadiumVision is the "video and digital content distribution solution" (read: the software that runs the multitude of video screens, large and small). Before the Sept. 30 reopening, the major Telus hardware and wiring installation at B.C. Place was cloaked in secrecy. So much so that it was even code-named "Project Frog."

Telus also has a 10-year, $1 billion contract to supply telecommunications services to the British Columbia government, Crown corporations BC Hydro, BC Lottery Corporation and ICBC and regional health authorities.

When I asked Oct. 14 if his company bought the naming rights, Telus chief financial officer Robert McFarlane would neither confirm nor deny. He would only say there would be a "coming out party" for Telus at B.C. Place in the near future.

There may be a reason for the secrecy. PavCo awaits the results of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union local 1703 vote on a new contract. The two sides reached a tentative deal on Oct. 24. Voting is supposed to end Nov. 1. There is no pay raise, but the workers apparently got the job security and anti-bullying provisions they wanted. The catch? The contract, if ratified, would expire May 31, 2012.

Nov. 1, coincidentally, was also the original date set by PavCo for the reopening of B.C. Place. PavCo chairman David Podmore moved the date forward by a month in February, despite problems installing roof-support cables. The domino effect meant crews didn't begin installing roof fabric until June. The roof opened and closed as advertised Sept. 30, but the sealing job was not complete and leaks continued well into October.

Read more about the controversial $563 million renovation of the 1983-opened stadium here.

Caps, Leos get no respect from landlord

2011-10-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

No respect.

The immortal words of legendary standup comedian Rodney Dangerfield.

It seems neither the Vancouver Whitecaps nor the B.C. Lions can get the full respect of their landlord, B.C. Place Stadium.

I shot these photographs Oct. 22 from the concourse of Rogers Arena. It is a solitary flag affixed to one of the cables on the east side of B.C. Place's roof. It's ostensibly there to offer a visual signal of the wind direction. Wind is key for B.C. Place, as it can sometimes be the deciding factor for opening or closing the retractable roof.

Look closely. The flag is neither a Whitecaps nor a Lions flag. (As you can see, there is plenty of room for two... or two dozen, for that matter.)

It is the flag of the Vancouver Canucks, emblazoned with Johnny Canuck.

The Canucks don't play at B.C. Place. They have their own venue, across Griffiths Way at Rogers Arena.

No respect.

When will they tell us about B.C. Place's new name?

2011-10-15T10:59:00.000-07:00

Executive vice-president and chief financial officer Robert McFarlane is the second in command at Telus, the right-hand-man to CEO Darren Entwistle.

On Oct. 13, he was on Premier Christy Clark's right side at the podium for the Grey Cup festival news conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre, a building serviced by Telus competitor Bell.

I caught up with McFarlane afterward to find out why Telus has kept quiet its involvement in B.C. Place Stadium's $563 million renovation.

Telus is the prime advertiser at the stadium and provider of technology and telecommunications. Sources have told the Sport Market since last spring that the telecom giant is the naming rights sponsor in a deal heavy on value-in-kind -- goods and services. Expect that to be finally announced in the week or two after the Whitecaps pack-up their Bell Pitch signs when they end their first Major League Soccer campaign on Oct. 22.

McFarlane did a good job of keeping mum on the topic, but hinted strongly toward the big announcement to come when I asked him.

"There will be a time for the coming out party on the technology, etcetera…" McFarlane said. "There is still last minute things or next to last minute things, are still being done and when it's all complete and we're ready, I'm sure, we'll have a coming out."

Asked about the naming rights and whether it will be Telus Park or Optik Place, McFarlane said: "Those would be great names, but unfortunately I can't comment on them."

McFarlane did reveal that Telus technicians didn't get into the stadium until four days before the Sept. 30 reopening to do their final work on the mobile phone network.

Is B.C. Place inching closer to a strike?

2011-10-15T00:25:00.000-07:00

Is B.C. Place Stadium one step closer to a strike?

Local 1703 of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union, which represents ushers, security guards and maintenance workers, was scheduled to restart talks with B.C. Pavilion Corporation on Oct. 14. But the two sides did not begin meetings until 1 p.m.!

"That seems odd," said a source who did not want to be identified. "I hear it's going nowhere fast."

The union voted 89 percent in favour of a strike last month. If talks break down, then the union can declare 72-hour strike notice. The next event in the stadium is the Vancouver Whitecaps' last home game of their first Major League Soccer regular season on Oct. 22.

Workers are not getting any pay raise, as per the government's wage freeze, but they want job security and anti-bullying language in their contract.

The last contract expired May 31.

Premier Christy Clark seemed oddly optimistic in a media scrum after the Oct. 13 Grey Cup festival news conference at the Vancouver Convention Centre. But she has been known for her naivete and lack of tight grasp on policy.

Stay tuned for developments.

Dress accordingly when going to B.C. Place

2011-10-10T11:58:00.001-07:00

If you're going to see the Vancouver Whitecaps host D.C. United on Oct. 12, wear a rain jacket and bring an umbrella. In fact, this umbrella hat could be the most appropriate attire for any event at B.C. Place Stadium for the time being.

Oh, the new retractable roof of B.C. Place Stadium is bound to be closed for most of this fall for the obvious seasonal weather. But after several fans at the B.C. Lions' Oct. 8 win over the Calgary Stampeders got wet, B.C. Pavilion Corporation cannot guarantee a dry experience. Workers are still sealing the roof from the elements.

Should we be surprised? British Columbia has a long history of leaky buildings.

Expo 86 modular pavilions were leaky and needed patching. Same for the Expo Centre, now known as Science World, after it opened in 1985. There was a billion-dollar epidemic of leaky condominiums because of shoddy 1980s and 1990s workmanship. An estimated 65,000 dwellings had leaks that rotted walls. Former Premier Dave Barrett conducted an inquiry into the scandal.

As the 2010 Winter Olympics approached, B.C. Place Stadium’s 1982-installed, air-supported roof needed constant care from maintenance workers. Many gray garbage cans were redeployed from trash catching to drip catching. (That original roof was inflated in November 1982, more than six months before it opened, affording workers a shield from the elements while they finished the building.)

B.C. Pavilion Corporation is blaming the weather for the leaks after reopening from a $563 million renovation. But that is not the root cause.

Minutes of the B.C. Pavilion Corporation construction committee in August 2010 show the stadium was on-track for a Nov. 1, 2011 “substantial completion.” Owner’s representative Roy Patzer called the schedule “tight.” Then, suddenly, on Feb. 7, 2011, PavCo chairman David Podmore announced a Sept. 30 reopening -- a full month sooner.

When Podmore announced the accelerated opening, the governing B.C. Liberal Party was in the middle of a leadership campaign to replace the unpopular Premier Gordon Campbell. The successor, who turned out to be Christy Clark, was expected to call an election for October. There even is an internal government document called "Implications of a Fall Election" that contemplated a Sept. 14 election call and Oct. 12 voting day. That issue note was written Feb. 9 and dated Feb. 10. So it's not a great leap of logic for the stadium's reopening to have been a photo opportunity on the election trail.

Within a matter of weeks of Podmore's proclamation, construction was in turmoil. The installation of roof fabric was supposed to begin in February, but was delayed to April and then until June. Quebec-based steel supplier Canam Group reported to shareholders that its Structal division suffered a $25 million cost overrun and blamed it on French cable installer Freyssinet. Architects, engineers and builders had to shuffle work schedules. The B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps were chomping at the bit to return downtown. It would have been a major embarrassment for the two main tenants to have delayed their moves to B.C. Place after announcing their schedules.

Under the original schedule, crews would have enjoyed the long, mostly dry days of August to methodically put the finishing touches on B.C. Place’s roof. Instead, they had to battle the September and October rains. More than a week after the stadium's reopening, crews are still welding and sealing the fixed fabric panels.

What’s more, leaks were a problem for many months after Commerzbank Arena opened in 2005. The Frankfurt stadium’s retractable roof technology is at work in Vancouver.

After the reopening night gong show that subjected paying customers to long lineups at ticket booths and concession stands and a lack of food and beverage supplies, delaying the opening seems like one of those "hindsight is 20/20" thoughts.

As it is, Telus has delayed the announcement that it is the naming rights sponsor for seemingly pragmatic reasons. The multi-year, multimillion-dollar deal will include some cash, but it will largely be what's called "value in-kind" or goods and services in lieu of cash. Technicians are still installing telecommunications gear and teaching B.C. Place staff how to use the new equipment. Cisco is a key contractor working with Telus on the StadiumVision media management system that includes the shoebox-style, centre-hung scoreboard (what I call the Titanic Tube Under the Tarp.) Telus is using the screens at B.C. Place, both big and small, but is understandably reluctant to attach its name to the building amid what can be termed a rocky reopening. Why show off the expensive bells and whistles before you're confident they'll ding and toot properly? Why would Telus, a combatant in the telecom marketing war, want to risk embarrassment?

PavCo is hoping that all the glitches will be forgotten by Nov. 27 when the stadium hosts the 99th Grey Cup, for which the government paid $1.88 million to the Canadian Football League for hosting rights.

Expect a glitzy press conference near the end of October or start of November for the corporate renaming of B.C. Place. Will we have to dress accordingly?

Exclusive: B.C. Place's new look

2011-09-29T07:55:00.001-07:00

Behold, the new logo for B.C. Place Stadium, which reopens Sept. 30 from a $563 million, taxpayer-funded renovation.

The two-tone blue design incorporates stylized versions of the new roof-support masts and cables that now figure prominently on the Vancouver skyline and will nicely complement Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps similar color scheme.

By virtue of playing at least 17 times a year in B.C. Place, the Whitecaps will be the 1983-built stadium's prime tenant. This logo replaces the 2006 design of the fabric domed roof that was deflated in May 2010 and removed.

Documents obtained under Freedom of Information show that Karacters Design was paid $23,030 on Feb. 25 for work on a logo.

The word "place" is a key word in the logo. Some or all of this insignia is a place-holder until the stadium's new corporate-sponsored name is revealed. Frontrunner Telus is the official telecommunications goods and services provider and plans to heavily market its Optik TV service on the giant, shoebox-style, centre-hung scoreboard. B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore did not deny Telus would be the naming rights purchaser when he was asked on July 31 and Sept. 7.

B.C. Place workers set strike vote

2011-09-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

B.C. Place Stadium's unionized workers were told Sept. 23 in a members' only meeting at the YWCA Hotel that talks with B.C. Pavilion Corporation have reached an impasse.

Local 1703 of the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union has set Sept. 29 for a strike vote. If the membership agrees, then a strike would not happen for at least 72 hours.

The stadium's Sept. 30 reopening for the B.C. Lions vs. Edmonton Eskimos would not be affected. It is unclear at this point whether the Vancouver Whitecaps' first match on Bell Pitch in the Telus-sponsored stadium against the Portland Timbers could be behind picket lines on Oct. 2 if PavCo refuses to negotiate. Empire Field would be a logical emergency backup. BCGEU spokeswoman Karen Tankard said a strike is not desired. The union wants leverage to bring PavCo back to the bargaining table to achieve a new contract.

"There is no risk (of a strike on reopening night)," Tankard said. "We want B.C. to enjoy opening night, our members want to work and enjoy opening night.

"We don't want to go on strike, we want a fair collective bargaining agreement."

Sources tell me Local 1703 and PavCo have not held a scheduled bargaining session since breaking-off before dawn Sept. 8. Even then, mediator Mark Brown was shuttling back and forth between the bargaining teams in separate rooms. They weren't meeting face-to-face!

Brown has since met separately with the sides. No pay raise is being offered, as per the central government directive of pay freezes. Tankard said Local 1703 is willing to keep the same pay rates, but the dispute is about job security. She said Genesis Security now has 20 people doing jobs once done only by union members.

The union wants the new contract to contain anti-bullying language, but management is not budging. Premier Christy Clark, while a talkshow host at CKNW radio, led an annual province-wide anti-bullying campaign by selling pink T-shirts.

"(The Premier is) the Queen of Pink and her own Crown corporation is turning down anti-bullying language!" said one member who did not want to be identified.

The collective bargaining agreement expired May 31. The union includes 20 to 25 full-time staff, 30 part-timers and 300 event-specific staff.

In February 2005, BCGEU workers went on strike, delaying set-up for the annual boat show. Labour ministry intervention enabled settlement and prevented cancellation. Security guards, housekeepers, ushers and technicians approved a four-year deal in May 2007 with a 9.5 percent raise and signing bonus.

See the union members' update below.

More to come...

BC Pavilion Corporation Bargainig Bulletin 23 Sept 11

By sea and land, they would've paraded

2011-09-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Behold, the plans for the Vancouver Canucks 2011 Stanley Cup victory parade!

The Canucks were going to celebrate Vancouver's first Stanley Cup since 1915 with a parade on land in downtown Vancouver and through the waters of False Creek.

But, alas, plans went awry. The team lost three of the last four games, including Game 7 at home, and locals rioted.

Read the plans here:

2011 Stanley Cup Parade, Celebration Plans

Inside B.C. Place Stadium: the devil's in the details

2011-09-08T17:44:00.000-07:00

B.C. Place Stadium is supposed to be reopened for the B.C. Lions to host the Edmonton Eskimos on Sept. 30 and the Vancouver Whitecaps to host the Portland Timbers on Oct. 2.

As I saw on a Sept. 7 tour, there is much to be done. There is still a chance the Lions and Whitecaps could be playing games at Empire Field in October, if negotiations with the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union local 1703 collapse. The scoreboard, to be hung from the centre of the retractable roof, is so massive that it is unlikely we will see another baseball game in B.C. Place.Read my story from the Vancouver Courier here.

Here is a photo gallery from the tour of the site of the $563 million, taxpayer-funded renovation. Notice the fella catching some rays atop the retractable fabric roof.

It's the most expensive renovation and re-roofing job in British Columbia history. A news conference could be held in the middle of this month to announce that Telus has bought naming rights and will use the stadium to market its Optik Internet TV product.

Hockey's worst year

2011-09-07T21:34:00.001-07:00

This is hockey's worst year.

After the dizzying heights of the golden goal that gave Canada the gold medal championship on home ice at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, it has all unravelled in 2011. Gone downhill so quickly and so tragically. Has hockey hit rock-bottom yet?

The decline of hockey began with the hits suffered in back-to-back games Jan. 1 and Jan. 5 by Pittsburgh Penguins' superstar Sidney Crosby. The first, on New Year's Day in Pittsburgh's Heinz Field, was during the National Hockey League's marquee Winter Classic outdoor game. It wasn't immediately apparent, but Crosby had suffered a concussion that ended his season and put his career at risk.

Hockey's downfall continued with Boston Bruins' captain Zdeno Chara's ugly hit on Max Pacioretty on March 8. The Montreal Canadien appeared to have been steered face-first into a stanchion by the big Bruin. The incident prompted several NHL sponsors, such as Air Canada, Scotiabank and Tim Hortons, to speak out. The NHL did create new rules and a protocol for dealing with suspected concussions, but calls remain for an outright ban on blows to the head.

New York Rangers' enforcer Derek Boogaard, who had been troubled by concussions, was found dead May 13 in Minneapolis. He had taken a deadly cocktail of alcohol and oxycontin. His brother was charged with providing him the unprescribed, highly addictive painkiller.

There was brief jubilation in Winnipeg on May 31 when it was announced the Atlanta Thrashers would move there. By June 4, the 13,000 season ticket sales quota was reached for the new Jets. The Thrashers had fans in Atlanta, just not enough, and the team would have folded without the move north. But the real, old Jets franchise remains the Phoenix Coyotes in Glendale, Az., on the league's life support while a new owner is sought and more taxpayers' dollars are thrown down the drain in an area hit hard by the recession.

Game 3 of the Stanley Cup final turned ugly June 6 with the late hit by Vancouver Canuck Aaron Rome on Boston Bruin Nathan Horton. The image of Horton lying on his back, motionless and expressionless, was not one the NHL wanted viewers to see. The Bruins were already missing Marc Savard, who suffered a season-ending concussion in February. The hit on Horton was the moment the underdog Bruins awoke and rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to win four of the next five games and the Cup.

Lord Stanley's mug was awarded to the away team at Rogers Arena on June 15. The President's Trophy-winning Canucks saved their worst effort for their last, most important game. After the 4-0 loss, the fans that remained in the arena offered two minutes of hate for Bettman. Objects were thrown his way. Meanwhile, outside the arena, the streets of Vancouver became a war zone as thousands of Canucks' fans rioted and looted. Vancouver city hall naively tried to recreate the street party atmosphere of the 2010 WInter Olympics, but instead duplicated 1994 when the Canucks also lost in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup and locals rioted.

Most of us who watch hockey thought the Stanley Cup riot was the nadir. We thought there would be charges for rioters and looters and some culpability admitted by the public officials who, like the Canucks, didn't give 100% that night. But Labour Day came and went in No Fault City.

Ex-Canuck enforcer Rick Rypien's depression led to his Aug. 15 suicide that nobody seems to want to address. On Aug. 31, ex-Maple Leaf Wade Belak also committed suicide. But we learned so quickly that it was by hanging and that happy-go-lucky, retired enforcer Belak, too, had a lengthy bout with depression.

The goons are going, going, gone. Will the NHL do the right thing and ban fighting? It's bad for the brain and bad for the mind and no longer necessary for the game, especially in the Stanley Cup or Olympics.

