Heads of state and government at Vancouver 2010

[mr.x]

I thought this was an interesting discussion at GamesBids, so i'd thought i bring it over here.

Who do you think will be coming here for the opening and closing ceremonies?



Of course, George W. Bush was over at Beijing for more than a week and watched the opening and several sporting events, including that dolphin's swim race and we also got that priceless infamous volleyball picture out of that visit.




IMO, i'd say that the following will be here:

- Obama: he might be here briefly for a day or two, with wife and kids, at least for the Opening Ceremony and maybe an event or two. He seems to understand the importance of Canada as America's largest trading partner. If not, Michelle and the kids will be here.

- Putin: definitely for the Closing Ceremony, with the Sochi 2014 handover.

- Representative from the British Royal Family and/or government: afterall, they will be hosting the Games in London two years after Vancouver. Charles? Harry? Brown?

[vanlaw]

Technically it should be Medvedev from Russia. However, given he is merely a puppet, and everyone knows it, it will probably be Putin.

Hadn't seen that pic of W - hilarious

[metroXpress]

Representative from the British Royal Family and/or government is definitely a YES!

Perhaps there might be some Canadian singers coming to perform during the ceremonies...who? I don't know...

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Allen

Perhaps there might be some Canadian singers coming to perform during the ceremonies...who? I don't know...

I'm pretty sure that's a given...

[SpongeG]

jay leno will probably send someone

as will most of the NBC shows

[mr.x]

^ same with Conan. And of course, the whole Today Show crew will be here.


But this is a topic about heads of state and government.

[SpongeG]

my bad

[SpongeG]

just means more problems for regular folk so some politician craphead gets priority

i hope there are very few

[metroXpress]

Don't know when they will announce about the performances?
(Sorry if this is getting off-topic)


Perhaps, the mayor of Seattle would come to the Olympic games here
because Seattle and Vancouver are interested in co-hosting the 2028
Summer Olympic !!

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Allen

Don't know when they will announce about the performances?
(Sorry if this is getting off-topic)

Probably this fall.

Perhaps, the mayor of Seattle would come to the Olympic games here
because Seattle and Vancouver are interested in co-hosting the 2028
Summer Olympic !!

There's something very wrong with that statement.

For one thing, Seattlelites are too cheap to pay for anything.

Secondly, and most importantly, Olympic Games are not held between two nations and doing so would destroy the concept of the Olympic Games as a nation that hosts and as as civic event. It would also be a security nightmare.

[metroXpress]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

For one thing, Seattlelites are too cheap to pay for anything.

Secondly, and most importantly, Olympic Games are not held between two nations and doing so would destroy the concept of the Olympic Games as a nation that hosts and as as civic event. It would also be a security nightmare.

I actually got a reference for that...



City Wants 2028 Olympics
Bruce Constantineau, Vancouver Sun


Vancouver and Seattle will join forces to try to attract a post-2010 global mega-event, with a wish list that includes co-hosting the 2018 World Cup of soccer, a world's fair around 2020 or the 2028 Summer Olympics.

The boards of Tourism Vancouver and the Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau voted unanimously Thursday to create a study group to examine the viability of bidding for one of those events. The study group will report back to both boards when they meet again in Seattle early next year.

This is a great region of North America and it only makes sense that the two of us work together to pursue a common vision," Seattle Convention and Visitors Bureau chairman Jeffrey Wright said in an interview. ". . . We're very excited about what you have accomplished here in Vancouver and we want to participate in that success."

The cities' tourism boards met for the first time in Vancouver this week.

Vancouver would enter uncharted territory if it ever won the right to co-host a Summer Olympics. No city has ever hosted both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games and there have never been official co-hosts of any Games, although equestrian events for the 1956 Melbourne Games were held in Stockholm because of quarantine issues.

Japan and South Korea co-hosted the 2002 World Cup of soccer.

Vancouver and Seattle businessmen tried in the early 1990s to create a two-city bid for the 2008 Summer Olympics and even met with International Olympic Committee officials in Europe. But they were told the cross-border concept wouldn't work and Tourism Vancouver refused to support the proposal.

Tourism Vancouver president Rick Antonson said city tourism officials at the time felt a Summer Games would overwhelm Vancouver's transportation and accommodation infrastructure.

But he said the growing Vancouver-Seattle corridor is becoming a huge economic region that should be able to handle a Summer Olympics by 2028. He agreed the Canada-U.S. border remains a challenge to the free movement of traffic between the two countries but feels politicians can find a solution if they have to.

Antonson said tourism officials chose to consider a 2028 Summer Olympics bid because it seemed to be an appropriate amount of time following the 2010 Winter Games.

"After Vancouver proves itself in 2010, we might look a little too presumptuous if we went for it any sooner than that," he said.

Paris hosted Summer Games 24 years apart -- in 1900 and 1924 -- while Innsbruck, Austria held the Winter Games in 1964 and 1976, when it agreed to host the event after Denver backed out because of cost concerns.

Antonson said the two-city Olympic co-host theme makes sense now because it spreads the financial burden over a larger area. It cost Athens an estimated $15 billion to hold the 2004 Summer Games.

"The cost of holding the Summer Olympics is becoming more and more onerous so the chance to share the cost could become an important business model for the whole viability of the event," he said.

Tourism Vancouver chairman Jim Storie said Vancouver and Seattle want to match the great job done by Japan and South Korea in hosting the 2002 World Cup.

He knows IOC officials traditionally award Olympic games to single destinations but feels globalization can help them accept a two-nation event.

[email protected]

© The Vancouver Sun 2006


QUOTED FROM CANADA.COM: http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=8ec0d438-0f91-496e-bfc3-d43ee389f80c

[mr.x]

^ thank you very much, but we discussed that article here in the forum years ago as well.


