Vancouver View - VANOC to Maintain Ties with GM; Tickets Up For Sale

GM reaffirmed their support for the 2010 Winter Games after filing bankruptcy Monday. (Getty Images)

VANOC to Maintain Ties with GM

VANOC expects to drive forward with General Motors, despite the auto giant finally declaring bankruptcy with a $173 billion debt on Monday.

"Over the past several days, our senior executives have been in regular communication with our partners at GM Canada Ltd. who have reaffirmed their support for the 2010 Winter Games,” said VANOC vice-president of communications Renee Smith-Valade in a statement. “GM has been an exceptional partner and has met all of their commitments to date, both financial and value in kind. We continue to have confidence in their role in delivering great Games in 2010."

GM, through its Canadian division, is providing $48.9 million of vehicles and $12.93 million in cash. "There will be no impact on our sponsorship," GM spokesman Stew Low said.

The VANOC fleet of 228 Chevrolet, GMC, Saturn and Pontiac vehicles is expected to exceed 4,000 by the beginning of the Vancouver Games. GM is selling the Saturn line and will discontinue the Pontiac brand in 2010.

Marketing professor Lindsay Meredith of Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C. said VANOC can ill-afford another bankrupt sponsor, less than six months after Nortel sought court protection. He said all parties are wearing a brave face amid turmoil.

“I call it the ideology of the duck: calm and serene on the surface and pedaling underneath,” Meredith said.

Ticket Time Again

Canadian residents get their best, but not last, chance to buy 2010 Winter Olympics tickets on Saturday.

VANOC hopes to make $36.9 million to $46.1 million by selling 140,000 tickets across the sports schedule and 5,000 each for the opening and closing ceremonies. Prices range from $23 for women’s hockey preliminaries and cross-country skiing to $1,032 for best seats at the Feb. 12, 2010 opening ceremony. Service charges and delivery fees are extra.

Vice-president of ticketing and marketing Caley Denton said there would be tickets available for every event on a first-come, first-served basis beginning 10 a.m. PDT. Transactions are limited to four events with four or eight-ticket caps, depending on the session. VANOC is also selling tickets for the nightly medals’ ceremonies, though entertainers are to be announced.

Another ticketing phase will come this fall.

VANOC sold $87.46 million to the Canadian market last fall and forecasts $241.9 million in overall ticket revenue, including luxury suites and Paralympics.

The graphic design of tickets will be revealed mid-week. Tickets will be printed and sent to purchasers this fall after seat locations are determined.

Docs in 2010 Exercise

The Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine hosts the pre-2010 sport medicine conference Wednesday through Sunday at the Westin Bayshore Hotel.

CASM coordinated simulation for Vancouver 2010 physicians of a bobsleigh crash on Monday and Tuesday.

Bobsledding is the highest-velocity Olympic sport and less common to Canadians, said CASM’s Dr. Julia Alleyne. International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel is scheduled to speak at the Canadian Academy of Sports Medicine conference on Thursday. (Getty Images)

"Too many of them have hockey experience, we want to throw them into something out of their comfort zone," she said.

International Ice Hockey Federation president Rene Fasel is scheduled to speak on Thursday. It will be his first appearance in Vancouver since he was accused of kickbacks in Swiss media reports on May 13. IIHF legal committee chairman Frederick Meredith told ATR the investigation process would be announced this week.

Food Fight

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals stepped up their campaign against the Atlantic Canada seal hunt after Canada's Governor-General Michaelle Jean was videotaped eating raw seal heart in an Inuit community gathering in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut on May 25.

PETA is calling for a boycott of Canadian maple syrup. Meanwhile, the animal rights group is crying foul. The U.S. Olympic Committee asked online merchandise purveyor CafePress on May 20 to stop selling PETA goods that show the Vancouver 2010 inukshuk logo clubbing a white seal above bloodied Olympic rings.

PETA lawyer Paula Hough's May 26 response to USOC lawyer Corol Gross said the USOC "request is unjustified and entirely without merit."

Toronto Delivers 2015 Pan Am Games Proposal

The Toronto 2015 Pan American Games bid committee delivered its $2.2 billion proposal to the Pan American Sports Organization (PASO) on April 28.

A summary version of “Your Moment Is Here” said the Games could be held in Canada’s biggest city July 10-26, 2015 with 26 Olympic sports and 10 others approved by PASO. The 11-sport Parapan Games would be Aug. 7-14, 2015.

More than 50 venues in the so-called Golden Horseshoe Region around Lake Ontario’s western shores would be used. Proposed venues include a 10,000-seat Toronto aquatics centre, 15,000-seat Hamilton athletics stadium and 3,500-seat Hamilton Velodrome. The 55,000-seat Rogers Centre, which has a retractable roof, would be the ceremonies venue. The Pan Am waterfront village would hold 8,500 athletes and officials.

Toronto is bidding against Lima, Peru and Bogota, Colombia. Toronto originally was to submit the bid in April, but the trip was delayed by swine flu fears.

Briefs…

VANOC chairman Jack Poole resigned June 1 from his job as chairman of Concert Properties, a Vancouver residential land development company. (Vancouver2010)…VANOC chairman Jack Poole resigned June 1 from his job as chairman of Concert Properties, a Vancouver residential land development company. Concert president David Podmore was promoted to chairman. Concert was founded in 1989 as the Vancouver Land Corporation under then-Vancouver Mayor Gordon Campbell...

…VANOC power provider BC Hydro is the first luxury suite customer to go public. The taxpayer-owned company spent $243,800 for a 20-seat suite at GM Place (aka Canada Hockey Place) for all 33 hockey games. It also spent $278,129 for 1,280 regular Games’ tickets and $129,290 for 30 hotel rooms at the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel. ICBC, the taxpayer-owned auto insurer, didn’t buy a luxury suite, but it did pay $360,100 for 2,034 tickets and $100,000 for accommodation...

…The business plan and funding formula for $337 million of pre-and-post Olympic renovations to B.C. Place Stadium is officially secret. The Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts denied a Freedom of Information request based on cabinet confidentiality. "This is a public asset and you and the public have a right to know what the business plan is and, in fact, if there is a business plan," NDP house leader Mike Farnworth said...

Written by Bob Mackin in Vancouver.