Vancouver View - Poole Funeral, Return to Greece, Financials

(ATR) A funeral for VANOC board chairman Jack Poole … A VANOC delegation heads to Greece to retrieve the Olympic flame … Ticket sales rising ….

Jack Poole Funeral Tuesday

The funeral for VANOC chairman Jack Poole was held Tuesday in Vancouver at the Christ Church Cathedral.

Poole was 76, when he died of pancreatic cancer last Friday.

The private service was closed to media coverage.

Tributes poured in following Poole’s death.

The City of Vancouver lowered its flags to half-staff in tribute.

“Jack Poole inspired us and led by example,” said Mayor Gregor Robertson in a statement.

“When there was a real concern in Vancouver about the shortage of rental housing (in the 1980s), Jack stepped forward with a creative proposal to build affordable rental housing on city-owned lands.”

Said IOC member and VANOC director Richard Pound:

“The Games will nevertheless bear his stamp and he will always be identified with their successful delivery, as he was with winning them in the first place.”

“The Olympic movement has lost a real champion,” said Canadian Olympic Committee CEO Chris Rudge.

”His leadership behind VANOC’s early support of the Own the Podium project will be reflected in every podium appearance our athletes make next February. He will be proud.”

Squamish Nation Chief Bill Williams said Poole was instrumental in opening the door to unprecedented aboriginal participation in VANOC via the Four Host First Nations.

“Without his vision and support we would not likely be in the position we are today,” Williams said.

Return to Athens for the Flame

VANOC CEO John Furlong returns to Athens today with a Canadian delegation to retrieve the Olympic flame. Since the lighting ceremony Oct. 22, the flame has been part of a relay through Greece.

Federal minister of state for sport Gary Lunn, B.C. minister of state for Olympics Mary McNeil and Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed are accompanying Furlong on the journey.

They’ll join Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean, B.C. deputy Premier Colin Hansen and Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson at Panathenaic Stadium in Athens on Thursday for an evening handover ceremony.

A Canadian Forces Polaris (a converted Airbus A-310) is scheduled to carry the flame in miners lamps to Canada for touchdown Friday morning at Victoria International Airport.

The flame will travel across the harbor of the provincial capital to the lawn of the Legislature for a ceremony marking the start of relay in Canada.

The torch will travel through Victoria communities and stop midday at the Canadian Forces base in Esquimalt. The first day winds up with a 6 p.m. celebration concert at the Legislature.

Co-sponsor Coca-Cola named 21-year-old Neil Harbun its first torchbearer of day one. Harbun’s mother carried the 1988 Olympic flame just 50 hours after he was born.

Protestors Vow to Be Heard and Seen

Olympic Resistance Network members from Vancouver and Victoria have pledged to protest the torch relay events set for Oct. 30.

Protest groups have announced plans, from mass moonings of the relay, to a march in zombie costumes. The Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit and Victoria Police will be out in full force.

B.C. Civil Liberties Association-trained legal observer teams will be recording incidents involving police. “This isn’t just the launch of the torch, it’s the launch of a really important accountability program for our association and supporters,” said executive director David Eby.

VANOC Reports Better Financial Results

VANOC deputy CEO Dave Cobb says that sales of luxury suites, VIP ticket packages and billboards have improved since the start of September.

“We have seen a pretty significant change since we exited the summer and have gone into the fall,” he said Monday as the latest VANOC financial results were released.

Cobb said 10 suites are left at each of B.C. Place Stadium and GM Place, where the top price is $247,800. He said nearly 40 of the 100 available $267,500 Vancouver 2010 Club ticket packages have been bought.

VANOC has $5.6 million left of its $37.5 million out-of-home advertising inventory. Last spring, sales stagnated around $26.3 million.

Cobb said groups such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association could buy space for lawful, non-offensive ads, but they haven’t so far.

Chief financial officer John McLaughlin forecast the Games would achieve a balanced budget. The figures released Monday show a $185.6 million deferred surplus.

“Soon our cash outflows will increase dramatically as we begin to pay our suppliers,” McLaughlin said.

VANOC Ticketing News

The annual report said $175 million in tickets were sold through July 31. Cobb did not disclose quantities. At least 100,000 more go on sale Nov. 7 in Canada.

VANOC is poised to announce a resale website that would allow tickets to be sold for greater than face value in a bid to fill every seat and prevent fraud.

“We can’t stop the sale or resale of tickets for greater than face value,” Cobb said.

“We can either let it go on as it is now or we can provide this alternative.”

Chevrolet Equinox Appears in Olympics Role

Four new Chevy Equinoxes arrived in Vancouver Oct. 26, one driven to a news conference at the Vancouver Olympic and Paralympic Centre.

A total of eight of the hydrogen-powered, electric fuel cell vehicles will be part of the 4600-vehicle GM fleet to be used for the 2010 Games. Also included are two Chevy Volt electric cars.

GM discontinued Pontiac and Saturn brands, which have been removed from the VANOC fleet and returned to dealers for disposal.

GM, which emerged from a six-week bankruptcy in July, won’t have a hospitality program at Vancouver 2010, but spokesman Stew Low said there would be an advertising campaign built around the Games.

Rebagliati Turns to Politics

Nagano 1998 gold medalist Ross Rebagliati won the Liberal nomination Oct. 26 to run against the senior Conservative member of Parliament from B.C., international trade minister Stockwell Day.

Now 38, Rebagliati kept his medal despite testing positive for trace amounts of marijuana at Nagano.

Space for rent

Torino 2006 gold medal bobsleigh champion Pierre Lueders is auctioning space on his two-man and four-man world cup sleds on eBay. The winning bidder will have his or her name inscribed on the front of his sled. Auction deadline for the fundraiser is Nov. 6. The winner’s name, however, will not be on the Olympic sled.

Prices in U.S. dollars (unless noted), based on exchange rate of 1USD=1.065CAD.

Written by Bob Mackin

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