Then the unthinkable. On Sept. 7, a Russian jet carrying an entire team -- Lokomotiv Yaroslavi of Russia's Kontinental Hockey League -- crashed as their Yak-42 jet was taking off for the team's first road trip of the season to Belarus. Of the 28 players, only one survived. The victims include ex-Bruin and new coach Brad McCrimmon and ex-Canuck Pavol Demitra. Demitra was the top point-getter of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics tournament with 10.

The same day, Crosby faced the media with his concussion specialists. The most dynamic, talented player of this era talked about struggling with the brain injury and his desire to return. Will he be as good as he was? Time will tell, but when will be the time? It may not be Oct. 6 in Vancouver, where he scored the most-watched goal in hockey history. And why didn't Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins postpone their news conference for a day, out of respect for the victims of the Russian tragedy?

Has hockey hit rock-bottom? When will the glory days and good feeling of 2010 return?

Was Feb. 28, 2010 as good as it ever was or ever will be?

For Crosby?

For hockey?

No way can you see: 2020 U.S. Olympic bid nixed

2011-08-23T07:47:00.000-07:00

A bombshell to start the work week on Aug. 22.

United States Olympic Committee chief communications officer Patrick Sandusky Tweeted that there would be no bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics from the United States. That means by 2020 it will have been 24 years since the U.S. hosted the Summer Olympics, at Atlanta 1996.

"I can confirm the U.S. will not be bidding for 2020 Olympic Games," Sandusky wrote.

"With such little time left, we don't believe we could pull together a winning bid that could serve the Olympic and Paralympic movement."

The International Olympic Committee deadline for applications is Sept. 1, which is two years and two days before the Sept. 7, 2013 host city election at the 125th IOC Session in Buenos Aires. Four cities have applied: Rome, Madrid, Tokyo and Istanbul.

Another reason for the U.S. non-bid is that talks on a new revenue sharing agreement between the USOC and IOC are stalled. The USOC has collected 20 percent of all Games sponsorship revenue and 12.75 percent of TV rights revenue, because of the size and number of American sponsors and broadcasters involved in the Olympic movement. But National Olympic Committees elsewhere want a bigger piece of the pie.

There were varying degrees of interest in a 2020 bid from boosters in Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, New York and Tulsa. IOC president Jacques Rogge emphatically encouraged an American bid after the June 7 announcement of a $4.38 billion deal with NBC to broadcast and webcast the Games through 2020. What else was Rogge to say?

The elephant in the room, however, is the debt crisis plaguing the federal government and various states.

Los Angeles 1984 pioneered the private funding of an organizing committee through sponsorship and broadcast revenue. But scarce public funds would be needed for venues, infrastructure and security. Any politician backing a bid for a multi-billion-dollar mega-event in this climate of economic fear and chaos would be committing political suicide.

One can only wonder about the financial fitness of several of the declared candidates.

Rome hosted 1960. Madrid is a three-time bid loser, most recently to Rio de Janeiro for 2016. Tokyo was the 1964 host and was another 2016 loser. Istanbul, Turkey is trying for a fifth time. It was an unsuccessful candidate in the race for 2000 and 2008. Doha, Qatar may make it a five-city race.

Italy and Spain are suffering their own debt crises and Japan is struggling to rebound from its triple whammy of March 2011 disasters.

South Africa, buoyed by the 2010 FIFA World Cup, was mulling a bid, but said it will be on the sidelines for now. Delhi, India was hoping to use the 2010 Commonwealth Games as a springboard to an Olympic bid for 2020, but that strategy backfired. Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the Indian Olympic Committee and Commonwealth Games' chief organizer, was jailed in a corruption investigation. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India slammed Kalmadi and company in a scathing, August-released report.

A group in Toronto lobbied Mayor Rob Ford, but the 2010-elected Ford rejected their overtures. A sensible decision to walk before running. The city, still coming to terms with the G20 riots of 2010, is scheduled to host the 2015 Pan American Games.

* * * * *

By 2020, it will be 18 years since the United States last hosted a winter Olympics. That was Salt Lake 2002.

Reno-Tahoe and Denver are considering bids for winter 2022, but will obviously need the USOC nod to make the IOC application. The 2022 process won't begin until 2013, after summer 2020 is awarded.

"Not considering winter at this point, either," Sandusky said Aug. 22.

By 2022, it will have been a dozen years since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. "Canada's Games" were the last such mega-event in Canada or the U.S.

Vancouver also has the distinction of being the last city in North America to host a world exposition.

There have been 11 world expositions since Vancouver hosted Expo 86. None of them were held in North America.

Edmonton's bid for 2017 was kiboshed suddenly in November 2010 when Canada's Conservative federal government refused to underwrite $700 million in costs for fear of alienating other parts of Canada, namely Quebec.

Was Canadian Olympic Committee hacked?

2011-08-06T09:47:00.000-07:00

On Aug. 3, I posed the question: was the Montreal-based World Anti-Doping Agency hacked during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver? Here is the post.

That was the same day McAfee published its Revealed: Operation Shady RAT white paper showing numerous governments, corporations and non-profit agencies had been hacked, including the World Anti-Doping Agency, the International Olympic Committee and an unnamed "Olympic Committee of Western Country".

McAfee hasn't assigned blame, but the source of the hacker attacks is widely believed to be in China. The report is called Operation Shady RAT -- the Beijing Olympics happened during the Chinese zodiac's year of the rat -- and it included this veiled reference to the Middle Kingdom.

"The interest in the information held at the Asian and Western national Olympic Committees, as well as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the World Anti-Doping Agency in the lead-up and immediate follow-up to the 2008 Olympics was particularly intriguing and potentially pointed a finger at a state actor behind the intrusions, because there is likely no commercial benefit to be earned from such hacks."

Two Canadian government agencies were hacked, one in October 2009 for six months, the other for one month in January 2010. On page 7 of the report, there is that reference to the unnamed "Olympic Committee of Western Country" being infiltrated in August 2007 for a seven-month period.

The victim appears to have been the Canadian Olympic Committee.

I asked spokesperson Riley Denver whether the COC was that mysterious "Olympic Committee of Western Country" and, if so, what was the nature of the attack and how did it impact operations?

The response from Denver? "The COC isn't going to comment on this issue."

On April 6, 2005, the Canadian Olympic Committee's executive director Chris Rudge was in Beijing and signed a "Sino-Canadian" memorandum of agreement with Chinese government and Olympic committee officials. You can still find that news release on the Chinese Olympic Committee website, but the parallel news release from the Canadian perspective no longer appears in the April 2005 section on the Canadian Olympic Committee website.

Draw your own conclusions.

I say, the Canadian Olympic Committee owes athletes, sponsors, media and sports fans in Canada an explanation.

Were its systems hacked and was any personal information stolen?

Offcial Website of the Chinese Olympic Committee

Canadian Olympic Committee - News April 2005

An act of sod

2011-07-17T09:58:00.001-07:00

Only in Vancouver would a well-drained, well-padded and eminently playable synthetic turf field be naively covered by grass for a weekend to please the vanity of a touring European soccer team.

Only in Vancouver would the organization that paid for the exercise be surprised that it can sometimes rain very hard in Vancouver and cost it more when it has to cancel a league match.

Another day in the trying expansion life of the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are languishing in last place of Major League Soccer during a season marred by injuries, red cards and the futile replacement of coach Teitur Thordarson with Tommy Soehn.

The Whitecaps hired English Lawns of North Vancouver to spend 30 hours to install and 30 hours to remove 90,000 square feet of sod for the July 18 visit by FA Cup champion Manchester City. The field was supposed to be tested once in a real MLS match situation with a July 16 visit from Real Salt Lake, but that was scuttled almost two-and-a-half-hours before kickoff because the grass was waterlogged.

Granted, Vancouver is enduring an unusually rainy July (normally the driest month) and the July 18 game is a gift to season ticketholders, who are getting in for free. Whitecaps’ chief executive Paul Barber outrageously proclaimed on Team 1040 that scuttling the Real Salt Lake match had nothing to do with the upcoming Manchester City match, part of the Herbalife World Football Challenge exhibition series.

Instead of Real Salt Lake being awarded a win for its trouble, the game was not forfeited. It will apparently be rescheduled sometime later this season and tickets from July 16 will be honoured. (Whitecaps’ co-owner Greg Kerfoot is a member of the MLS competition committee. When commissioner Don Garber visited Vancouver in February, he noted Kerfoot’s influence.)

Certainly the traveling Real Salt Lake fans have a good case to ask the Whitecaps for compensation for their travel bills. The game did not happen July 16 because of an act of God. It didn't happen because of an act of sod. The match would have been played, as scheduled and on-time, on the regular Empire surface. When one travels to a soccer match, he or she has a reasonable expectation that it will take place. Soccer is not baseball, the great American game they don't play in the rain.

Here is a little bit of history.

Empire Stadium opened for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games with a natural grass surface that remained until 1970 when 3M’s artificial Tartan Turf artificial product was installed.

The Vancouver Whitecaps played North American Soccer League games there from 1974 to 1983 on the surface, which could be best described as a green layer of felt over concrete. Bob Lenarduzzi cited the wear and tear from Tartan Turf when he finally got a hip replacement in early 2010. Players enjoyed rainy nights, because that meant no rug burn on the crowned pitch. A very noisy truck that everyone called the “squeegee” would go to work to suck excess water from the carpet before matches on rainy days.

Tartan Turf was good enough for Manchester City when it played at Empire in 1980 and 1981. Lenarduzzi fondly remembers scoring once in the Whitecaps’ 5-0 beating of “the Blues” in 1980. The next year, the clubs tied 1-1. (Among the many international clubs hosted at the original Empire was Italy's AS Roma, featured in this video.)

The stadium was demolished in 1992 and used as a parking lot until 2001 when Empire Fields got a new lease on life -- and a natural grass pitch -- to become home of community soccer and softball.

But the field follies were not over. That grass field was removed and replaced by an AstroTurf GT synthetic surface when the temporary Empire Field 27,683-capacity stadium was built in 2010. The FIFA-approved AstroTurf GT product is good enough for Major League Soccer and Canadian Soccer Association competitions. The Empire surface is awaiting FIFA’s two-star certification.

Though there is some concern that the “tire crumbs” used in synthetic turf fields may irritate players’ lungs and skin through prolonged exposure, such fields are not injury magnets.

“Risk of injury on third-generation artificial turf in Norwegian professional football” in the British Journal of Sport Medicine found that between 2004 and 2007 there were 526 match injuries on grass and 142 on artificial turf. The study concluded “no significant differences were detected in injury rate or pattern.”

Researchers found 17.1 injuries per 1,000 match hours on grass and 17.6 injuries per 1,000 match hours on artificial turf.

The Manchester Citys of the world go abroad to bolster their brand, promote their sponsors, sell merchandise, recruit players and increase the international TV and online audience for their league matches. But the demand to play on temporary grass over a permanent synthetic pitch is akin to the famous Van Halen demand for brown and only brown M&Ms. It is frivolous.

I can hear the cries of soccer snobs already, deriding me for ignorance and blasphemy. Don't waste your time. I prefer to watch and play the world's greatest game on grass, but I have no complaints about the latest generation of high-quality synthetic fields. Manchester City's visit is for a relatively meaningless, one-off exhibition game. It is not for a multi-game tournament and no trophy is at stake.

Until teams like the Whitecaps either pay to have natural grass permanently installed in their stadiums or stand firm on the playability of their high-quality synthetic turf, foreign squads will exploit their sucker hosts and get what they want. Even if it means doing something which is totally contrary to the 21st century push by governments to be sustainable and friendly to the environment.

It takes a lot of energy to grow all that sod, transport it, unroll it, roll it up and take it away after a soccer match.

* * * * *

Manchester City shutout Mexico's Club America 2-0 on July 16 in San Francisco, where the game was played at the San Francisco Giants' AT&T Park baseball stadium. It's rather odd that the so-called "Blues" (who wore their red and black striped kit in the Bay Area) would schedule a 7 p.m. news conference with the Whitecaps at Burnaby's EA Sports complex on July 17.

Sunday night news conferences are exceedingly rare in an economically difficult environment where the media is already challenged by tight resources and deadlines. Only a few people in the world can pull off Sunday night specials with success; I refer to the famous Obama-offed-Osama announcement of Sunday, May 1, 2011.

Kimchee and soju beats pretzels and weissbier

2011-07-08T19:41:00.000-07:00

Only one ballot was needed on July 6 for PyeongChang, South Korea to avoid being a three-time loser in Olympic bidding.

The Winter Olympics are going to the east coast of the Korean peninsula after a landslide win with 63 votes. Munich, Germany -- vying to be the first city to host winter and summer -- received 25 votes. Annecy, France only seven. The third-time lucky South Korean bidders are so elated that they haven't found time to change the logo on their website from "candidate city" to "host city".

PyeongChang famously lost to Sochi, Russia in 2007 for the 2014 Games and was defeated by just three votes four years earlier in the race for 2010 with Vancouver.

The three 2018 bid cities were the only ones who applied, a ripple effect of the Great Recession. It was the smallest race since 1981 when Calgary beat two competitors to host the 1988 Winter Games and Seoul beat Nagoya, Japan for the 1988 Summer Games. (By comparison, eight cities applied for the 2010 Games, four were shortlisted.)

PyeongChang was last to deliver the hour-long presentation to the International Olympic Committee members gathered in Durban, South Africa for the 123rd session. The presentation relied on Vancouver 2010 women's figure skating champion Kim Yu-na and Toby Dawson, the Korean-born, American downhill skier with Turin 2006 bronze.

The New Horizons slogan for PyeongChang reminded the IOC of recent trends in mega-event hosting. It's a new market for winter sports. The only two previous Asian Winter Olympics were both in Japan (Sapporo 1972 and Nagano 1998).

The fact that 19 of 21 Winter Olympics were held outside Asia was included in the presentation, much the way that IOC members were reminded that no Summer Olympics had been held in South America before they chose Rio de Janeiro's 2016 bid two years ago.

The man behind the scenes for both Rio and PyeongChang was Vero Campaigning Communications executive Mike Lee. Lee was also the key strategist behind London 2012 and the controversial 2022 World Cup in Qatar and he advised the International Rugby Board on its successful campaign to add rugby sevens to the 2016 Olympics.

During Vancouver 2010, Lee was busily connecting the PyeongChang bidders with IOC members at Korea House in a Hyatt Regency Hotel ballroom. Since the Salt Lake 2002 bribery scandal, IOC members have been banned from visiting host cities.

Ultimately, the influence of Korean conglomerate Samsung was key. The company renewed its global sponsorship in the mobile phone category before the 2007 vote through the 2016 Games and hosted the 2009 Olympic day celebration in Vancouver when cash-strapped VANOC could not afford to.

Vancouver was also where disgraced South Korean IOC member Lee Kun-hee was reinstated by the IOC just before the 2010 Games. Lee gave up his membership after a 2008 tax evasion conviction, but the Seoul government agreed to pardon him in December 2009. Less than a month after the Vancouver Games closed, Lee returned to the chairmanship of Samsung.

There may have also been some quiet diplomacy in back-channels by Ban Ki-moon, the former Korean foreign minister who is the United Nations secretary general. The UN granted the IOC observer status the same day in October 2009 that VANOC CEO John Furlong appeared for the approval of the Vancouver Olympic Truce resolution.

Canada has been involved in on-again, off-again talks with South Korea about a free trade agreement since 2004.

The Games will open Feb. 9, 2018 and close outdoors on Feb. 25, 2018 at the 15,000-capacity Alpensia Ski Jumping Stadium, one of several venues already built. The biggest construction project will be a 110-mile high-speed train line to connect PyeongChang with Incheon International Airport in Seoul in just over an hour. PyeongChang's Yangyang Airport is incapable of handling the Games international air traffic and will instead receive charter flights.

The biggest wildcard on the road to 2018? Look no further than North Korea. Will Kim Jong-il, the dictator of the "Hermit Kingdom," interfere in any way? Every year the "Dear Leader" seems to create headlines with an international incident on the volatile peninsula, where the war between North and South ceased in 1953 but never truly ended. China props up North Korea, while the United States maintains a heavy military presence in South Korea.

Of course, those in the Olympic movement would love nothing more than to witness the two Koreas be unified by sport and march into the opening ceremony under one flag and compete together.

Easier said than done. But it is a peninsula known for perseverance.

Rogge rolls out the results

2011-07-08T18:44:00.000-07:00

During his July 7 presentation to the 123rd International Olympic Committee session in Durban, South Africa, President Jacques Rogge modestly described the IOC's financial standing as “sound.”

Rogge, making his first major update since Vancouver hosted the previous annual general meeting, said the last fiscal year ended with a $113.4 million surplus. The Olympic Foundation reserves were a healthy $592 million at the end of May.

Revenue from global Olympic sponsors for the 2009 to 2012 period is, so far, $957 million. Already $921 million is committed for the 2013-2016 round and $632 million for 2017-2020. The record $3.9 billion in gross TV rights for 2010-2012 could still be matched. Broadcasters have committed $3.2 billion for 2014-2016.

Olympic Solidarity, which subsidizes national Olympic committees, has a $311 million budget for 2009-2012. Winter sports federations received $209 million for Vancouver 2010.

The positive finances of the IOC suggest it withstood the Great Recession. Vancouver 2010, the last major IOC event, required heavy government subsidies to balance a $1.884 billion budget. PyeongChang, South Korea won the right to host the 2018 Winter Games on July 6, but only two other cities applied. It was the smallest race since 1981 when Seoul won the 1988 Summer Games and Calgary won the 1988 Winter Games.

