2010 Vancouver Olympic & Paralympic Super-Thread

[Yume-sama]

Hmmm. Is Vancouver House really necessary ? Being that the games are.... in Vancouver. It doesn't even look that impressive, like say, looking out your window would.

[sacrifice333]

Quite the developments re: Intrawest & Fortress!

I guess Joe Hussein may get his opportunity afterall to buy back his baby. Rumour is he's been waiting, very patiently, for an opportunity to re-purchase solely Whistler Blackcomb.

Hmmm...

[sacrifice333]

Originally Posted by Intrawest

INTRAWEST COMMENTS ON INACCURATE MEDIA REPORTS

VANCOUVER, BC. – January 20, 2010 – There have been inaccurate and misleading media reports surrounding Intrawest today. Fortress Investment Group continues to own and control Intrawest and all of its properties. Serious discussions with Intrawest’s lenders are ongoing regarding refinancing and the Company continues to operate “business as usual” at all of its resort properties. Intrawest is looking forward to the success of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.

.

[Waders]

Yike! No snow for Cypress.

Source: from CTV website: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=27124.html?cid=rsstsn?cid=rssctv

Olympic snow woes: Officials give up on Mother Nature
By Stephanie Levitz and Jim Morris,
Posted Wednesday, January 20, 2010 6:29 PM ET

VANCOUVER -Winter Games officials have given up on any help from Mother Nature and will now be trucking in snow for the freestyle skiing and snowboarding events at Cypress Mountain, on Vancouver's North Shore.

The forecast for the week ahead suggests that there will be no new snow for the mountain, nor will it get cold enough to allow them to make any, the organizers said Wednesday after their final board meeting before next month's Games.

"We are planning that we will not have snow,'' said Cathy Priestner Allinger, executive vice-president of sport and Games operations for the organizing committee, known as VANOC.

Contingency plans are now being rolled out which include using straw and wood to take the place of snow to build the base for the courses.

But Priestner Allinger says they believe there is enough snow elsewhere on the mountain and they will use trucks, snow cats and if necessary helicopters to move snow to the event sites.

"We are going to create a fantastic field of play and we are just doing it a little differently than we had originally planned,'' she said.

Christian Hrab, high performance director for Canada Snowboard, said the design of the course is what matters most to his athletes.

"What we are looking for is shape,'' said Hrab.

"How it is built is irrelevant to our performance. Usually it's made of snow. If the builders in VANOC find alternate ways of giving us a great course, it will not affect us.''

The lack of snow could result in a less demanding course for the ski cross and snowboard cross races, but moguls and aerials don't require much snow, said Peter Judge, chief executive officer of the Canadian Freestyle Ski Association.

"If they don't have the material they can't build the features (jumps) as big or as radical as maybe they had originally planned,'' said Judge. "That may have some affect in terms of dumbing the course down a little bit.''

Judge doubted the change would harm the image of the Vancouver Games.

"Everybody understands we are dealing with outdoor sports and with venues that are susceptible to these kind of things,'' he said. "I don't see it would be something that would be extremely negative.

"At the end of the day it's all going to come off, it's going to be white and it's going to look good.''

Mild temperatures and heavy rains earlier this month forced officials to close the mountain ahead of schedule, as snow gave way to mud.

Organizers were always prepared for weather challenges at all of their outdoor events and said Wednesday in some respects they were thankful that they were only having the one problem so far.

Whistler has snow, but that doesn't mean it hasn't posed its own problems for Olympic organizer.

Lenders have moved to auction off the assets of Intrawest ULC, including the B.C. ski resort that will be home to the Olympic downhill races next month.

Intrawest said it will be "business as usual,'' despite the possibility Whistler-Blackcomb could be on the auction block even as Olympic athletes grace its slopes.

Dan Doyle, VANOC's executive vice-president of construction, said the venues in Whistler are ready.

"It doesn't make very good business sense for people to put them out of business at the time of the year when they're making their most earnings,'' Doyle told reporters in Vancouver following the local organizing committee board's final meeting before the Games.

Doyle said bankruptcy doesn't happen overnight.

"It's a long process, it's a process that takes months. Given all of that, we're very confident that the Games will go on at those two venues in Whistler, and they'll go on with the co-operation of the people that are running the mountain,'' he said, noting that Games organizers have sought legal advice on the situation.

Whistler Mountain will host the alpine skiing events, while sister mountain Blackcomb is the site of the sliding centre. Both mountains make up the Intrawest resort.

While Mother Nature isn't helping organizers, it is helping is helping VANOC's bottom line.

"We have a snow clearing budget which we haven't had to use, so we've put that effort, that equipment and people against moving the snow to the course as opposed to clearing snow off bleachers,'' said Dave Cobb, the committee's deputy executive director.

But Cobb didn't rule out being forced to dip into the committee's $50 million operational contingency fund in order to cover off the costs associated with moving to their plan B.

[Stingray2004]

VANOC has contingency plans in place. Still keeping my fingers crossed that some arctic air will move in just prior to the games though.

[zivan56]

During the 84 Olympics in Sarajevo, there was barely any snow on the ski hills on the days leading up to the opening and there was real concern that events would have to be canceled. Then, at the start of the games, there was a huge dump of snow which made it difficult to even get to venues. So you never know whats coming...

