2010 Vancouver Olympic & Paralympic Super-Thread

[crazyjoeda]

Originally Posted by RobH

The men in suits are horrendous, but as animated characers they're really rather good (or at least much better than the costumed versions)

Nope, they look like creepy Japanese robots and that video was just plain uninspiring.

[jsbertram]

"18 months of work with 40 focus groups"

That says it all.
So what they ended up with was something so bland it couldn't possibly offend anyone in the focus groups.

At least after the 2012 games are over, the plush dolls can be useful to mop up spills, dust off ceiling fans, polish gramma's silver, and wedge open doors.

btw:
I see London Drugs has our Olympic mascots on sale - buy one, get the other three free.

[sacrifice333]

Originally Posted by metro

Ticket scam costs VANOC $2M
Fan-to-fan payout delay a credit card fraud, not system problem, say organizers

VANOC defended its online fan-to-fan marketplace yesterday after last month’s revelation that a group of Latvians scammed $2 million by reselling tickets purchased with fraudulent credit cards.

The scam is blamed for the late payout of a couple hundred transactions.

Deputy CEO Dave Cobb said the scam was credit card fraud and wasn’t directly tied to the ticketing system that enabled people to resell tickets they couldn’t use.

“It was simply stolen credit cards that were used that could have been used to purchase anything,” Cobb said, following a VANOC board meeting.

“Obviously they saw the level of activity that was going on in our fan-to-fan site and thought they could ram as many transactions through as quickly as they could, probably expecting to get caught.”

Olympic organizers were made aware of the scam in the final three to four days of the Games. They contacted police and refused to allow any new accounts.

“We knew that the way gold medal hockey was going that it would have likely led to several times the level of fraud that occurred in the period we caught it,” Cobb said.

In March, Vancouver Deputy Chief Steve Sweeney told Metro that police got ahead of the scam and arrested four Latvians when they went to pick up the tickets.

Approximately 200 of the 13,000 fan-to-fan accounts were affected, resulting in late payments. The remaining 220 cheques will be mailed out this week.

VANOC is out of pocket $2 million. The organizing committee hopes to recoup some or all of the loss through its insurance provider, Visa and Visa-issuing banks.

Article Link :: http://www.metronews.ca/vancouver/local/article/530659--ticket-scam-costs-vanoc-2m

This explains some of the delays I guess... communication would have been nice though...

[Yume-sama]

I always knew the Latvians were up to no good.

[johnjimbc]

I think the fan-to-fan marketplace was a really nice innovation. I'm glad Vanoc was the first committee to put something like it in place. Being able to sell tickets we couldn't use in a secured manner, and even pick up a couple of tickets we'd been unable to get during the original purchase sessions (with the assurance the tickets we purchased were valid) was really great.

It doesn't even both me that they made money on it. I'm sure most of the people selling their tickets made money as well. It was a relatively small price to say for the convenience of an easy-to-use, secure market system.

If, as the article says, this was a credit card fraud problem rather than a system problem, then I would hope it wouldn't discourage future organizers from setting up something similar. Sounds like the folks behind the fraud literally crammed the system with illegal credit cards to purchase tickets thinking it wouldn't be discovered until after the events / Games. I'm rather tickled to think they caught some of them when they went to get the tickets. Bet that was a rather surprising experience for the fraudsters.

I know the payments were a little late, but it wasn't that much of a delay. From the beginning, all the information on the fan-to-fan system indicated payments would be issued by the "end of April." We received our check over a week ago so it wasn't all that late. I've certainly experienced worse delays. And if they are down to sending a few hundred checks out - sounds like those directly related to the purchases affected - that should be cleared up pretty quick.

It makes me wonder if they didn't give out much information to everyone on the delay because the investigation was still underway.

[SpongeG]

this is cool though

• Video Link

[johnjimbc]

That is impressive. Looks like they are following the model of the Vancouver Olympic Village on an even larger scale . . . condos and apartments after the Games. I wonder how many will be market rate?

[SpongeG]

so i wonder if grandpa george will be hunted down and killed for making those mascots?

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by johnjimbc

That is impressive. Looks like they are following the model of the Vancouver Olympic Village on an even larger scale . . . condos and apartments after the Games. I wonder how many will be market rate?

Will, since it is Europe and you can always just tax something else or up the VAT, 50% of the 3000 units have been marked as social housing.

The total cost of just the village was "estimated" at 5.3 billion, but they've recently asked for as much as 866 million pounds in additional funding to help bail the project out.



Meanwhile the total cost of the games has ballooned to an estimated 9 billion pounds... from 2 billion

[nova9]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Will, since it is Europe and you can always just tax something else or up the VAT, 50% of the 3000 units have been marked as social housing.