In 1992, the IOC finished the practice of holding the winter and summer Games in the same year, though Vancouver held the Winter Games in 2010, the same year that Singapore hosted the first Youth Olympic Games.

English and French are the IOC’s official languages, but the when talking money, it speaks in U.S. dollars.

Exclusive: Durban 2011 the next step in Vancouver 2010 dissolution

2011-07-08T18:31:00.000-07:00

From one port city popular with tourists to another. From the southwest corner of Canada to the southeast coast of Africa.

Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics chief executive John Furlong took a break from his recent appointment as co-chairman of the Stanley Cup Riot Review for a previously scheduled engagement in Durban, South Africa to attend the International Olympic Committee’s 123rd session. Furlong was there to present the official report of the Vancouver Winter Olympics on July 7, exactly 494 days since the Games closed at B.C. Place Stadium.

The last, major act of VANOC -- in public view, at least -- finished just after 1:30 a.m. PDT, while most Vancouverites slept. More than 12 hours earlier, PyeongChang, South Korea's third consecutive bid for the Winter Games won the 2018 hosting rights.

“It seems fitting that with the arrival of a new Olympic region, PyeongChang, that it's time for us to say goodbye,” said Furlong. “We could feel all the emotions they were feeling throughout the day, having lived that experience ourselves.”

Furlong called the wind-up of VANOC “substantially complete."

“We’re very close to being no longer and by this time next year, we will, in fact, be no longer.”

Furlong summarized the main achievements of the Games to the IOC members at their first annual general meeting since the Feb. 9-11, 2010 session hosted at the Westin Bayshore Hotel in Vancouver.

Furlong was joined by executive vice-president Terry Wright, chief financial officer John McLaughlin, marketing vice-president Andrea Shaw and legal vice-president Dorothy Byrne to deliver “With Glowing Hearts/Des plus brilliants exploits -- VANOC Official Games Report/Rapport Officiel des Jeux -- COVAN.” That report has not been published back home, but the IOC has released an abbreviated version called Staging the Olympic Winter Games.

"We had much heartbreak and happiness, lots of adversity and celebration, but somehow we managed to achieve the vision that we set out for ourselves,” Furlong said.

As an aside, Furlong told the IOC members that B.C. Place Stadium reopens “in October”. (Does he know something we don’t or is it still truly on track for the Sept. 30 B.C. Lions meeting with the Edmonton Eskimos?)

Oddly, VANOC's Staging the Games report was created Nov. 4, 2010 but withheld from the media last fall when only the post-Games financial report and sustainability report were published simultaneously on Dec. 17. Read the Staging the Games report below.

Statistics from Staging the Olympic Winter Games:

Accommodation
12,033 Olympic hotel rooms in Vancouver
2,959 Olympic hotel rooms in Whistler
151 Paralympic hotel rooms in Vancouver
544 Paralympic hotel rooms in Whistler
2,850 Whistler Olympic Village population
2,730 Vancouver Olympic Village population

Accreditation
96,428 pass-holders for the Olympics
26,931 pass-holders for the Paralympics
2,803 Olympic writers, photographers and non-rights holding broadcasters
483 Paralympic writers, photographers and non-rights holding broadcasters

B.C. Place Stadium
100,000 kilograms of gear suspended from the air-supported fabric roof
360 rigging points
1.8 kilometres of trussing

Media relations
645 news releases issued 2005-2009
330 issues notes/key messages documents created 2005-2009

Procurement
63 kilometres fence fabric
550 trailers
250 sea containers
39,000 minor signs
550 major signs
600 road signs
2,016 contracts
5,452 purchase orders
$1,585,006,424 value

Transportation
4,629 auto fleet
1,259 buses and vans
9,704,537 litres of fuel
25,851 vehicle access and/or parking passes
65 kilometres of Olympic lanes in Vancouver

Staging the Olympic Winter Games Knowledge Report

A three-month race to completion

2011-06-28T16:45:00.000-07:00

While most workers at B.C. Place Stadium took a break for a safety appreciation barbecue on June 28, B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore and Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell hosted another media tour of the stadium, which is undergoing a $563 million, taxpayer-funded renovation. (Click photos to enlarge.)

The installation of the roof fabric, originally set for February, is now taking place. The schedule was turned upside down after French cable-installation subcontractor Freyssinet encountered severe problems that led to Quebec steel contractor Structal telling shareholders it was liable for a $25 million cost overrun.

Podmore says the project remains within the $563 million budget and is on target for its scheduled Sept. 30 opening for the Edmonton Eskimos matchup with the B.C. Lions.

A public open house on Sept. 25 remains a "very slight possibility," according to PavCo owner's representative Roy Patzer.
"When the public comes in here I'd like to see a finished product and wow factor," Patzer said. "We can't sacrifice schedule for having the public in here. If we're far enough advanced we'll probably do that."

Patzer explained that substantial completion was originally pegged at Nov. 1, based on the contract with PCL that allowed for partial occupancy under an unfinished roof. He said the date was brought forward to Sept. 30 when PavCo decided to forego holding events earlier.

A portion of the retractable roof fabric hangs from the centre node and more is coming July 7. The tower that supported the centre node is all gone. Workers dangle from harnesses among the maze of cables that partially obscures the sky. A glass ring, which will separate the fixed fabric from the retractable fabric, is nearing completion. Large parcels containing fabric are resting on the ribbing. German company Hightex has the retractable job, while USA Shade from Dallas is working on the fixed fabric. Patzer said the roof would be commissioned through the month of September to have it ready for opening and closing on Sept. 30.

The installation of 54,500 new red and grey seats has begun. Excavation crews are digging up the floor for a new drainage system to be installed before the synthetic turf surface is applied.

Meanwhile, talks continue with Paragon Gaming about the move of its Edgewater Casino to a parcel of land west of the stadium. Vancouver city council voted against the casino's expansion in April, but not its relocation.

Podmore neither confirmed nor denied that PavCo is negotiating to sell the naming rights for the stadium to Telus. Sources told The Sport Market in March that Telus was the successful bidder and the stadium could bear the name of the company's Optik TV brand. Concert Properties chairman Podmore has a direct pipeline to senior executives of the telecommunications giant and its union. Concert's board includes Telus's investment management director Garnet Andrews and treasurer Robert Gardner and Telecommunications Workers Union president George Doubt and business agent Lee Riggs. Podmore is also on the board of Fortis BC. The former Terasen Gas sponsored the Olympic cauldron built on Jack Poole Plaza at PavCo's Vancouver Convention Centre.

The Vancouver Whitecaps debut in B.C. Place on Oct. 2. The Vanier Cup national college football championship is Nov. 25 and the 99th Grey Cup on Nov. 27.

Exclusive: Old Thrashers WILL BE the new Jets

2011-06-24T10:39:00.001-07:00

The former Atlanta Thrashers will unveil their new Winnipeg branding today, on National Hockey League Entry Draft Day.

Now there is solid evidence that points to the resurrection of the Jets name.

The NHL owns the trademark, originally filed with the Canadian government in 1976. According to the Winnipeg Jets name and logo files in the Canadian Trademarks Database, there was a flurry of activity this month, as recently as June 15.

Listen to The Sport Market on Team 1040 and TeamRadio.ca from 9 a.m. to noon Pacific on Saturday, June 25 for the month-end roundtable for more on this story.

Winnipeg Jets entry in the Canadian Trademarks Database

Winnipeg Jets logo entry in the Canadian Trademarks Database

Gary gabs

2011-06-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

A big week for hockey north of the border.

The National Hockey League announced May 31 it would return to Winnipeg after a 15-year absence with the conditional move of the Atlanta Thrashers by True North Sports and Entertainment. The Thrashers were the 28th worst market for attendance in the 30-team league.

Commissioner Gary Bettman announced a 13,000-season ticket drive and that a vote on the $170 million purchase would be taken by the board of governors on June 21. More than 7,000 packages were sold before the public sales began and each NHL owner will get a slice of the $60 million relocation fee, so it'll be a done deal.

On June 1, the Stanley Cup final returned to Vancouver for the first time since 1994 -- and began in Vancouver for the first time since the Millionaires were 1921 hosts. The Vancouver Canucks blanked the Boston Bruins 1-0 on Raffi Torres's late, overtime-avoiding goal with 18.5-seconds left in regulation time.

The 5.6 million average audience, with a peak of 7.8 million, was an all-time record for CBC's Hockey Night in Canada. The previous record was in 1994 when 4.96 million tuned-in to see the Canucks battle another Original Six team, the New York Rangers. That was game seven of the Stanley Cup final and the Canucks lost by a goal.

The NBC ratings for game one were the best in 12 years, a 3.2 national rating which translates to approximately 3.708 million viewers. Boston, Providence, R.I. and Hartford, Ct., were three of the top four markets.

The storylines are simple: an Original Six team from a sports-made region with a 39-year Cup drought against the Sedin twins and the rest of the Olympic city kids who are trying for a third time to win the franchise's first Cup since debuting 40 seasons ago.

Before the game, Bettman held his annual state of the league address. Here are highlights from the question-and-answer session:

Q. Can you update where things stand for realignment in lieu of Winnipeg's re-entry, and also the latest on Phoenix?

BETTMAN: With respect to Winnipeg's re-entry, obviously there is a process under the Constitution and Bylaws with respect to ownership transfers and relocation that needs to be complied with. That's on the agenda, will be on the agenda, for the June 21st Board meeting.

In order to do a schedule for next season, it's not possible to do realignment right now. Winnipeg, despite its geographic peculiarities relative to the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference, will be playing in that division and in that conference, with an assurance that for the following season they will be in the west.

We have a number of clubs that would like to address specific issues on realignment. All those clubs need an opportunity to be heard. That's a process we'll go through the first half of next season, looking at the issues that clubs want to raise, looking at various possibilities, and trying to figure out what will make the most sense moving forward.

If I had to guess anything, and this is purely speculation, as much as I hate to do that, because ultimately it's a Board decision, I think we'll wind up moving towards a slightly more balanced schedule to accommodate the variety of issues I've heard so far from the clubs.

Q. Phoenix?

BETTMAN: Phoenix, as I think you all know, because it's gotten a ton of attention, the City of Glendale stepped up and said they want the team to stay another year while they try to complete the sales process with us and will be funding the losses. Any suggestion that the League is funding this club or carrying the burden is not true. Last season the City of Glendale did it. This coming season the City of Glendale will do it, but hopefully not. Hopefully the club will be sold in due course, and there will be a new owner in there to start turning things around.

Again, we've gotten a number of questions about why this process in Phoenix and why the other process in Atlanta. Atlanta, not unlike Winnipeg in '96, found itself in a situation where nobody wanted to own a club in that market anymore. That's been for me the trigger point on having to deal with a relocation.

With respect to Phoenix, you have a city in Glendale that built the building and has invested in it and wanting the club to stay there. As long as they're prepared to carry the burden of doing this while we try to effectuate a solution, there's no reason to move.

Q. Steroids have obviously run their course through all of the professional sports. Yet your sport, your league, has not had a positive test in years, as I can recall. People who know steroids say if you're not catching anybody, your testing isn't good enough. Is it your belief simply no NHL players are doing steroids now? (Note: NHL players are not tested for drugs during the playoffs or off-season.)

BETTMAN: Well, it's clear that if we're not having positive tests, none of them are getting caught, which means if some are, it's not very many.

I do believe, and we've been in discussions over the last couple of years with WADA, there are ways that we can improve our substance testing, our performance?enhancing testing program. But that's something we need to do with the Players' Association, and that's something, when we actually sit down and begin discussions, we need to address.

I think we have a good program. It deals with education and counseling. It has comprehensive testing, but I think we can probably do more. At the right time we'll have that discussion with the Players' Association.

Q. There's been recent reports of a group in Seattle interested in an NHL team. What are your thoughts on Seattle as a hockey market? With Winnipeg done, do you have a list of cities that are potentials?

BETTMAN: There are no shortage of places that continue to express interest in having a team. I think it was half a dozen, and now it's down to five because Winnipeg comes off the list. My answer is the same. I don't want to raise anybody's expectation. We're hoping not to do relocation. You all know that we don't believe in doing that, except as a last resort. We do everything possible to avoid it, and we're not planning on expanding.

The interest is flattering, but I don't want anyone in any market that doesn't have a team to get their hopes up yet.

Q. Québec City was involved, Pierre Peladeau, the owner of Quebecor, launched a sports channel yesterday. He got 25 games of the Ottawa Senators. Is there some sort of relation there that we can say they are up front to get something in Québec City done or there's absolutely nothing to deal with that?

BETTMAN: I am not going to raise expectations. I'm well aware of Mr. Peladeau's interest and that is gratifying. I am well aware there are plans to build an arena, although we have made no promise of what will happen after that.

At the present time, since I don't have a franchise we're looking to relocate, and as I said, we're not planning on expanding, I don't want to get people's expectations in Québec City raised.

Q. Despite the $3 billion in revenue across the League, a lot of teams are losing money, or at least claim to. Is the gap too large between high and low revenue teams? Especially now that you're in Winnipeg, what adjustments need to be made to revenue sharing and the CBA, the next one, so those clubs can be in the best position to succeed?

BETTMAN: The fact we're in Winnipeg, the agreement is basically self?executing. It will apply to the Winnipeg team as it applied to the Atlanta team, again, assuming Board approval, which everybody is anticipating.

To the extent there are issues in Collective Bargaining, as I said in my opening remarks, the good news is it's too early to discuss it. The discussions I'll have in the first instance on that topic will be with Mr. Fehr. I won't be doing it in this environment.

Q. Is the gap too big?

BETTMAN: We have a system that is dramatically improved from where we were in terms of teams' ability to compete. You've seen it in our competitive balance. There has been dramatic improvement. Whether or not the Players' Association or we are going to be looking for adjustments is something we'll look at quietly and hopefully resolve quietly.

Q. Your office put out numbers on concussions specific to how they were suffered, be it from fighting, be it from hitting, whatever. The number that caught my eye was from fighting. I think it was 8% or somewhere around there. I'm wondering, after you've given out those numbers, has there been added talk, be it from managers, owners, governors, specific to that part and their interest in perhaps ending fighting?

BETTMAN: I don't think the discussion has gotten to the level where there's widespread sentiment to end fighting. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by 'ending fighting.' I assume you mean by increasing the penalties for fighting, because there are penalties now.

The issue is really one about concussions. The reason for releasing the numbers is to make clear that concussions in the game are being caused by a variety of causes. And, in fact, the increase isn't coming, although the conventional wisdom incorrectly was that it was coming from more head hits, it's coming from pucks to the head. Maybe we should be having mandatory visors, something we'll discuss as we have over the years. Sometimes it's collisions with your own teammates, sometimes it's a check where you fall and bang your head.

The number of head hits really hasn't been the cause of the increase in concussions. It's been other sources, and that's what we're looking at in a comprehensive way.

One of the things that I indicated the Blue Ribbon Committee is looking at, as it's been dubbed, is whether or not we want to expand the head?hit rule. Accidents I think are going to happen and we have to deal with that and we do that through the proper diagnosis and treatment of concussions. Nobody has taken the leap that you're suggesting.

Q. Any updates with the next Winter Olympics or the World Cup?

BETTMAN: There is no update. That, again, is something that we will be in discussions with the Players' Association on because the international competitions, be it the conducting of a World Cup, which we're interested in doing, and the participation in the Winter Olympics, is something that we need to discuss and resolve with the Players' Association.

Mr. Fehr has been on the job a relatively short time. He's putting together his organization. He's been doing a lot of homework and catching up. In due course, we'll be having those discussions.

Q. Any more precise indication of where the cap is going?

BETTMAN: Actually, I think Mr. Daly did. I don't remember giving cap numbers. Bill, do you want to venture a guess?

BILL DALY: I think our current projections have the cap being in excess of $60 million, maybe as high as $63 million.

BETTMAN: And, obviously, the new television contract in the United States has an impact on that, bringing it up.

Q. Poignant because of the travel back and forth between Vancouver and Boston being difficult, the format of 2-2-2-1-1-1, any increased talk of going to 2-3-2?

BETTMAN: We periodically raise it with the managers, who when it comes to competitive issues are the heart and soul. There doesn't seem to be much of an appetite. I think people in our game are used to the travel. They like to keep the routine going.

It is what it is. We've been doing it for, oh, at least a couple of decades. I think if you go back to the '80s or '70s, there were a couple of years when it was tried. But this seems to be what the clubs are most comfortable with. What we try to do is make sure we're providing the best environment for them to have the competition and let it all out on the ice.

Teitur terminated, Tommy tasked

2011-05-30T13:44:00.001-07:00

On Monday, May 30, Vancouver Canucks’ head coach Alain Vigneault was preparing for the Stanley Cup.

B.C. Lions head coach and general manager Wally Buono was packing his bags for Kamloops for the Canadian Football League club’s training camp and reminding the media that the black and orange still exist.

The Lions have been the forgotten child in Vancouver, what with the Canucks’ domination of the National Hockey League in 2010-2011 and the Whitecaps’ debut in Major League Soccer.

The Whitecaps are 1-5-6 with nine points of a possible 36 in league play after losing yet another lead and settling for a tie on May 28 against the Thierry Henry-less New York Red Bulls.

The Caps are worst in the West with just one win in a dozen games. That victory came opening day on March 19 at Empire Field, 4-2 over Toronto FC.

Since then, the club has been hampered by injuries and red card suspensions. It was less-than-fantastic for head coach Teitur Thordarson, one of the most popular coaches in Vancouver soccer history.