[b31den]

Originally Posted by Waders

Yike! No snow for Cypress.

Source: from CTV website: http://www.ctvolympics.ca/news-centre/newsid=27124.html?cid=rsstsn?cid=rssctv

Olympic snow woes: Officials give up on Mother Nature
By Stephanie Levitz and Jim Morris,
Posted Wednesday, January 20, 2010 6:29 PM ET

I've cross-country skied in Europe a lot over the past 5 years, this is actually not so uncommon for snow sports. Four winters ago, which I heard was the warmest winter on record for Europe, the lack of snow was so bad that even most areas of the Alps didnt have enough for skiing.

Unlike in Canada they have a lot of community-based/owned ski areas, so as you drove through the mountains everything would be green or brown except for "White Ribbons of Death".

For some reason in Europe they've built most of their World Cup Venues (Biathlon, Cross-Country, Nordic Combined) at low altitudes, so this made the situation worse for these sports. One venue, Oberhof in central Germany, trucked in crushed ice from a fish-packing plant on the baltic sea, while another place in Austria scraped snow off a glacier.

Thankfully this winter in Europe has been very good so far.

[Yume-sama]

Calgary also had a lot of snow problems. We got a chinook just in time for the Olympics, and some events had to be delayed

Luckily, not many events are actually at Cypress, and the "important" ones will be fine in Whistler.

I think it could have been smart to make it more the "BC" Olympics and in lieu of using Cypress, went to the Okanagan.

A lot of Countries have done similar, heck Hong Kong hosted some Beijing events, and they are 2000km apart.

[Stingray2004]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

We got a chinook just in time for the Olympics.

Yeah, I recall the chinook that Calgary received during the 1988 games. IIRC, the temperature approached ~19 C at one point but everything turned out quite well in the end.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by Stingray2004

Yeah, I recall the chinook that Calgary received during the 1988 games. IIRC, the temperature approached ~19 C at one point but everything turned out quite well in the end.

Yeah. And, of course, Canada Olympic Park is right in the middle of Calgary (well, now, I suppose in 1988 it would have been way out there ), not exactly in some mountain range... so it definitely made things interesting, as we can go from +20 to -35 in the course of 4 days . Other events were held in the mountains, and they were fine.

[mr.x]

Hopefully everything works out at Cypress, they've been storing snow at the peak for quite some time now...I just can't fathom how they'd move that much snow down the mountain.

[GeeCee]

VANOC is really getting hosed when it comes to the mountain venues.. with Whistler in deep trouble financially and Cypress without a whole lot of snow..

[Yume-sama]

In the end, Whistlers financial problems don't affect the Olympics in the slightest.

I really can't imagine how bad the mismanagement of the owners was if they were able to make *that* fail.

[jlousa]

Whistler isn't in bad shape financially, it's owners are. The resort itself has been a money maker for years and there are numerous companies ready to buy it.

[Yume-sama]

Well, that certainly makes sense. But it's not very doom and gloom like CBC paints it

That place must be using wheelbarrows year round to transport the money they make.

[Denscity]

Its definitely getting very exciting! I will be in downtown Vancouver for the entire month of February!!

[NetMapel]

Yeah I find it inconceivable that Whistler, one of the most popular vacation destination, could be in financial trouble. This Olympics will only make it even more popular.

[GeeCee]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Whistler isn't in bad shape financially, it's owners are. The resort itself has been a money maker for years and there are numerous companies ready to buy it.

Sure, but it's still something that the already very busy VANOC will have to deal with to an extent.

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by GeeCee

Sure, but it's still something that the already very busy VANOC will have to deal with to an extent.

Well, not really. It would be like if you were renting a house, and the owner sold it... and the new owners agreed to let you stay as was planned

[Stingray2004]

Jlousa is correct in ascertaining that Whistler/Blackcomb has very positive cash flows and will continue to do so and will continue to operate uninterrupted. The matter at hand has more to do with inside ownership/creditor issues, which will have NO impact upon ski/resort operations.

These matters happen all the time regarding shopping centres, office buildings, etc. but have NO impact upon the operations of the assets and the tenants themselves. Well, very minimal impact if any in my experience.

From todays' Globe & Mail:

The date of the planned sale is coincidence and had nothing to do with the Olympics, said a source familiar with the talks. Should the auction go ahead, the high profile of the Games ensures good advertising for the sellers, said Lindsay Meredith, a marketing strategy and economics professor at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. He expects the resorts would be sold off in pieces, with Whistler Blackcomb bringing the highest bid.


“It's the jewel asset … I can't think of a better venue than the Olympics to do that,” Mr. Meredith said in an interview Wednesday. “The banks aren't stupid here.”

A change of ownership isn't expected to affect the Games. In fact, behind the scenes, some close to the Olympic committee say it could actually be a boon.

Relations between the organizing committee and Fortress have at times been fractious as Fortress fought financial turmoil brought on by the economic slowdown and a decline in asset values. One source characterized Fortress as indifferent to the Olympics, given all the firm's other issues. By contrast, because the banks are trying to maximize the price in a sale, they are likely to see the value in having a successful Olympics that showcases the resort.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on...ser-to-the-auction-block/article1438225/