Something we want doesn't exactly mean it'll happen, because there are well defined rules and concepts that do not allow it.

The Olympic Games are a civic event held in one nation AND NOT TWO. It would never work between Seattle and Vancouver, which as I said before would be a security and logistical nightmare. Seattle also thought about bidding for the 2008 Olympics alone, but there was a public revolt about costs that the city council whimped out and canceled the bid.

As for the World Cup, it is a event held within a nation - not a civic event. If the folks at Tourism Vancouver didn't get that, they really don't know what they are doing. If Vancouver were to think about hosting the World Cup, it would be discussing it with other Canadian cities: Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Hamilton, Montreal, Halifax, etc. It WOULDN'T be discussing it with Seattle.

The Vancouver-Seattle region wouldn't be able to handle nine 40,000+ seat soccer facilities regardless.

Not to mention that FIFA Korea-Japan 2002 was a logistical and security nightmare. FIFA has made it quite clear that they will never be allowing a bi-nation host for the World Cup ever again.



If Seattle and Vancouver are interested in getting in bed together, they should think more along the lines of a World's Fair....perhaps with the two sites connected by a high-speed rail link.

Though personally, I'd highly prefer Vancouver go solo on a Summer Games bid in the 2050s.

[metroXpress]

Thank you so much, once again, for explanning the ture meanings of the games. I believe it is important to keep the traditions of the games and I didn't relize that this was being discussed before. The interesting part is, people on the East side of the country are planning the same thing too:

Montreal, Canada – Lake Placid, USA
Officials from Quebec and the State of New York have met to discuss the possibility of a joint bid between those two cities considering the proximity between them.With Vancouver hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics, the earliest that Canada could hope to host the Olympics is 2022.If selected, the bid would be the first multi-national Olympics games bid, and the first time a city has hosted both the summer and winter Olympics as Montreal hosted the 1976 Summer Olympics. However, this violates many of the IOC rules for the selection of a host city. Those rules would have to be waived or changed in order for this bid to continue. A similar multi-national bid between Vancouver and Seattle is being explored for the 2028 Summer Olympics.


Source: Rheal Seguin (2003-02-13). "State and province push IOC to bend rules in binational bid for the Winter Games", The Globe and Mail.


I MUST SAY THAT THEY ARE CRAZY BECAUSE THEY WANT TO CHANGE THE RULES AND TRADITIONS TO FIT THEIR OWN WILLS...

[SpongeG]

the world is changing

its getting to cost prohibitive for one city or one country to host the games now with the money grabbing IOC

unique solutions are going to be needed to host games in the future

[jlousa]

There was a $30Million budget for housing the olympic athletes for our games probably a bit higher for summer games. Rent Cruise ships for all future games, they are really easy to secure and will cut back on security costs as well. So that would limit the games to only coastal cities. Works for me.

The dual country idea might work one day but it should be tried in the Euro zone first as they don't have any border issues to deal with.

[metroXpress]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

the world is changing

its getting to cost prohibitive for one city or one country to host the games now with the money grabbing IOC

unique solutions are going to be needed to host games in the future

Ture...the main reason why Vancouver think that it is possible because
the distance between Vancovuer and Seattle is almost the same as the
distance between Vancouver and Whistler. We have venues and events
going on up there and some down here...but, as MrX2 mentioned, this is
still within a nation, again, you'll never know what would happen then

Vancouver solely hosting a Summer Olympic in the future sounds great...
esp. when all the renovations at BC place is completed

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by SpongeG

the world is changing

its getting to cost prohibitive for one city or one country to host the games now with the money grabbing IOC

unique solutions are going to be needed to host games in the future

Its cost prohibitive because cities/nations continue to insist on having pie in the sky Games, with extravagant and far too large venues that will seldom be used after the Games. Just look at the progression in the quality of the Summer Games over the last 20 years. It also comes from the IOC expecting far too much from the host city; the Summer Games need to be downsized more.

Vancouver seems to have changed that trend around, and to an extent even London has.

To change the concept of the Olympics as a sole civic event for one city would change the whole concept, feeling, and atmosphere of the Games. Traditions should be respected and continued.


As for the Montreal-Placid bid, it would never happen. Canada's next bid would most definitely be for the Summer Games for 2024/2028, with the bidding city being Toronto. Even if we were to bid for the Winter Games again, Quebec City would most likely be the candidate city representing Canada.

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Allen

Vancouver solely hosting a Summer Olympic in the future sounds great...
esp. when all the renovations at BC place is completed

BC Place would probably need another rehaul by the time Vancouver is a real competitor in winning the Summer Games.

One thing for sure, it wouldn't be the Olympic Stadium.

[metroXpress]

Originally Posted by mr.x2

BC Place would probably need another rehaul by the time Vancouver is a real competitor in winning the Summer Games.

One thing for sure, it wouldn't be the Olympic Stadium.

I really like the rendering you put up in the other thread with all the
new buildings surrounding it. But I don't think that will happen until
the 2020's?

We will, of course, need a new Olympic Stadium...perhaps a ferris wheel
too?? I don't know if you are against that idea or not?

[mr.x]

Originally Posted by Allen

I really like the rendering you put up in the other thread with all the
new buildings surrounding it. But I don't think that will happen until
the 2020's?

What??? No, that's not what I said.

The redevelopment around BC Place, the new buildings in the rendering, will be built throughout the 2010's. Afterall, those buildings are needed to pay off for the BC Place renovations that will be completed by 2011/2012.

Vancouver's most realistic chance for the Summer Games is in the 2050s, and by then BC Place (if it's still around) would be craptastic.