The other boot finally dropped May 30 when Thordarson was fired.

Vancouver reporters were invited to an 11 a.m. news conference at Empire Field for an important announcement with CEO Paul Barber and president Bob Lenarduzzi. Captain Jay DeMerit and assistant captain Jon Thorrington quietly walked into the room, both with stern faces, before Lenarduzzi, Barber and director of soccer operations Tommy Soehn entered via the side door.

Thordarson’s absence spoke volumes. It was obvious that the affable, accessible Icelander’s tenure was over.

Thordarson was introduced to Vancouver media at a Dec. 11, 2007 news conference on the Harbour Centre revolving observation deck as the United Soccer Leagues’ First Division Whitecaps’ coach. Back then, it was assumed the Whitecaps would someday end up playing soccer by the sea at the proposed Waterfront Stadium. Instead, the Whitecaps were granted an MLS franchise in March 2009 and are playing at Empire until B.C. Place Stadium is reopened this fall. Last summer, Thordarson was signed as the head coach and the Caps were applauded for the continuity measure.

Under Thordarson, the Caps became USL-1 champions in 2008 and lost in the final in 2009. But, as they say in sports, coaches are hired to be fired. There is no tougher position than being the bench boss of an expansion team.

“We felt that we needed to give the team a bit of fresh impetus, make a change of coaching staff at this time, to give ourselves the best possible chance of recovering the season, and giving the team a kickstart,” Barber said. “This was the right time to do it, we took the decision after the game on Saturday.”

Soehn, who coached nine years in MLS, including three as D.C. United’s head coach, said he would continue to look for additional talent, but indicated satisfaction with the roster.

“When you walk in the locker room you can usually tell if that team has got a chance to do special things, I've said this from the beginning as has Teitur this group is fantastic as far as the character of the group,” Soehn said. “I don't think it's going to take much to turn the tide.

“We're going to make sure we're organized, we're going to make sure we're compact and we're going to make sure we're tough to play against. We're going to look to be aggressive in the attack, especially at home. This place is like a fortress, teams should be petrified to come play here and that's something that we need to re-establish.”

The Whitecaps are out-of-town June 1 against Chivas USA, June 4 against Real Salt Lake and June 11 against the Seattle Sounders. The first two matches are expected to have record low TV ratings, because they clash with the Vancouver Canucks vs. Boston Bruins Stanley Cup series. The club returns home June 18 to host the Philadelphia Union.

The Whitecaps may have acted too early, but in the sometimes unkind world of sports entertainment, they achieved one thing May 30: relevance. While the Stanley Cup zeitgeist continues, the Whitecaps coaching shakeup assured the club of media and fan attention.

We want the Cup

2011-05-26T17:14:00.000-07:00

It's the grandest trophy in North American sport. Though, some would argue the Arctic Winter Games Hodgson Trophy -- a six-foot narwal tusk -- is grander.

Regardless, the Stanley Cup will be awarded sometime between June 8 and 15 to the Vancouver Canucks or the winner of the Boston Bruins/Tampa Bay Lightning Eastern conference series.

In 1982, when Vancouver faced the New York Islanders, the Stanley Cup was exhibited at the Hotel Vancouver. During the 1994 finals against the New York Rangers, it was joined by the rest of the marquee silverware collection for public display at the Waterfront Centre Hotel. Thousands of Vancouver fans made a pilgrimage to see the shiny prizes. Some had tickets to the games. Others could not afford to see the finals in person.

So where will the holy grail of hockey be in 2011 before Commissioner Gary Bettman hands it to the winning team?

"This year there is no public showing planned of the trophies as of right now," the Hockey Hall of Fame's curator Phil Pritchard told me.

Tell the NHL and HHoF you want your eyes on the prize, that you want a chance to see the Cup on display during the finals in Vancouver. Send an email message to:

bhay@hhof.com
bmansur@nhl.com

Was it the Tour de Fraud?

2011-05-23T14:35:00.000-07:00

The May 21 edition of 60 Minutes rocked the world of sports with fresh allegations that seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, one of the greatest living athletes, cheated by using performance-enhancing drugs and blood-doping.

See the 60 Minutes report, based on an interview with former Armstrong teammate and Athens 2004 gold medalist Tyler Hamilton, here.

The 60 Minutes report revealed that both Hamilton and Armstrong's right-hand man George Hincapie had been ordered to testify at the Grand Jury hearings into allegations of doping on the United States Postal Service-sponsored cycling team.

Armstrong did not appear on 60 Minutes nor did he address the accusations via a written statement. If proven, the fall of Armstrong would be the biggest disgrace in sports history and would dwarf the Tiger Woods sex scandal.

Though Woods's misdeeds harmed his image, they did not harm the integrity of golf. Armstrong, on the other hand, is accused of cheating to win. Both Armstrong and Woods are among Nike's top-sponsored athletes. What might be Armstrong's only shield is his crusade against cancer via the Livestrong Foundation. The foundation has raised $400 million to fight the disease.

While I watched the 60 Minutes expose, I reminisced about Armstrong's appearance at the University of British Columbia on Sept. 23, 2007 for a regional cancer fundraiser. His visit coincided with former teammate Floyd Landis's doping scandal.

Just three days earlier, 2006 Tour de France champion Landis had been suspended for two years because he failed a doping test during the Tour. Armstrong ducked questions about Landis.

In May 2010, Landis went on 60 Minutes to tell the truth about his doping and point the finger at Armstrong.

Sept. 23, 2007: Vancouver 24 Hours: Armstrong leads B.C. ride against cancer
Bob Mackin

Lance Armstrong spent the weekend in British Columbia to seek a cure for cancer, not the doping crisis that threatens the race that made him famous.
That’s why the cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France champion wouldn’t discuss disgraced 2006 winner Floyd Landis, who lost a bid last week to overturn a positive test for synthetic testosterone.
“I’d love to answer the question, but I’m out of that business,” Armstrong said yesterday. “I’m here to fight cancer.”
Armstrong headlined the inaugural B.C. Cancer Foundation Tour of Courage, which
raised $1.8 million for blood cancer research. He led an 80-kilometre ride around south Kelowna on Saturday for 46 people who raised or donated $20,000 each. About 400 cyclists joined him at Thunderbird Stadium for yesterday’s community ride. Adults raised or donated $1,000 each; the minimum for teenagers was $200.
Armstrong’s peloton included retired Tour de France veterans Steve Bauer and Axel Merckx and cycling commentator Phil Liggett. Premier Gordon Campbell and Kelowna-Mission MLA Sindi Hawkins, herself a cancer survivor, also participated.
It wasn’t the first time Texan Armstrong pedaled in Vancouver. He won the 1991 Gastown Grand Prix.
“Up to that point it was probably one of my biggest victories -- Gastown Grand Prix, everybody talked about it,” he said. “I came here not necessarily being a criterium specialist, but was able to win.”
Armstrong said B.C.’s strong cancer research and fundraising network made his involvement in the Tour of Courage an easy decision. He hinted at a return.
“We need passionate people, we need people that are motivated to fight this war and that’s what you guys have,” he said.

Broadcast giant quits NBC: what next for Olympics?

2011-05-19T11:05:00.000-07:00

June 6 and 7 could be among the biggest days on the sports business calendar in 2011. They'll definitely be among the most important for the beancounters at the International Olympic Committee.

That's when American networks will be in Lausanne, Switzerland to make their bids for the rights to broadcast Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016. They may even look for a bulk discount by tendering bids on Winter 2018 and Summer 2020.

Munich, Germany, PyeongChang, South Korea and Annecy, France are bidding for 2018. The 2020 race has yet to begin.

NBC, which paid $2.2 billion for Vancouver 2010 and London 2012, is the incumbent. The former GE-owned broadcasting giant has held rights to all Summer Games since Calgary 1988 and Winter Games since Salt Lake 2002. But it will be without Dick Ebersol.

Ebersol dropped a broadcasting bombshell May 19 when his resignation from NBC was announced. NBC is now owned by Comcast and the official word is they couldn't agree on a new contract. The news broke exactly a month after Ebersol announced NBC and Versus's 10-year, $2 billion National Hockey League broadcast deal at a news conference with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

Ebersol's Olympic journey began in 1967 when he joined ABC as a researcher. Ebersol and Canadian Lorne Michaels collaborated to create Saturday Night Live for NBC in 1975. During Olympic Games, Ebersol would actually camp in custom-made quarters in NBC's facilities at the International Broadcast Centre instead of stay in a hotel room. Ebersol spoke at length about his storied career during the Denver 2009 SportAccord convention.

Ebersol enjoyed his Vancouver experience so much (and the fact that the British Columbia government became an important advertiser) that he appeared in a video honouring outgoing Premier Gordon Campbell at a Vancouver Board of Trade event on Feb. 4, 2011. NBC lost $223 million on Vancouver 2010 after being hit by the Great Recession's advertising slump.

Whether NBC's London 2012 coverage will suffer without Ebersol at the helm remains to be seen. He has many proteges who will now run the operation. NBC, sans Ebersol, said it still plans to go to Lausanne and bid for the Olympics broadcast rights, but it will be a hotly contested race with Disney-owned ABC-ESPN, Fox and CBS.

A source told me Ebersol has been bearish on a bid for Sochi 2014 for quite some time. The unfriendly time zone -- eight hours ahead of New York -- was the biggest worry. Live sports are best shown live, but not at 3 a.m. when viewers would rather be sleeping. During a meeting, Ebersol was asked what he thought Sochi would be worth. He paused for a moment and scribbled on a note pad. He turned around and showed those in the meeting. It was a big "0".

Sochi 2014 could well be a commercial bust for the IOC and whichever company wins the U.S. rights if National Hockey League players aren't playing the hockey tournament. The Russian resort is building everything from scratch and, from what I saw last June, is on-track to be ready for February 2014. But volunteers, venue operations, transportation and security remain big unknowns for Sochi, which passed the 1,000-day countdown on May 14.

Exclusive: Visa and Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton to GO separate ways

2011-05-16T09:46:00.000-07:00

I broke the news on the May 14 edition of The Sport Market on Team 1040 and in the May 17 edition of Business in Vancouver that Visa Canada is spending one last season as a sponsor of Canada's bobsled and skeleton team. Then the two-decade relationship, that included the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, will be over. Visa is also among the International Olympic Committee's global sponsors.

A prepared statement from Visa said: “Visa Canada is proud to have had a long association with Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton. Going forward, Visa will not sponsor the Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton team, but will instead continue to make strategic investments in support of Team Visa, our program for athletes with Olympic and Paralympic aspirations.”

The two parties would have split at the end of the 2010-2011 season, but BCS convinced Visa to remain for another year at a reduced rate. Read more in my story below.

Golden Goals: Visa checking out... BIV May 17-23, 2011

PavCo says cost overruns not its problem

2011-04-26T14:09:00.000-07:00

What's up with B.C. Place Stadium's roof, you say?

Well, for one thing, the price.

TSX-listed Canam Group (CAM) revealed on April 21 that it would take an "after-tax reserve of $25 million" for 2011's first fiscal quarter for "additional costs for the completion of the cables" on B.C. Place Stadium's retractable roof.

"The corporation believes this reserve represents the likely loss until completion of the project, while adding that discussions to reduce the impact of the reserve are ongoing with various project participants," said a news release.

Further information is to come April 27 when Canam Group president Marc Dutil will conduct a teleconference with financial analysts and media. Spokesman Jasmin Gosselin said Dutil was not available for earlier comment on the B.C. Place overrun.

Canam's Structal Heavy Steel Construction unit announced Oct. 28, 2009 that it scored a contract worth more than $100 million from PCL Constructors Westcoast. Steel was to be sourced from St. Gedeon de Beauce, Quebec and Sunnyside, Wash. by the company that supplied steel to 53 North American stadiums and arenas, such as Air Canada Centre, the new Giants Stadium and Red Bull Arena.

"Both the deliveries and the erection work will begin in the early part of 2010 and continue until the end of the year," said the 2009 news release.

Based on that news release, the schedule has already gone overtime. The last of the 36 steel masts was not in place until Jan. 13 of this year. The original deadline was the end of December 2010. Installation of the roof fabric was supposed to begin in February, but that won't happen until May. B.C. Pavilion Corporation CEO Warren Buckley told me earlier in April that testing of the finished retractable roof would happen at the end of August or start of September with a public open house on Sept. 25. Reopening night is Sept. 30 when the B.C. Lions host the Edmonton Eskimos.

B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore and Buckley did not respond to email queries about Canam's $25 million overrun. Buckley was not available when I called his office Tuesday morning, but spokesman Norman Stowe said via email: "Canam’s issue has no impact on PavCo which has a fixed price contract. No one is looking to PavCo for any shortfall."

PCL inked a $318 million fixed-price contract for the roof work in November 2009. The announced cost of the taxpayer-funded renovation is $563 million (it was supposed to be $365 million).

An announcement is expected soon that the stadium will be renamed for a brand of telecommunications giant Telus. Sources say the company won the bidding for naming rights.

APRIL 27 UPDATE

Canam reported a $39.7 million first quarter loss on April 27 and blamed it on "fierce competition in some business segments as well as the provisions for B.C. Place."

Dutil said Canam's Structal division got the B.C. Place contract in spring 2009 but the final contract wasn't executed until the fall of 2009. He said Structal's scope of work included the columns, compression beams, catwalks, arches and facade elements.

On a teleconference after his company's April 27 annual general meeting, Dutil said Structal "encountered severe delays in the cable portion of the work" in the first quarter after relying on the expertise of France-based Freyssinet.

"We are not cable experts and therefore relied on a third-party to estimate, price, plan and execute the installation of the cable work required to support the fabric roof, the centre node and all the elements required for the retractable roof system," Dutil said.

"During this first quarter we encountered severe delays in the cable portion of the work and hence we estimated that a $25 million after-tax reserve was warranted at this time. We hope to be able to recover a portion of this amount. Our first priority remains to deliver a safe, quality and timely project to our customer PCL and the end-user, B.C. Pavilion Corporation... The circumstances of the B.C. Place job are very difficult, but they confirm that even in the face of such challenges we do not run away."

"We had indications that the erection portion of these cables would be a lot faster and cost a lot less than it's turned out to be. It is my understanding that the taxpayers of B.C. are not on the hook for this, this was a contract where we have to perform at a fixed-price and we'll negotiate between ourselves and third parties. No one intends to refill the bill to someone else.

Dutil said Structal is in talks with Freyssinet to resolve the matter, but his company's work will be done in late July or early August.

"It's going to be a marvel. It's going to be well-done, safe and you're going to enjoy it for many years in Vancouver. It will just cost a little more than expected -- to us."

Asked for comment on the Canam overrun, PavCo CEO Warren Buckley told me: "This is a Canam matter and has nothing to do with the delivery of the completed stadium within the scope of the fixed price contract. There is not impact on budget and we are very confident that we are on track for a Sept. 30 completion."

Pondering poker's predicament

2011-04-21T08:52:00.001-07:00

Is poker a game of chance or skill? Is it a game or a sport? The arguments will continue, but the ripple effects of the FBI's April 15 crackdown against PokerStars, FullTilt Poker and Absolute Poker have hit sports broadcasting. Disney-owned ESPN, which has a stake in Canada's TSN, has cancelled poker advertising and programming.

The 2011 Canadian Gaming Summit was held April 18-20 at the Vancouver Convention Centre as the global gambling industry reeled from what poker people have called "Black Friday".

Among the speakers at an April 20 seminar on regulation was Lawrence Walters, an Orlando, Fla., lawyer who specializes in gambling, intellectual property and constitutional issues. Here's what he had to say:

“What you have is an attempt to hold a foreign resident and operation that is legal and licenced in its host jurisdiction responsible for violating a New York misdemeanor statute that makes no reference to online poker. The feds have their work cut out for them in this case for sure.

“We believe that the thrust of the government's case here is really the fraud allegations, the bank fraud, the money laundering. These gambling indictment counts, one to seven in the indictment, were thrown in so that the government could obtain a plea to those counts and then wave around that guilty plea and say ‘see, they're guilty of illegal gambling and the (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) applies’. What they'll say in the backroom is ‘we've got you on the bank fraud, you're lying to these banks and we can prove it. We don't really care about that, we want you to plead guilty to the gambling offences and we can establish a bad precedent for the rest of the industry’.

“Department of Justice has been known to do this in other instances where they'll come up with regulatory offences or tax evasion and then obtain a plea to some sort of more politically charged offence.

“This is going to be one of the first cases, if it goes to trial, that will address head on whether or not the UIGEA applies to anything other than sports betting activity. Given the amount of money involved and the foreign residence of the defendants, it's going to be a precedent setting case.

“If history is any guide, the likelihood of a decision on the merits is pretty slim. In general criminal cases are resolved by way of a plea as opposed to a trial 98 percent of the time, if that wasn't the case the system would collapse. It's designed that way.

“DOJ prosecutors are ruthless in their attempts to get pleas, they will threaten families, children, and take all of your property and basically make it so that it would be financially and morally impossible to fight these cases on the merits. There have been people that have done it, they've toughed it out and won. But the likelihood is that this case will be resolved by some kind of deal.”

Lions rookie rusher charged in ecstasy bust

2011-04-20T20:36:00.000-07:00

It’s been said that bad publicity is better than no publicity at all.

Try telling that to the B.C. Lions, now reeling from drug charges against the star running back who was featured in the club’s 2011 promotional advertising.

Yonus Davis is charged in San Jose, Calif. for attempting to possess a controlled substance with intent to distribute. He was busted April 9 by a Drug Enforcement Administration agent at his girlfriend’s house in Milipitas.

Agent Trang N. Le’s April 11 affidavit said Davis signed for a Federal Express courier package containing 67 pounds of ecstasy.

"He acknowledged that he was expecting a Federal Express parcel that was supposed to contain approximately 40 "boats" of ecstasy,” said Le’s affidavit, which explained a boat is slang for 1,000 tablets.

"Davis said he brought the ecstasy tablets for $1.50 per tablet and was expecting to earn $20,000 by selling the 40 "boats".

The court filing said Davis admitted he was expecting the parcel and was checking the Federal Express tracking number for its status.

"Yonus Davis said his ecstasy source is a Haitian male adult who goes by the name of Red. Yonus Davis said he had met Red once in downtown Seattle, Wash. a couple of months ago.

"Davis further said that he only sold the ecstasy tablets to his acquaintances."

The document said a criminal record check revealed that Davis "has a criminal history for a probation violation on Sept. 29, 2009, convictions on misdemeanor charges for possession of marijuana for sale on Feb. 13 and May 20 in 2008; a charge of battery on spouse and vandalism as a juvenile on May 28, 2002; and a charge of robbery as a juvenile on June 24, 2001."

Court filings claim Davis was paid $43,000 in 2010 when he was a rookie star and runner-up for CFL’s Gibson’s Finest-sponsored special teams player of the year.

Davis averaged 6.3 yards per carry when he rushed 34 times for 213 yards. He scored four touchdowns. A statement by head coach and general manager Wally Buono said Davis “remains part of our football club while the investigation process takes its course and we will not comment further at this time.”

For what it's worth, FedEx competitor Purolator is both the Lions' and the CFL's official courier company. The revelation that Davis was cited for spousal battery comes just over a month since the British Columbia Ministry of Children and Family Development announced a $320,000 no-bid contract for Lions players to conduct Ending the Violence Against Women Initiative workshops for high school football players.

The notice of intent said Lions players “through their accomplishments, community visibility and celebrity status are in a position to positively engage young people and raise their awareness about issues related to harassment and abuse.”

Never in the club's history has the team had such a low-key off-season. The Major League Soccer launch of the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Vancouver Canucks' first overall finish in the National Hockey League regular season have kept the orange and black off the sports pages. Until now.

Yonus Davis, arguably the most-exciting Lion in an otherwise dismal 2010 season, may have played his last game in B.C.

Yonus Davis's indictment

Name game

2011-03-26T16:13:00.000-07:00

A new name is on the way for B.C. Place Stadium.

Taxpayers are on the hook for much of the $563 million budget to renovate the 1983-opened stadium. Some of the costs are supposed to be defrayed by the sale of naming rights.

B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore told me in mid-January that the corporate naming deal could be decided in late March or early April. Timing for the announcement would hinge upon both government approval and the marketing strategy of the sponsor itself. Though he refused to offer any hints, he said the companies involved in negotiations were not government enterprises. Podmore also said Paragon Gaming and its Edgewater Casino were not in the running for the name. B.C. Place general manager Howard Crosley said Budweiser was not a candidate, despite becoming the official stadium beer.

So the speculation continues.

Four highly active sectors appear to be the most logical from which to draw a naming rights sponsor: financial services, telecommunications, energy and retail.

Scotiabank already sponsors arenas in Ottawa and Calgary, is the naming sponsor of Nat Bailey Stadium in Vancouver and is the official bank of the Richmond Olympic Oval. If its name went up on the B.C. Place marquee, would shareholders question whether it's in the banking or stadium business? BMO already has its name on Toronto FC's stadium. Which might make RBC the most logical suitor. RBC has had a low profile since it sponsored the 2010 Winter Olympics and its torch relay.

Telus hung up on Canucks Sports and Entertainment after General Motors decided to drive out of its deal for "the Garage" early. Rogers slipped in last July, weeks after Bell slapped its name on the jerseys for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Bell is also the name on the Empire Field pitch. Expect the Whitecaps to play on Bell Pitch beginning in October. Vice-president Loring Phinney told me the company is not bidding for the building's name.

Telus CEO Darren Entwhistle said at the March 9 unveiling of the $750 million Telus Gardens office complex proposal that the stadium naming rights are of interest to his company.

On March 1 Terasen Gas became FortisBC. Natural gas is plentiful in B.C. where Fortis is the biggest distributor. The Newfoundland-based company has utility operations in five provinces, plus hotel and commercial properties. The Fortis board of directors includes Podmore. Podmore was instrumental in convincing Fortis to underwrite the Olympic cauldrons at B.C. Place Stadium and Jack Poole Plaza. Could Podmore also convince his fellow directors to turn the stadium into FortisBC Place?

In January, U.S. discount retailer Target bought leases for Zellers' 220 stores for $1.8 billion from Hudson's Bay Company. The Minnesota company plans to convert as many as 150 to Target by 2014. Naming rights to the stadium would be beneficial, if it were to begin the makeover early,

The "where are they now?" podium

2011-02-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Winter Olympics opened a year ago today, which meant the final lap in a test of endurance for people who spent almost seven years with VANOC. Many of them gathered at the Vancouver Convention Centre for a reunion, after the Olympic cauldron on Jack Poole Plaza was re-activated. Their post-Games careers can be split into three categories, like three steps on a podium.

GOLD: Sport

CEO John Furlong is now chairman of the Own the Podium advisory board and a director of Whistler Blackcomb, which is now traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Furlong's main source of income, for the short-term, appears to be as a motivational speaker. His Patriot Hearts memoir is key to that strategy.

Furlong is a former CEO of SportBC, the province's umbrella for amateur sports organizations. VANOC's vice-president of sport Tim Gayda was appointed CEO last year.

The only senior VANOC executive to have a senior appointment with the International Olympic Committee is chief financial officer John McLaughlin. McLaughlin was appointed to the 2018 Winter Games evaluation commission. The temporary appointment means trips to Annecy, France, Munich, Germany and PyeongChang, South Korea. McLaughlin is the commission's financial specialist.

Director of ice sports/general manager hockey Denis Hainault has a similar job with Sochi 2014.

Paula Kim was in charge of press operations at B.C. Place Stadium, the opening, closing and medals ceremonies venue. She is senior communications manager with the International Triathlon Union in North Vancouver, the only summer Olympic sports federation based in Canada.

Brand creative director Ali Gardner is now marketing director with Canucks Sports and Entertainment. Lawyer Chris Gear now heads CSE's legal department.

Canada's next sports mega-event is the 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto. Vice-president of workforce Allan Vansen is the senior vice-president of transportation, security and village for the Toronto 2015 organizing committee. He was appointed days after the riot-marred G20 summit.

Director of merchandising and licensing Dennis Kim was appointed the Canadian Olympic Committee's executive director brand marketing.

Jason Macnaughton from communications wrapped up a one-year contract with Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps on March 31. Carly Thorson Jokic, a Macnaughton cohort at VANOC, remains with the club, taking over as communications director.

SILVER: British Columbia Crown corporations

Top level executives have made their way into jobs with British Columbia Crown corporations. This demonstrates the influence of Premier Gordon Campbell.

Construction executive vice-president Dan Doyle: BC Hydro chairman was first in summer 2009. Deputy CEO Dave Cobb followed in May 2010 to become the power monopoly's CEO. Cobb, in turn, hired VANOC vice-president of communications Renee Smith-Valade, Chris Brumwell, Greg Alexis and Jennifer Young in a major overhaul of the communications department.

Chief Information Officer Ward Chapin now has the same job with ICBC. Workforce and sustainability executive vice-president Donna Wilson is Vice-president of industry services and sustainability at WorkSafeBC. Government relations and celebrations executive vice-president David Guscott is the E-Comm 9-1-1 CEO.

BRONZE: New ventures

The best advice imparted by Furlong to the Sochi 2014 organizing committee at the June 2010 knowledge transfer sessions in Russia was to "stick together."

That's precisely what several VANOC employees have done, creating their own post-Games clusters.

Vice-president marketing Andrea Shaw is managing partner of the Twentyten Group. Shaw's company in the Landing in Gastown became the post-October 2010 home of VANOC, or what was left of it. Coincidentally, Twentyten Group's office is one floor below where the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation was based when it was awarded the 2010 Games on July 2, 2003.

Shaw is joined by commercial rights manager Bill Cooper, who is a senior partner with Twentyten. Associates include Mags Doehler, Breedon Grauer, Catherine Locke, Rob Mullowney, Kala Polman-Tuin and Stephanie Cornish.

Paralympics director Dena Coward leads a group at the Rick Hansen Foundation's Man in Motion 25th Anniversary Celebration. Torch relays director Jim Richards is coordinating Hansen's international tour. VANOC communications staffers Suzanne Reeves, Mary Fraser and John Gibson have joined them.

Vice-president of partnerships and strategy Taleeb Noormohamed is president of e-learning concern Serebra Learning Corp, and running as the Liberal candidate for North Vancouver in the May 2 federal election. Director of ticketing Chris Stairs is Serebra's vice-president of sales, while manager of partnerships Matthew Bonguorno is sales manager and torch relay communications manager Jenee Elborne is director of communications.

Katie Green, who worked under Smith-Valade, joined Hill and Knowlton Vancouver (headed by VANOC director Ken Dobell). Green was transferred to the Montreal office but is joining L'Oreal Canada as brand communications manager.

IOC back to business with first 2011 meeting

2011-01-15T04:28:00.000-08:00

The International Olympic Committee's Executive Board met Jan. 13 at the five-ring headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland -- 11 months after the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and one year before the 2013 Youth Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria.

Executive Board doesn't release minutes. No information was released on whether VANOC was discussed behind closed doors. The Vancouver 2010 final report will be delivered to the 123rd IOC session July 1-9 at Durban, South Africa. That is where the host of the 2018 Winter Games will be chosen from among either Annecy, France, Munich, Germany or PyeongChang, South Korea. Only three bids were received. By comparison, there were eight candidates for the 2010 Games.

Executive Board added to the minimum requirements for cities to bid on the Games. The prospective host national Olympic committee must be compliant with the World Anti-Doping Agency and accept the jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration in Sport to settle disputes.

"Without that there is no candidature," Rogge said.

Executive Board also decided there could be "a waiver for the rule of the dates of the Games because of climactic and geographic issues," Rogge said.

But would the IOC move the 2022 Winter Olympics if FIFA decides to hold the 2022 Qatar World Cup in January?

"We have not had contacts with FIFA for the very good reason this is a very hypothetical discussion, FIFA has not yet taken the decision in principle to shift to winter months.

"The situation for the IOC is very clear: the IOC would organize the Winter Games in the winter obviously. The bracket we're having is roughly, last week of January and the month of February. There is no way you can organize Winter Games in December or in March.

"For us it's clear that is the bracket for the games. It would be sensible once a decision would be envisioned by FIFA, to sit around the table to see it is not harmful for either of the two partners.

"As of today we think it is far too premature."

Otherwise, how are IOC and FIFA relations after FIFA president Sepp Blatter accused the IOC of being a non-transparent organization that handles its finances like a "housewife"?

"The incident that arose is closed, it is the past, I don't think about it and I'm very glad the relationship is very good," Rogge said.

Rogge admitted the IOC is probing allegations of corruption against Issa Hayatou, who is an IOC member and FIFA vice-president. Andrew Jennings reported that Hayatou was among those involved in the ISL bribery scandal in the 1990s during the FIFA's Dirty Secrets documentary aired by Panorama in December 2010:

"We have referred this to the Ethics Commission of the IOC and the Ethics Commission is collecting information, they are discussing with the BBC. I believe that the BBC, under the condition that the identity of the sources would be preserved, would be willing to give information, and we need that information."

That Ethics Commission saw Spanish ambassador Jose Luis Dicenta Ballester replace former United Nations secretary general Javier Perez de Cuellar.

If Tottenham Hotspur FC wins the bid to take over the London Olympic stadium after the 2012 Games, it might demolish and rebuild on the same site. Rogge said "this is not our business" because it is a matter for LOCOG, the Olympic Park Legacy Society and U.K. Athletics.

"If a solution could be found for the track, we would be happy," he said. " Don't expect the IOC to intervene forcefully anyway in this issue where we are not responsible."

Rogge said discussions with the United States Olympic Committee over revenue sharing are accelerating. A truce was announced at the 2009 SportAccord convention in Denver. Smaller NOCs want a bigger piece of the revenue pie, but the USOC argues that American broadcasters and sponsors are the biggest funders of the IOC.

Rogge said "pretty soon" the IOC would meet with American broadcast companies about bidding for rights to air the Games of 2014 and beyond.

"After that meeting then there will be a decision how we are going to tender out , what the format and specifications are going to be," Rogge said.

The IOC normally sells packages in pairs, but U.S. companies want to buy four at a time if the price is right. NBC is the incumbent. It paid $2.2 billion for Vancouver 2010 and London 2012.

The IOC's finances are "solid" with reserves of US$550 million.
.

Vancouver's jersey curse

2011-01-04T09:42:00.000-08:00

Message to anyone ever asked to be among the first to model a Vancouver sports team's new uniform design.

Say thanks, but no thanks. If you do, you won't wear it for long in competition. If ever.

When the National Basketball Association expansion Vancouver Grizzlies launched their jersey design, it wasn't a basketball player who wore it first. It was professional volleyballer/supermodel Gabrielle Reece on May 18, 1995. Her husband Dean Cain was a Hollywood North star of Lois and Clark. She obviously never played a game for the Bad News Bears.

When the Canucks unveiled the jerseys for the full-time return to the blue, white and green colour scheme on Aug. 29, 2007, Markus Naslund, Trevor Linden, Mattias Ohlund, Willie Mitchell and Kevin Bieksa were the first to skate on then-GM Place ice in the new unis.

Linden and Naslund are both retired. So are their jersey numbers in the rafters of Rogers Arena. Ohlund and Mitchell became free agents elsewhere. Only Bieksa remains a Canuck.

On June 10, 2010, the Vancouver Whitecaps unveiled their Adidas-made, Bell-sponsored Major League Soccer uniforms. Models were then-captain Martin Nash and women's club star Kara "Clubber" Lang.

Nash, a 15-year pro, retired Oct. 27, 2010 to become a staff coach and scout. National team veteran Lang, 24, ends her competitive career Wednesday with a news conference in her hometown, Oakville, Ont. Repeated knee ligament tears in her right knee have forced her to call it quits.

Winter 3 Minnesota Vikings 0

2010-12-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

Consider the curious case of the Minnesota Vikings, old man Brett Favre and Old Man Winter.

First the Metrodome in Minneapolis ripped and collapsed under the weight of snow on Dec. 12. Fox was there! The New York Giants' flight to Minneapolis was already diverted to Kansas City. The NFL moved the game to Ford Field in Detroit on Dec 13. Detroit fans are used to the home team losing, and that's what the Vikings did by a 21-3 score.

Then the big top in Minny couldn't be mended and reinflated fast enough. The Vikings had to finish their home schedule outdoors at TCF Bank Stadium, the home of the Minnesota Golden Gophers that opened in September 2009. The arch-rival Chicago Bears beat the Vikings 40-14 and knocked Favre out of the Dec. 20 game, his first since the record 297-game streak ended the previous week.

The outdoor game was on the 29th anniversary of the last Vikings' game at Metropolitan Stadium. The Met was demolished to make way for the Mall of America, which is coincidentally the title sponsor of the sad-sack Metrodome.

Finally, to complete the trifecta, the Vikings' NBC Sunday Night Football game in Philadelphia against the Eagles on Dec. 26 was postponed to Dec. 28 because of a blizzard forecast.

This has to be Murphy's Law at its best. On Dec. 11, NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies declared January to November temperatures were about to make 2010 the warmest on record. (Translation: warmest in the 131 years of record-keeping on a planet estimated to be 4.5 billion years old.)

Western Europe and Eastern North America have been pummelled with enough La Nina-related freezing temperatures and snow to remind us all that Mother Nature has the last laugh. Humans should be handling the planet with exponentially more care than already given, but to think humans have dominion over this planet is pure folly. Let's wait and see if any credible scientists can definitively connect the December 2010 northern hemisphere weather to the controversial human-caused global warming theories. During this doozy of a December, Team Skeptic has possession of the ball in enemy territory.

Let's also wait to see whether David Suzuki or Al Gore registered an uptick in book sales at airport stores while travellers were stranded because of too much snow on runways or not enough de-icing chemicals were available to defrost plane-sicles. Might travellers pondering how to kill time snickered at the celebrity zoologist and the ex-vice-president and bought the latest sudoku puzzle book instead?

The weather has cost the Vikings and NFL millions of dollars, but they're both organizations that can afford to withstand a financial storm. Smaller leagues do not. Major League Soccer has been under FIFA pressure to switch to a fall-through-spring schedule. Commissioner Don Garber announced on Nov. 21 during halftime of the MLS Cup in Toronto that the league would study the concept. That was less than two weeks before FIFA snubbed the United States' 2022 World Cup bid in favour of Qatar's.

Even if Garber's olive branch remains extended, expect any such study to return with thumbs-down on a schedule that includes Games in December (or, for that matter, January). Even if the weather were friendlier, the North American sports market is already jammed with NFL, NBA, NCAA and NHL (in that order) dominating December and January.

Getting teams, fans, workers and media safely and securely to and from games when the weather worsens at this time of year is no easy task. Expect Major League Soccer to continue going March to November for many years to come.

* * * * *
Bottom of the Basket: While Minnesota taxpayers and politicians debate a replacement for the Metrodome, British Columbians are counting the months until B.C. Place Stadium reopens from a $563 million renovation. This massive infusion of public money was made after the Jan. 5, 2007 rip and collapse at the Metrodome's 1983-opened cousin. An engineering report concluded the B.C. Place disaster was preventable. The snow-melting system was not turned on when it should have been. Wind was not a factor.

Blustery November and December weather has not made things easy for construction crews. By Christmas, 33 of the 36 roof support towers and cable nets had been installed. This phase of the job won't be done until early January. B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore said in a Nov. 5 tour that all 36 would be installed by year-end.

The precise opening date has not been announced, but the B.C. Pavilion Corporation construction committee was told Aug. 20 that substantial completion may not be until Nov. 1, 2011. The Nov. 26, 2011 Vanier Cup and Nov. 27, 2011 Grey Cup are the only two events confirmed. The B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps are both selling season ticket packages, based on the B.C. Place seating configuration.

B.C. Place could become the showpiece stadium in North American market for the lightweight, retractable roof technology pioneered in Germany by Schlaich Bergermann and Partner. The firm's managing director Knut Göppert told me in Stuttgart in September that the Vancouver project was his company's top priority because of the potential for both new construction and retrofit projects. I'd have to think he's watching the Minneapolis situation very, very closely.

Inside Commerzbank Arena and B.C. Place Stadium

2010-11-12T10:03:00.000-08:00

What's it like inside B.C. Place Stadium while it undergoes a $563 million renovation to become more like Commerzbank Arena in Frankfurt, Germany?

Join me for a quick tour of the 2005-renovated home of the Bundesliga's Eintracht Frankfurt here and the past and future home of the B.C. Lions and Vancouver Whitecaps here.

6 months after Olympics, is Vancouver better?

2010-08-28T09:20:00.000-07:00

Where were you six months ago today? Today being Aug. 28, 2010. Six months ago being Feb. 28, 2010.

It was the last day of February and the last day of the the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler.

The biggest sporting event on the planet that day was a certain 12:15 p.m. faceoff in downtown Vancouver between Canada and the United States to decide the men’s hockey gold medal in the final event of the Games.

It ended in triumph as Sidney Crosby scored in sudden-death overtime to give Canada the last gold medal of Vancouver 2010 and a record 14 host-team Olympic championships.

International Olympic Committee marketing director Timo Lumme estimated 114 million people around the world were watching the Game. That’s a bigger number than Super Bowl.

Other numbers involving Vancouver 2010 are less impressive. Total estimated viewership was 1.8 billion, which is less than the 3.5 billion Lumme forecast during the Games. VANOC sold 1.49 million of 1.54 million tickets available, despite insisting during the Games that the inventory was 1.6 million. VANOC continues to claim it will balance its $1.76 billion budget. But only after at least $80 million in direct bailouts from taxpayers. Corporate sponsors didn't come to the table or scaled back spending, causing ripple effects and chaos behind-the-scenes.

VANOC is operating under a financial information blackout despite being a signatory to the 2002 Multi-Party Agreement that required quarterly financial reports. Clearly, the task of closing the books is harder than originally envisioned. It still must compensate owners of Whistler Blackcomb and Cypress for use of their slopes, resolve a nasty $10 million contract dispute with charter bus contractor Gameday Management and somehow reclaim $2 million from Visa and an insurer after at least three Latvians used stolen credit cards to buy thousands of tickets on the official VANOC scalping website.

VANOC will be remembered for organizing the Games amid the worst economic climate since the Great Depression. But the Games organizer’s business plan incorrectly assumed there would be no recession of any size before or during the Games.

The debates will rage for many months and years on the impacts of the $6 billion-plus Games and how politicians for the ruling B.C. Liberals downplayed the costs and overstated the benefits.

The Sea-to-Sky Highway is a safer, smoother ride. A tunnel would've been nicer than razing the Eagle Ridge Bluffs forest and swamp, however. The Canada Line is the rapid transit downtown to airport link Vancouver has always needed. The Vancouver Convention Centre is a world-class convention centre that is already bringing big meetings and events downtown that previously would not have fit.

Too bad all three of the above cost more than $3.5 billion combined. Once upon a time, the price tag for all three was estimated to be under $2 billion.

The Vancouver Olympic Centre’s pool is open. Yes, taxpayers built a recreation centre when what the International Olympic Committee ordered was a curling rink. Where the curling rink was will be a hockey rink. Killarney and Trout Lake got a fine new hockey rink each, but not additional ice sheets.

Likewise the Richmond Olympic Oval, where a pair of hockey rinks will open after reconfiguration of the ice plant. The speedskating oval ice surface is hidden for possible future use. The key word is possible.

The Vancouver Olympic Village is a ghost town. The social housing is not open and not enough luxury suites have been bought and occupied by those that can afford them. The community centre is open, the Urban Fare and London Drugs are coming soon. Who knows about the brewpub that was supposed to occupy the Salt Building. The big, red heritage shack is empty. The seawall and man-made island in False Creek are popular with walkers and rollers.

Across the way, B.C. Place Stadium is undergoing a pioneering $563 million post-Games renovation that was supposed to cost $365 million. Let’s hope its retractable roof doesn’t malfunction like the one at Olympic Stadium in Montreal after its post-Games installation.

Robson Square, the biggest free public magnet of the Games, is closed for renovations. Who knows when the GE-sponsored public ice rink will reopen.

The Olympic Streetcar came and went from its False Creek South line between the Canada Line’s Olympic Village Station and Granville Island. Bombardier was willing to leave the two Brussels streetcars there through summer, but city hall had other priorities. Like homes for chickens, more bike lanes and an expensive renovation to Mayor Gregor Robertson and city manager Penny Ballem’s offices.

General Motors Place was Canada Hockey Place for the Games, but is now Rogers Arena. The automaker that drove through bankruptcy last year was under pressure to drive out of its naming rights deal early. The Toronto telecommunications company, a minor partner in the Canadian Olympic Broadcasting Consortium, took over.

The Countdown Clock at the Vancouver Art Gallery still displays zeros, but its days there are numbered. The Olympic half is destined for B.C. Place Stadium's B.C. Sports Hall of Fame. The Paralympic half is going to the Whistler Olympic Park's day lodge. Will there be a permanent memorial to Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, the 21-year-old who died on the Whistler Sliding Centre track on opening day of the 21st Games?

The Downtown Eastside remains Canada’s home for the homeless. An urban ghetto like no other in North America. The Woodward’s complex has breathed new life into the neighbourhood, but the area remains full of people who are ill and addicted, wandering aimlessly, in need of help.

The Games were, essentially, a strategy to improve the real estate and tourism industries.

House sales boomed for a few months after the Games, until hitting the brakes in July with a 20.1 percent drop in Vancouver.

Have you seen all the “for lease” signs outside offices and warehouses in Metro Vancouver? The city’s vacancy rate for the first half of 2010 was officially under 5 percent, but the suburbs are suffering.

Burnaby’s 13.08 percent vacancy rate is 6 percent worse than 2009. Richmond’s 17.58 percent is 5 percent worse than the previous year. Yes, there is new supply on the market that has yet to be absorbed, but there many companies big and small companies downsizing or disappearing.

The Microsoft Canada Development Centre in Richmond is shutting down this fall and remaining employees are moving to downtown Vancouver. That's a 73,000 square foot space for lease and it's not the only one in the Knight Street corridor in Richmond, which is rapidly becoming a lonely place to locate.

Metro Vancouver Commerce, an economic development campaign drive by Vancouver, Richmond and Surrey, claims it created $60 million to $70 million of new business to the region because of the Olympics. But the MVC publicity bumph is easily dissected. Two of the deals announced were worth $52 million combined and involved existing partnerships. The promotion
took credit for the six-and-a-half-year, $27 million contract extension between Lockheed Martin of Maryland and Abbotsford-based Cascade Aerospace, even though Abbotsford was not an MVC participant.

Organizers won't disclose the names of the 100 businesspeople they wined and dined during the Olympics. In fact, MVC appears to have been a sly strategy for staff of the city-funded Vancouver Economic Development Commission to get free Olympic tickets while helping VANOC boost its slumping sales after sponsors cut back.

Tourism Vancouver says overnight stays are up 4.8 percent through June, but that’s in comparison to 2009 which was not a banner year. The February figure of 547,357 was the best February ever, breaking the 2008 mark of 507,199. January showed a year-over-year drop, but March, April, May and June showed improvements over 2009. Except February, all months measured were below the annual averages since 2005.

July and August are the bread-and-butter, million-plus visitor months for Vancouver tourism. Those numbers, when tabulated, will tell us whether the $38.6 million taxpayer-funded You Gotta Be Here tourism ad campaign was worth it.

Federal and British Columbia politicians spending billions of your dollars on economic stimulus projects want you to believe in an economic rebound and a post-Olympic boom. Could the opposite have happened: A minor, post-Games recession, perhaps?

It will take more months than just six to fully assess the legacies of the biggest event in British Columbia history. In some cases, it will take years.

Nobody can deny that it was the city's greatest party. But was the hangover worth it?

Bottom to TOP

2010-07-23T23:28:00.000-07:00

The economic recovery may best be described as "fragile," but yet another sign of progress will become apparent on Wednesday. That's when Procter and Gamble is expected to become the newest member of the International Olympic Committee's TOP sponsor roster in London, site of the 2012 Summer Games.

VANOC could have used such an alliance. It had to buy a heckuva lot of toilet paper, shampoo and soap for the Olympic Village. Ivory Soap and Colgate toothpaste, and Hain Celestial's Jason and Avalon Organics products were on the shelves of the general stores at the athletes' villages.

Meanwhile, Cinncinati-based P&G was already in Vancouver as a U.S. Olympic Committee sponsor. It took over the Simon Fraser University Wosk Centre for Dialogue and transformed it into the P&G Family Home for athletes and relatives from the Excited States. It included a Pringles Room, Tide Laundry Centre and Pampers Village kids play area.

The IOC doesn't release details of the TOP program, but it's believed to be in the neighbourhood of $100 million per Games. The IOC paid VANOC $22 million in compensation after it failed to add two sponsors to the list of nine. The decrease in global activation hit VANOC hard. When the IOC made its bailout offer, the governments of Canada ($30.7 million) and British Columbia ($50 million) also bucked up with bailout funds.

On July 16, Dow became a sponsor through 2020. Dow was a VANOC sponsor and would have become a global sponsor sooner had the recession not happened. Environmental sustainability is the IOC's third pillar, after sport and culture. Dow walks a fine line. Many environmentalists are quick to remind those who listen that Dow bought Union Carbide. A December 1984 leak at the company's Bhopal, India pesticide factory killed almost 3,800 people, according to a government estimate. More than half-a-million people were injured. Dow claims no responsibility because it had no stake in Union Carbide at the time. It was a disaster waiting to happen, according to investigators.

Another disaster waiting to happen, according to the New York Times, was that British Petroleum oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. The biggest waterborne environmental catastrophe in United States history involves a company that became a U.S. Olympic Committee sponsor before Vancouver 2010. BP is also an official sponsor of London 2012. Rogge said that it would be welcome to remain, so long as there is no proof that the oil rig disaster was caused by negligence.

Vancouver 2010: more modest than believed

2010-07-23T21:53:00.000-07:00

The snow is almost all gone from Cypress Mountain. Yeah, the snowboarding and freestyle skiing venue that needed truckloads of snow from almost 200 kilometres away in February had a March and April dump that kept the slopes white in May.

Something else is melting. The superficial political sloganeering that Vancouver 2010 was the most successful Winter Olympics ever.

Do you believe? I don't and you shouldn't.

Let's be realistic. A recession happened on the way to the Games. VANOC assumed no recession, big or small, would happen before the Games. Oops. The fact that Vancouver 2010 happened, had few empty seats at ice events and filled the streets of Vancouver with revellers should be celebrated. IOC president Jacques Rogge couldn't have chosen better words to describe the Games than "excellent" and "friendly."

But they weren't as excellent as IOC marketing director Timo Lumme speculated at a Feb. 23 news conference in the main press centre. Lumme grandly estimated that 3.5 billion people -- half the population of the planet -- would watch Vancouver 2010 by the time it was over.

That 3.5 billion figure was taken for gospel by the world media and became the rallying cry for politicians like Premier Gordon Campbell.

Well, the July 6-published IOC Marketing Report for Vancouver 2010 tells a different, more modest story. The potential audience for the Games was 3.8 billion. That's the number of people with access to televisions with channels containing coverage of the Games.

But the real number that Mr. Campbell should start using is 1.8 billion. That's the actual viewership globally.

Of course, Premier "Red-Ink" Mittens is used to reality checks and smaller numbers. He is, after all, plummeting in popularity on the strength (weakness?) of the HST, which is being used to pay the debt for being host of the 2010 Games.

By comparison, 3.5 billion was the IOC estimate for actual viewership of the Beijing Games in 2008.

The wildcard, however, is Internet viewership. The IOC doesn't count that because there is no similar means of measuring ratings scientifically. In North America and Europe, we know that TV viewers often surf the web simultaneously on their laptops or mobile phones. One person is one viewer, even if they're looking at two screens.

While the IOC revised downward its estimate of how many watched the Games, it finally disclosed how many tickets were used at the Games. I call this liberating information from the dreaded VANOC virtual waiting room.

VANOC has held onto such numbers so tightly. After a May 19 news conference, I approached both deputy CEO Dave Cobb -- whose portfolio included ticketing -- and chief financial officer John McLaughlin. They both played the "I don't know, ask him" game. Not very convincing. They knew the number, but didn't want it to be public until late fall when VANOC's audited final report is expected.

The IOC offered the real numbers and they're not record breaking. Vancouver 2010 claimed a 1.6 million-ticket inventory on the closing day of the Games. Meanwhile, the actual sales were 1.49 million out of 1.54 million, according to the IOC.

General admission tickets had been cancelled and refunded for Cypress Mountain events. Thousands of tickets were unsold for skiing and sliding events in Whistler.

In November 2009, the third Canadian phase was delayed because of the embarrassing programming malfunction of the hated virtual waiting room on the Tickets.com website.

The IOC reported $257 million revenue, which is just $3.4 million shy of the target.

At Salt Lake 2002, organizers reported in June of that year sales of 1,525,118 of 1,605,524 available tickets for US$183 million. At the time, the U.S. dollar was so strong that the Canadian equivalent was more than $290 million.

McLaughlin reluctantly admitted on July 20 that the IOC numbers are accurate. He also said efforts to resolve the $2 million loss from a Latvian Visa card fraud scam with an insurer and Visa itself were "slow" and likely to take months.

Remember when VANOC said in September 2008 that the public would get 70% of tickets and the Olympic family 30%? The scales tipped further to the public as a result of reduced activation by sponsors. The IOC report shows 71% of sales in Canada, 16% of sales internationally (including the U.S.), 11% to sponsors and broadcasters and 2% to the IOC and international sports federations.

Soul on ice

2010-06-23T21:55:00.000-07:00

Could Dustin Byfuglien save hockey in Atlanta?

While Vancouver Canuck Henrik Sedin was celebrating a Hart Trophy, Byfuglien was quietly enjoying his Stanley Cup summer in Phoenix until he found out he was traded.

The Fugly One was a Chicago Blackhawk until June 23 when he was dealt to the Atlanta Thrashers. The 25-year-old from Minneapolis had 11 goals and five assists in the Hawks’ Stanley Cup run. He certainly got some votes for the Conn Smythe Trophy and was unpopular in Vancouver for getting in the way of Roberto Luongo so often.

Atlanta is the eighth-largest media marketplace in the United States and it is rich with sports, where the Atlanta Braves and Atlanta Falcons dominate the pro sports scene and the Georgia Bulldogs are the college mainstay. Basketball’s Atlanta Hawks are a bigger wintertime draw than the Thrashers, who averaged only 13,607 fans last season. That’s the third-worst attendance in the league.

Atlantans never did relate to Russian Ilya Kovalchuk, but they might just come to know and love The Fugly One.

While much was made of the Blackhawks marketing to African-American fans in Chicago, it’s a demographic that the Thrashers need for their survival. More than half of Atlantans are African-American.

Byfuglien, whose father was African-American Ricky Spencer, could end up playing on the same line in Atlanta with Vancouver Giants’ product Evander Kane. Kane was picked fourth overall last year by the Thrashers and is named after Atlanta heavyweight boxing superstar Evander Holyfield.

Atlanta is also the birthplace of Martin Luther King, who led the civil rights movement.

It's a long climb to the hilltop that is the Stanley Cup, but 2010-2011 could be the year Atlanta is spared from becoming the first city to lose two National Hockey League franchises. Thanks to Evander Kane and Dustin Byfuglien.

No Vancouver 2014

2010-06-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

There will not be a Vancouver 2014.

Who would organize it and who would pay for it? VANOC is dismantling itself and, well, you know all about the British Columbia government's budget problems and the HST in the former Host-province.

Rumors swirled during Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics that the Russians wouldn’t be ready to host the 2014 Winter Games because work had barely begun in Sochi.

Sochi 2014 president Dmitry Chernyshenko tried to thwart the rumors at a Vancouver news conference at the end of February by calling his hometown the “world’s biggest construction site.”

It wasn’t spin folks, it’s the truth. I was there last week and saw the massive amount of work to build venues, hotels, tunnels, bridges, port facilities and power plants. Some $30 billion of public and private money is being spent. It’s nothing like we saw in Vancouver because the Russians are building from scratch. It’s actually the winter version of Beijing. Chernyshenko wants the sporting venues to be finished two winters before his Games.

Work hasn’t begun on the 40,000-seat Olympic stadium near the shores of the Black Sea, but the Bolshoi Ice Palace hockey rink (below) is on-track to be finished by the end of next year. Sochi, like Vancouver, has a year-round, construction-friendly climate.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin didn’t come to Vancouver, but he hosted a dinner in Sochi for International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge on June 7. These are Putin’s Games. He is on a mission to make Russia a super-power again and not just in the realm of sports. This is also a second chance at hosting the five-ring circus. Thirty years ago, the Soviet Union hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics which were boycotted by 65 countries in the wake of the invasion of Afghanistan.

The peaks around Sochi, 2 kilometres high, still have snow from last winter. Despite the subtropical Black Sea coastal climate that gives Sochi-proper bananas and tea plantations, the mountains are snow magnets. Several resort villages are being built to accompany the alpine and nordic venues. There are 19,000 workers at 58 sites. They live in portables stacked three-deep in villages dotted along the banks of the Mzymta River. Mzymta means “crazy” and the level of work done to divert the river would probably not pass a Canadian environmental assessment.

With almost three-and-a-half years to go, the Games should also be built on-time, unless the doomsday predictions of Sergei Volkov come true. The consultant to Sochi 2014 quit and fled to Ukraine. He said a lack of engineering assessment has taken place and works are being conducted in a seismically active area with unstable slopes.

Ultimately, Sochi’s greatest weakness could be its lack of international sporting events and lack of English and French speakers. Organizers are scrambling to create a Russian volunteer culture. They already have a few quality people -- some 70 who participated in the June 7-10 Vancouver 2010 Debrief at the Krasnaya Polyana resort. But they will need more than 20,000 by Games-time.

The organizing committee has people with competent English language skills, but the same can’t be said for restaurateurs and cabbies. The frontline of the tourism industry.

While Sochi readies itself, June 22-23 in Lausanne, Switzerland will be the next chapter in bidding for the 2018 Winter Games. Representatives of Annecy, France, Munich, Germany and PyeongChang, South Korea will submit their applications. The IOC executive board could rubber stamp all three or make a short-list of two. The 2018 host will be decided next year at the IOC congress in Durban, South Africa.

There are already whispers of a Canadian bid for the 2022 Winter Games from Quebec City and a group in Calgary is preparing a challenge.

Are you tired of the IIHF?

2010-05-21T14:43:00.000-07:00

International Ice Hockey Federation public relations czar Szymon Szemberg says he’s tired of Sidney Crosby and various, twentysomething hockey players claiming they’re too tired to play at the World Hockey Championship.

Well, I’m tired, too. Tired of Europeans who govern the Great Canadian Game holding a world championship that clashes with the Stanley Cup playoffs and calling it a world championship. It really is the “annual European springtime invitational.”

I’m tired of the IIHF forgetting that the NHL, whose fans pay players like Crosby, compressed its schedule in 2009-2010 to accommodate the Vancouver Olympics. Surely the IIHF must’ve noticed an increase in its Swiss bank account after the most-watched hockey tournament of all-time.

I’m tired of the IIHF neglecting opportunities to develop the game outside North America and Europe. Dear IIHF: did you hear about the economic boom in China and the construction of ice rinks all over Asia in the past decade?

I’m tired of the IIHF spending little time or money to develop women’s hockey and sledge hockey.

Most of all, I’m tired of the IIHF running its affairs like a secret society with a rule-breaking ex-referee as its president.

Rene Fasel was outed by a Swiss newspaper last year for alleged kickbacks. A Deloitte probe paid for by the IIHF was never published. Finally, after the Olympics, the International Olympic Committee said “tsk-tsk” to Fasel for favouring a friend, but it didn’t send Fasel to the penalty box.

Tiresome, isn’t it?

Cool Britannia or Tool Britannia?

2010-05-20T16:57:00.001-07:00

It didn’t take long on May 19 for someone in cyberspace (do they still call it that?) to compare the phallic, one-eyed London 2012 mascots Wenlock and Mandeville to penises (can we say that on radio?).

What would you rather have? A union jack-draped bulldog named Winston with bad human teeth, wearing a bowler hat and monocle while hoisting a mug of room-temperature beer with his paw?

The mascots will be $30 million souvenir sales drivers for the next Summer Olympics and Paralympics, which already have a cubist logo that someone likened to Lisa Simpson getting ahead, if you know what I mean.

Can’t wait to see what kind of torch they’ll come up with in the new, Cool Britannia. Certainly it can’t top Vancouver’s joint-shaped torch.

The design of the Olympics, as we learned in Vancouver, is something that can never please all the people, all the time.

The least-controversial and perhaps most-popular element VANOC delivered was the look of the Games itself. Directed by the late Leo Obstbaum, the multi-layered, wavy green and blue, mountains and sea textured collage is almost all gone. You can still see some of it on the northeast side of the Pacific Coliseum.

Of course, VANOC had a rocky start in 2005 with its Ilanaaq the Inukshuk logo inspired by the English Bay inukshuk left over from Expo 86. Original artist Alvin Kanak never got recognition. Many people pointed out that there is no Inuit tribe in British Columbia, so why use a symbol of the north? The answer was easy. The federal government wanted to tell the world Canada was flexing its muscles in the Arctic. Don't trespass on our frozen tundra, eh!

The man becomes mountain-themed Paralympic logo was perhaps more suitable, but it was for the lower-profile Paralympics.

Mascots Miga, Quatchi and Sumi were one-part First Nations mythology and one-part cute Japanimation. Orange-toqued sidekick Muk Muk -- based on a real Vancouver Island marmot -- was never given the life-sized treatment.

Cuddly miniature versions are available at bulk liquidation sales for a fraction of the price paid by tourists at Games-time. (Hey, I thought sales records were set?)

So, welcome to the world, Wenlock and Mandeville. Because you’re British, someone probably told you already to keep a stiff upper lip. I’ll just tell you this from personal experience: A reader called me a dick once and I laughed at him.

While you’re ridiculed at home, you’ll be replicated by the millions in Chinese toy factories for the next two years. Just hope your bosses at London 2012 do what Vancouver 2010 executives failed to do: show and tell people where those factories are and how the workers are treated.

Make transparency a legacy of London 2012.

Vancouver 2010 didn’t have the heart and mind to be so bold.

Asia's sporting goods industry converges on Taipei

2010-04-29T23:16:00.000-07:00

Treadmills, elliptical bikes, foosball tables and even baseball caps with magnetic sunglasses are on display at the Taipei World Trade Centre Nangang Exhibition Hall.

The April 29-May 2 TaiSPO -- Taipei International Sporting Goods Show -- has drawn 385 manufacturers, including 147 in the lucrative fitness equipment sector.

Taiwan counted more than $1 billion of exports in sporting goods in 2009, including $405.25 million in exercise and fitness equipment. Brands like Johnson Health and SportsArtFitness are exhibiting the latest in treadmills with screens that transform the exercise machine into a virtual reality tool. Johnson’s products include a screen that offers images of the Olympic National Forest in Washington State, for example.

The Lausanne, Switzerland-based World Federation for the Sporting Goods Industry used the occasion to stage its first manufacturers’ forum in Taiwan.

One foot in front of the other

2010-04-29T23:12:00.000-07:00

Former Adidas executive vice-president and director Michel Perraudin pinch-hit for Frank Dassler, the general counsel for Adidas and part of the famed German sporting goods clan. Perraudin was the World Federation for the Sporting Goods Industry president from 2004-2007. Now a private consultant, he serves on the board of the Lausanne, Switzerland-based WFSGI.

Here's what he had to tell the media at the Taipei International Sporting Goods Show April 29 about how the industry is evolving.

“There is a shift now from working conditions to environment, to green products. This is something that is going to stay with us. Puma announced a couple of weeks ago that they would get rid of the outdoor boxes and replace the boxes with bags that are totally recyclable.

“You now have the bio-cotton which is coming, natural fibres which are evolving. However it is interesting, if you make an ecological balance between natural fibres and synthetic fibre, the synthetic fibre has strangely enough a better ecological balance than the natural fibre.

"If you were to decide tomorrow to replace all the synthetic fibres through wool or cotton, it could not happen. Our world would not have enough surface to generate all this and feed the population.

“Recyclable material is used for outsoles, to do sporting surfaces, playgrounds, it is obviously something where innovations will continue to evolve.

“However, there is one truth which is inescapable, the consumer at the end of the day until now in the vast majority of the cases is not buying because it’s ecological, but is buying because of the price, because of the look or the perceived quality of the product. It’s only up to now a minority of consumers that are making a buying decision which is based on ecological considerations.

“What is driving the industry is style and innovation, innovation on the hardware side. When we talk about footwear, it’s more innovation in the fabrics than it is innovation in technology. The footwear industry has not seen many technological innovations in the last 20 years. Nike is still using air, Asics still using gel. No real revolution in the footwear side of things. Much more development on the fibre side, the fabrics of the apparel side.”

Towards a no-sweat world

2010-04-29T23:01:00.000-07:00

While it took western countries took two centuries to go through an industrial revolution, former Adidas executive vice-president Michel Perraudin says China is amid a 20-year industrial revolution.

Low wages and high productivity are China's hallmark and the reason why the biggest brands source their goods from mainland factories. Many of those factories can trace their heritage to Taiwan, where Asia’s top sporting goods companies are exhibiting their wares at the Taipei World Trade Centre through May 2 at TaiSPO -- the Taipei International Sporting Goods Show.

The convention kicked off April 29 with the World Federation for the Sporting Goods Industry’s 2010 manufacturers’ forum.
Executives from major retailers and brands spoke to an audience of manufacturers representing companies from Taiwan, Hong Kong and mainland China.

The world may be a long way from being sweatshop-free, but the international campaigns by various non-governmental organizations have made the issue of working conditions in sportswear factories top-of-mind among both consumers and the WFSGI.

Here's what two executives had to tell the manufacturers.

Intersport International Corp. business unit manager Markus Rist:

“No matter the size of the brand, it’s a requirement of the market that you have to fulfill. It’s not only a trend, it’s an absolute given fact. We are forced to comply with those unique regulations... the EU, the U.S., every market has more and more regulations. The sole objective of those regulations is to protect the consumer. This is nowadays so sensitive that nobody wants to burn his fingers. If you want to be a supplier to any of us, it’s a minimum requirement that you have to be able to fulfill and guarantee.

Vice-president of sourcing, quality and logistics New Balance Jim Sciabarrasi:

“The biggest issue that we have seen in the small manufacturer is a reluctance to embrace the compliance requirements. The requirements are not costly. For example, many small manufacturers believe the best scenario is to work many, many hours a week, but a very basic compliance requirement is to limit the amount of hours a week. When that happens, productivity goes up because quality goes up and there’s less retraining of workers who leave the small factory because they don’t like the life of working every single day, so many hours... The productivity more than makes up for the other requirements.”

* * * * *
One of the world’s biggest athletic footwear makers is Taichung, Taiwan-headquartered Pou Chen Group. The 1969-founded company uses its home base for research and development. It’s forecasting production of 250 million pairs of shoes in 2010, up 50 million from 2009, for brands like Adidas, Nike, Reebok, New Balance, Rockport, Asics, Timberland and Puma. PCG and subsidiary Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings have a workforce of 400,000 people at factories in China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Mexico and the U.S. PCG claims it makes one-in-seven pairs of branded shoes in the world.

PCG, by its sheer size, has been criticized by various non-governmental organizations for treatment of workers. Corporate social responsibility executive Eric Chi claimed the company has made progress with ventilation fans and air conditioning in factories, daycare centres and “spiritual consulting centres”, birthday parties for employees and ergonomic furniture “to reduce the fatigue and exhaustion of employees.”

Peacock plucked in Vancouver

2010-04-16T22:18:00.000-07:00

Speaking of NBC, the Peacock network lost $223 million on its Vancouver 2010 coverage, according to the April 16-released quarterly report.

That’s $27 million better than the worst-case scenario, but $23 million worse than the original $200 million estimate of GE CEO Jeff Immelt.

NBC paid $2.2 billion for the Vancouver/London package in 2003 when the advertising market was rosier. A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to Vancouver, called the recession. The last time the Olympics were in a North American time zone was Salt
Lake 2002 when NBC made a $70 million profit.

The Games did bring $800 million in revenue to GE and the ratings were 14% higher than Turin 2006.

ESPN/ABC and FOX are readying to bid for Sochi 2014 and Rio de Janeiro 2016. Will NBC match their offers? s

Scranton 2010

2010-04-16T22:15:00.000-07:00

I don’t know how much it costs to get your product mentioned on The Office.

That's because the going rate was censored from a document obtained under Freedom of Information. But it did reveal the cost of the British Columbia Olympic tourism campaign on NBC was $17.255 million.

The You Gotta Be Here campaign starred Michael J. Fox, Sarah McLachlan and Steve Nash. I revealed that it also included a product placement on The Office.

The Feb. 11 episode began with Michael Scott calling a Vancouver hotel to confirm a reservation for the Olympics. The Office also produced a web-exclusive video with a special song about Canada in general and B.C. in particular.

This is the new normal, folks. Because of digital video recorders, commercials are being skipped and advertisers’ money is being wasted. The only way to ensure bang for the buck is by being inside the content.

No peeking: VANOC hiding finances until the fall

2010-04-16T22:11:00.000-07:00

VANOC has stopped issuing quarterly reports, which is contrary to the pledge made in November 2002’s Multiparty
Agreement. It said, should Vancouver win the Games, the organizing committee “will provide the parties with quarterly updates to the business plan within 60 days after the end of each quarter of each fiscal year, including forecasts of revenues and expenses."

CEO John Furlong said the rapidly shrinking VANOC workforce has no time to do reports anymore. Its last was for the quarter ended Oct. 31, 2009. The next and final report is coming in October.

“We’re in a completely different frame of mind, we’re trying to reconcile everything, we don’t have the time for that now,” he said after an April 16 Vancouver Board of Trade speech. “We need to get everything sorted out, you’ll get a full final report.

“We’re down to the smallest team we can have, we need to get out of business so that we have the best financial legacy that we can. Our team is infinitely smaller, we don’t have the resources we had through the Games to do that.”

The Games were a creative success that looked spectacular on TV. Even Mother Nature allowed the sun to shine for several days. But VANOC isn’t willing to let the sun shine on its financial figures until the fall. Until then, we can only speculate on the size of the International Olympic Committee and British Columbia government bailouts to make the books balance.

When we peel back the curtain, we’ll find that the recession made this the least successful Games since Montreal 1976.

Coming atcha in 3-D!

2010-04-03T10:58:00.000-07:00

Why did I not line-up with the masses at the VANOC asset sale in Delta?

The 200,000 items were bought by the provincial government as part of its bailout of VANOC and Games-used high definition TVs were listed at $199 for Sharp 19-inch and $499 for Panasonic 40-inch.

HD TV is a relatively new innovation in North America and it will already be obsolete by this Christmas when 3-D high definition TVs will be among the must-have items.

In fact, 3-D is the next revolution in movie and TV experience. You can thank Fox and its Avatar. We've come along way from Dr. Tongue's 3-D House of Stewardesses.

NCAA Final Four games are being offered in select movie theatres around the United States in 3-D.

An April 3 match between Manchester United and Chelsea was shown in 1,000 pubs around the United Kingdom in 3-D. Sky TV, which is owned by Fox, will offer a 3-D channel with English Premier League soccer matches to 2 million homes this fall.

Coming this June - in time for the FIFA World Cup - is ESPN's 3-D network. Only in the United States? Pity.

Broadcasters and film producers have solved two problems with 3-D. It'll allow them to generate new revenue with premium ticket and subscription prices from viewers who want a better experience. 3-D also gets them one step ahead of counterfeiters. Hardware makers like Panasonic, Sony, LG and Samsung are also salivating at the potential for the next generation of the boob tube.

Panasonic's pavilion at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics showcased Olympic ceremony footage in 3-D. Vancouver's Olympics were the first Winter Games in full high definition from the source. Sadly, they will also be remembered as the last of the 2-D broadcast era.

Canucks' tri-centennial not legit

2010-04-03T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Vancouver Canucks are a marketing juggernaut and have cornered the market as the number one professional sports property. They have made General Motors Place the number one destination and Canucks' games the number one local TV draw.

Not so difficult to achieve with little competition, except for outdoor sports and recreation. The Canucks are Vancouver's only connection to a big continental sports league during dark and stormy winters. The sport is Canada's national winter pastime. Many Vancouverites are from points east of the Rockies where hockey is life. Just wait until 2011 when the Vancouver Whitecaps enter Major League Soccer and challenge the Canucks for the finite pool of ticket and sponsor money available in this market. You will quickly witness why Canucks' owner Francesco Aquilini was bidding against Greg Kerfoot for an MLS franchise.

The Canucks will be celebrating their 300th consecutive home sellout April 3 when the Minnesota Wild visit. I'm a stickler for statistical honesty and I won't be sending the Canucks a 300-candle cake.

Only the beancounters inside 800 Griffiths Way know how many tickets have been sold and distributed over the last 299 games.

I do know that on March 15, 2007 -- when the Canucks beat St. Louis 3-2 in overtime -- there were 18,325 tickets scanned by GM Place staff at the arena entries. The NHL scoresheet falsely reported the arena was at 18,630 capacity and that was also the attendance figure announced in the arena. I asked Canucks Sports and Entertainment for comment but never got a response.

The 18,325 figure comes from a Bunt and Associates study for the City of Vancouver's Olympic transportation office. The same report said 16,653 season ticket holders attended the game. Capacity was increased to 18,810 with the Best Buy Club for the 2009-2010 season.

The Canucks' average $62.05 ticket price is third highest in the NHL -- a portion of that revenue is shared with the league's struggling southern franchises including the Phoenix Coyotes. But most of the money stays here to support a franchise that still hasn't delivered a Stanley Cup to its fans after almost 40 years.

Fans love the franchise too much. One could argue it doesn't have the incentive to make a Cup run because the organization is not desperate for revenue. Cup-winners like Tampa Bay, Carolina and Anaheim were. The proliferation of spring concert tours and big events like the Ultimate Fighting Championship fill GM Place dates and keep the Aquilinis flush with cash.

Stadium casino deal: more questions than answers

2010-04-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and B.C. Pavilion Corporation chairman David Podmore gave themselves a pat on the back March 26 for finding some revenue to pay for the $563 million B.C. Place Stadium renovation.

Less than a week later, the deal began to look rather underwhelming.

Paragon Gaming announced March 26 that it planned to build a $450 million casino and hotel complex in a parking lot west of the stadium. The land was put up for lease by PavCo, the taxpayer-owned Crown corporation that operates B.C. Place.

The stadium closes April 4 and the air-supported fabric roof will be deflated May 3. A $458 million retractable roof will be applied in time for the stadium to reopen in summer 2011. The B.C. Lions will play in a temporary stadium at Empire Field in 2010.

Tourism minister Kevin Krueger, whose ministry is responsible for PavCo, told a budget hearing on Wednesday that Paragon was among just two bidders that responded to the request for proposals in spring 2009. He refused to name the runner-up. The B.C. Liberal government has a problem with credibility and transparency, so skeptics will wonder if there was really a runner-up. But I'll give Krueger benefit of the doubt for now.

Could the tiny response to such a lucrative opportunity be because banks are reluctant to lend to developers who do not own the land they are building on? That is the basic reason behind the City of Vancouver bailout of Vancouver Olympic Village developer Millennium. Wall Street hedge fund subsidiary Fortress Credit Corporation took the risk that no mainstream bank wanted to and then walked away when the recession hit.

Paragon has a 70-year lease at $6 million annually. It'll be adjusted for inflation after 10 years. PavCo wants to sell the name of the stadium, more advertising inside, book more events and lease more land. The business plan and financing formula, however, are shrouded in secrecy. Both Campbell and Podmore told me that it won't be published. Cabinet secrecy is the reason. The government doesn't trust taxpayers (shouldn't it be the other way around), so you and I are unable to learn about the most-expensive stadium renovation in Canadian history.

Krueger also confirmed that T. Richard Turner phoned him to discuss the Paragon proposal. Turner is a director of VANOC, chairman of ICBC, former chairman of the B.C. Lottery Corporation and frequent donor to the B.C. Liberals. He is a minority shareholder in Paragon's Canadian subsidiary which operates Edgewater Casino at the Plaza of Nations in downtown Vancouver.

Krueger said Turner “called me to make sure that I knew that the retractable roof was if not a deal-killer, at least Paragon wouldn't be able to make the same proposal that it had made to (PavCo), and that was our only conversation.”

PavCo CEO Warren Buckley claimed Turner did not participate in negotiations or influence the content of the lease. But the optics are certainly odd.

Why is PavCo relying on a casino company part-owned by a friend of the Premier when the Vancouver Whitecaps' ownership group and B.C. Lions' owner David Braley have deep pockets and stand to gain because of the renovations? This is, after all, a government that privatized B.C. Rail and has entertained all manner of partnerships with the private sector.

The governing Liberals were dead-set against gambling expansion when they were the opposition and the NDP was considering "Monaco-style" casinos in the 1990s. A B.C. Medical Association study called Stepping Forward: Improving Addiction Care in British Columbia was published. It says alcoholism and gambling addiction are more prevalent in B.C. than drug addiction. An estimated 159,000 people in B.C. are addicted to gambling -- that's more people than attended the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics and the men's gold medal hockey game!

Until Campbell and Podmore realize they're playing a high stakes game with taxpayers' money and taxpayers deserve transparency, I will wonder if this is another Fast Ferries or Convention Centre scandal waiting to happen.

Paralympics lost in a sea of big-time sport

2010-03-14T19:37:00.000-07:00

Filipino Manny Pacquiao, the pound-for-pound best boxer in the world, won the first fight at the new Cowboy Stadium.

Michael Schumacher started his Formula 1 comeback in Bahrain.

The IndyCar season started in Sao Paulo.

David Beckham suffered a World Cup dream-ending achilles injury.

Curling’s Brier was on in Halifax, so was Grapefruit and Cactus League baseball and NFL free agency.

The March Madness bracket was released for the NCAA men’s basketball playoffs.

The Vancouver Canucks played their first home game after a six-week, Olympic-imposed vacation from General Motors Place.

Winter sports athletes who starred at the Vancouver Olympics in skiing and snowboarding finished their world cup tours.

Oh yeah, the Paralympics began.

Para-what?

Sure, we know that the Winter Games for athletes with a disability are a magnificent spectacle of amateur sports because the event is happening in our backyard until March 21. But what about the rest of the world?

Not so much.

Paralympians from 44 countries are enjoying their own stage, but it’s a small stage that is getting little attention from the rest of the world because of the sheer volume of bigger events with recognizable names. As long as this continues, the Paralympics will always be the add-on to the Olympics and the athletes will have little chance at stardom.

International Paralympic Committee president Sir Philip Craven fails to realize that his stubborn stance is actually stunting the growth of sports for people with disabilities.

Dr. Robert Steadward of Edmonton, the IPC’s founding president, boldly stated on March 10 that the Winter Paralympics should be held simultaneously with the Winter Olympics in the same city and venues for the sake of efficiency and to increase the profile. People with disabilities want equality.

There were 2,803 accredited written and photographic press personnel from around the world at the Vancouver Olympics.
There are less than 600 at the Paralympics and most of them are from British Columbia outlets. Most of the world media has gone home and turned its attention elsewhere.

“We believe that Paralympians compete at the Paralympics and there’s no real need for them to compete at the Olympics,” Craven said at a March 12 news conference.

“It’s not my idea of progress, we’ve got a good formula now with the Winter Games and Summer Games,” Craven said. “This is the way it is, and I don’t believe in changing formulae when they work.”

But it doesn’t work because the Paralympics have only two major sponsors -- Visa and Samsung -- and even the big Olympic broadcasters like NBC in the United States and CTV in Canada pay lip service to coverage. If Paralympians could compete in their events during the Olympic period, they would naturally have huge attention.

I was reminded of the power of the Olympics at the Paralympic opening ceremony when Rick Hansen captivated the nearly 60,000 fans in B.C. Place Stadium with his moving speech about the power of sport.

Hansen wheeled around the world from 1985 to 1987 to raise funds for spinal cord research and to campaign for access and equality for people with disabilities. In 1984 Hansen raced in a 1,500 metre event during the Los Angeles Olympics in Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. It was broadcast worldwide. The kid from Williams Lake was a global star because he was on a global stage.

If he competed in a second-tier event seen by few after those Olympics, would Hansen’s Man in Motion world tour have been so successful? Would he be one of the most-trusted, most-inspirational Canadians?

Just asking.

Integrate the Paralympics and Olympics. Celebrate the spirit of athletes of all abilities in the same event. The time has come.

Mulling marketing with IOC's Lumme

2010-03-05T21:26:00.000-08:00

International Olympic Committee marketing and TV services director Timo Lumme spoke to media at the Main Press Centre in Vancouver on Feb. 23 about economic conditions now and in the future for the five-ring circus.

On The Olympic Partner sponsor program:

“We have nine at the moment and the level of financial contribution is higher than it was for the previous quadrennial (US$883 million vs. US$866 million). We have the opportunity now that some of the partners for varying reasons their industries have changed or their structures have changed or they’ve been taken over by other companies, they’ve moved away...

"We have the opportunity to look to have an internal scorecard, just like you’re choosing your friends, we want to be in a position to choose the best. We want them to understand the Olympic brand and fundamental values.”

On the cost of IOC rights fees and whether broadcasters may decide to pay less in the future:

"The IOC has never forced any broadcaster to pay any money. At the end of the day, through a bidding process the broadcaster who wishes to pay the most gets the deal. And that's the way it's been, and that's the way it's going to be in the future.

"We are very confident that the Olympic Games will retain a premium status as a world event and I think it will command a premium price."

On whether the IOC might consider changing the clean-venue policy that prohibits advertising in venues:

"We speak to our partners regularly about that. They have always consistently said, 'No, keep the same, we want a clean venue policy, that's what makes the Olympic Games special.' There's no plan whatsoever to change that policy."

On the impact of social media and its potential economic benefits and drawbacks:

“That allows people to engage more with the Olympic brand, what we’re seeing is really a phenomenon where people are able to have more touch points. That’s a huge boost to us. Then if you put the video coverage aspect in the middle that for us carries a greater value.

“It’s a symbiotic, complementary relationship. What we want to achieve is not just the great experience for 17 days but we’d like Olympic fans to feel that they’re connected 365 days of the year even outside the Games period.

“Generally we’ve done gatekeeper deals where we do all means and media, then it’s up to the rights holder in that territory and they decide how to partition and create the coverage across different platforms.

“In Brazil, new media rights were sold first with Terry by Telefonica, then we did pay TV, satellite and standard. This just reflects that it’s a fast-evolving marketplace.”

On Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, two sponsors whose flagship products are seen as unhealthy by critics:

“Both are longtime Olympic sponsors. On the one hand they’re completely committed to the Olympic values, they will promote our brand and make sure that they are reaching young people trying to aspire to better themselves through sport.

“The financial assistance they provide to us, 92 cents of every dollar we get goes towards various programs we have to put on the Olympic Games and help athletes at the grassroots and elite level train. We feel very comfortable with those partnerships, we know that they have the best interest of the Olympic movement at heart,

“They’re very aware in their own sectors how they have to position themselves, obviously to an extent they use the positive values of the Olympics to position themselves, we’re more than convinced they will continue to provide through their sectors the best products and services to their constituents.”

Record numbers forecast for Vancouver, but not record profits

2010-03-05T21:13:00.000-08:00

The International Olympic Committee’s marketing director estimated 3.5 billion viewers would experience some of Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics.

Timo Lumme said more than 300 broadcasters in 200 territories delivered the first all high-definition Winter Games to TV viewers. He said the total amount of content delivered was 50,000 hours, which is more than Salt Lake 2002 and Turin 2006 combined.

“In four short years from Torino to Vancouver we’ve had a continuing digital explosion,” Lumme said. “We now have the same amount of hours globally covered on digital media, Internet and mobile, as we have on the old media, broadcast.”
In Canada, a record 22 million people were watching when Sidney Crosby scored the gold medal-winning overtime goal in the hockey final. CTV reported average prime time viewership of 5.8 million.

The ratings were in record territories, but the recessionary Games won’t translate to record profits because of the advertising slump. NBC parent General Electric already announced in December that it would lose $200 million because of Vancouver 2010 and is being coy about its post-London 2012 plans. NBC Olympics chief Dick Ebersol is bearish about Sochi 2014, mainly because it's eight hours ahead of New York. Fox and ESPN have mulled bids.

Also in December, CTV Olympics president Keith Pelley said the aim was to break-even. CTV bid US$153 million five years ago for 2010 and 2012 rights, more than double the CBC contract for US$73 million for 2006 and 2008.

"We've said what we're going to say about the economics leading into the Games. Now we're totally focusing on the actual Games and we'll address the consolidated numbers shortly thereafter,” Pelley said during the Games.

The IOC promised VANOC a roster of 11 global sponsors, but it stalled at nine and no new deals were announced in Vancouver. Last summer, the IOC pledged to help VANOC with losses up to $22 million unless the gap could be narrowed through other means.

The B.C. government is the ultimate guarantor and launched a $38 million tourism ad campaign before the Games. The You Gotta Be Here out-of-home ads took up substantial space in the Olympic city and at transit stations, filling space that would have been used by private sponsors had the recession not happened.

Golden smog to spoil VANOC's green spin

2010-02-16T08:04:00.000-08:00

Watch out for the inevitable golden smog when Vancouver gets a stretch of sunny weather. It will not look good on TV.

VANOC and its partners have turned the hype machine up to 11 in their bid to sell the world on the idea that these will be Greenest Games Ever. They will, in fact, be brown. Petro-Canada-supplied diesel -- six million litres, to be exact -- is fueling the Aggreko-provided generators that are providing power to venues. The Aggreko generators are hidden from public view, behind the look of the Games temporary hoarding. They’re supposed to be there for backup only. The three clusters around B.C. Place Stadium are providing the dome primary power. B.C. Hydro did not instal a system upgrade.

And then there are the diesel motorcoaches. The fleet includes full-size buses all the way from Capital Trailways in Montgomery, Ala., and Cowtown Charters in Fort Worth, Texas while B.C. companies are stuck on the outside, looking in after being fed government propaganda for years claiming the Games would benefit all.

These buses were driven across the continent and are plying streets of Vancouver mostly empty for the benefit of media schedules. The 1,100 whale-sized buses in the VANOC fleet are a big reason why severe measures were enacted to create Olympic lanes that have removed curb lanes and parking from public use in the city’s busiest areas.

VANOC sustainability vice-president Linda Coady liked to talk about how VANOC would be “right-sizing” transportation vehicles to balance supply and demand. Coady’s department is attached at the hip to the VANOC communications department, but apparently has no connection with the all-important transportation group that actually manages supply and demand.....

How tragic that it was that a 21-year-old athlete died on the first day of the 21st Winter Games. Expect one of the legacies of the Games to be a wrongful death lawsuit by the parents of Nodar Kumaritashvili.....

Will Cypress Mountain’s reputation forever be harmed? Boosters of the Games loved to wax poetically about it being the first Olympic venue with a view of the Pacific Ocean. A blessing for TV cameras but a curse for the sport. At its best, weather at Cypress can change from bad to worse and back to good in 15 minutes. And then there was the poor VANOC planning for food service and crowd flows. What were those 2008 and 2009 test events about?.....

There are only three bidders for the 2018 Winter Games: Annecy, France, Munich, Germany and PyeongChang, South Korea. PyeongChang is hoping it’s third time lucky, after losing to Vancouver and Sochi.

Munich hosted the 1972 Summer Games, forever tainted by the hostage-taking of Israeli athletes who were later killed. What happens during and after the Vancouver Games will have great impacts on the Munich bid that not even the ageless beauty of Katarina Witt can overcome.

Vancouver is the biggest Winter Games host and it has a globally important sea port and airport. That is a big reason why the security bill is $900 million. The Vancouver Games have been a logistical nightmare behind the scenes with a transportation plan that was never properly tested. It was supposed to have been completed by the end of 2007.....

Funny that the first gold medal of the Bailout Games belongs to Montrealer Alexandre Bilodeau. He wasn’t born when Canada didn’t win its first gold medal at home in the 1976 Games but his name is pronounced like “bill-o-dough.”

Here it is

2010-02-05T20:57:00.000-08:00

Where were you 345 weeks ago?

General Motors Place and Whistler Village were abuzz bright and early on a spectacular day after Canada Day when the International Olympic Committee chose Vancouver to host the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Now it’s almost here.

For 17 days Vancouver will be the world’s sport and media capital. It will be memorable and it will be costly. The Vancouver Games will be the least-successful since Montreal 1976 once the Games are over and the bills tallied.

It will be a Games of contrasts.

The world will find out how rich and poor the city is, with peaks of opulent wealth and valleys of poverty just blocks apart in downtown. Many First Nations people will feel a sense of pride and belonging like never before; others will feel greatly disenfranchised.

Locals will wonder where their Olympic payday is. The security overkill and transportation tie-ups will deter visits to downtown and some businesses will struggle to stay open.

The most-anticipated non-sporting event of the Games won’t be the parties at Holland Heineken House, Club Bud at the Commodore or Molson Canadian Hockey House, but the Feb. 19 auction of Whistler Blackcomb-owner Intrawest.

The VANOC transportation plan will become apparent as the weakest link of its planning. Order will come from the chaos in the second week.

The Wall Street media will be watching with an eagle-eye to make sure sponsors spend responsibly amid the continuing economic malaise that has greatly curtailed sponsor spending and caused governments to buck up even more than anticipated.

There will be no Barack Obama or “London Liz” on stolen native land. Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean will become the world’s most famous native of Haiti and John Furlong will trump Bono as the most famous Irishman with a microphone.

The Olympics are a decade of politics and economics and 17 days of sport. The agony of defeat and thrill of victory will make new stars.

American skier Lindsay Vonn is driving for five gold medals. The headline is already written: Vonn-couver. Canadian cross-country skier Brian McKeever is aiming to be the first to compete in both the Winter Olympics and Paralympics. Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the Snow Leopard from Ghana via Scotland, will be the Vancouver equivalent of Eddie the Eagle. He won’t win gold, but the broadcaster who can pronounce his name flawlessly more than once could.

The success and failure of the $110 million Own the Podium program will be gauged daily when Canadians analyze the medals standings.

Canada could win every gold medal available but if one of them isn’t men’s hockey, then the Games could be deemed a puckin’ failure.