The total cost of just the village was "estimated" at 5.3 billion, but they've recently asked for as much as 866 million pounds in additional funding to help bail the project out.



Meanwhile the total cost of the games has ballooned to an estimated 9 billion pounds... from 2 billion

Now, now. We gotta be careful about olympic budget figures. haha. remember, our media and their view of what is an olympic cost and what wasn't?

Either way, I'm going to jump the gun and declare London 2012 the worst olympic games ever!! haha. Just kidding.

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by johnjimbc

I think the fan-to-fan marketplace was a really nice innovation. I'm glad Vanoc was the first committee to put something like it in place. Being able to sell tickets we couldn't use in a secured manner, and even pick up a couple of tickets we'd been unable to get during the original purchase sessions (with the assurance the tickets we purchased were valid) was really great.

It doesn't even both me that they made money on it. I'm sure most of the people selling their tickets made money as well. It was a relatively small price to say for the convenience of an easy-to-use, secure market system.

If, as the article says, this was a credit card fraud problem rather than a system problem, then I would hope it wouldn't discourage future organizers from setting up something similar. Sounds like the folks behind the fraud literally crammed the system with illegal credit cards to purchase tickets thinking it wouldn't be discovered until after the events / Games. I'm rather tickled to think they caught some of them when they went to get the tickets. Bet that was a rather surprising experience for the fraudsters.

I know the payments were a little late, but it wasn't that much of a delay. From the beginning, all the information on the fan-to-fan system indicated payments would be issued by the "end of April." We received our check over a week ago so it wasn't all that late. I've certainly experienced worse delays. And if they are down to sending a few hundred checks out - sounds like those directly related to the purchases affected - that should be cleared up pretty quick.

It makes me wonder if they didn't give out much information to everyone on the delay because the investigation was still underway.

One of the parts of the story that was skimmed over was that the Latvians who were caught picking up their tickets 'purchased' with the fake VISA cards, but instead of being sent to trial on fraud or theft charges, and then fined or jailed upon conviction, they were simply deported immediately.

I guess that means they kept their earnings made by scalping the tickets during the scam before they were caught & kicked out of the country.

Beware of Latvians scalping tickets at the World Cup next month.

[trofirhen]

Originally Posted by crazyjoeda

Nope, they look like creepy Japanese robots and that video was just plain uninspiring.

Have you seen "The London Eye?" It's a giant ferris wheel right on the River Thames that gashes the view, and looks equally creepy and hideous with each riding comartment shaped rather like ... an eye !!

It's bizarre and grotesque, goes perfectly with the ugly London Olympic mascots, and the whole concept is enough to throw a (yecch) steak-and-kidney pie right back in the faces of those Brits who sneered at us.

[SpongeG]

there eyes are cameras so they can record everything they see

there is a picture that explains every part of them - the one dudes represents medlas, the light thing represents London's famous taxi cabs and blah blah blah

[jsbertram]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Will, since it is Europe and you can always just tax something else or up the VAT, 50% of the 3000 units have been marked as social housing.

The total cost of just the village was "estimated" at 5.3 billion, but they've recently asked for as much as 866 million pounds in additional funding to help bail the project out.



Meanwhile the total cost of the games has ballooned to an estimated 9 billion pounds... from 2 billion

And I don't think that includes all the transport upgrades they are doing.
It has however jump-started quite a few projects that have been planned for decades, but didn't have gov't support or weren't fully funded before the Olympics were awarded. Suddenly there are dozens of projects (not officially part of the Olympics budget) on the go with completion dates of "Summer 2012" and "Spring 2012".

[Yume-sama]

Originally Posted by jsbertram

And I don't think that includes all the transport upgrades they are doing.
It has however jump-started quite a few projects that have been planned for decades, but didn't have gov't support or weren't fully funded before the Olympics were awarded. Suddenly there are dozens of projects (not officially part of the Olympics budget) on the go with completion dates of "Summer 2012" and "Spring 2012".

Yeah, but the figure of 9.3 billion pounds comes directly from the government for games related spending only. The original bid called for 2 billion pounds in spending. Their conspiracy theorists are actually claiming a much higher price than the official 9.3 billion price tag (20 billion pounds seems to be a popular figure thrown about!), and who knows they may actually be right about 2012 (unlike 2010...).

But none of this really has a point

[jsbertram]

I was reading that the Shanghai Expo this year is expected to cost over $65 Billion, and the Beijing Summer Olympics were estimated to have cost over $45 Billion.

Because these world-class events book-ended the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Communists coming to power in 1949, the cost of staging all three of these events wasn't likely a serious consideration if these could show to the rest of the world, and their citizens at home, "look what we can accomplish after 60 years of Communist rule".

There was an article last week that stated the beginning of the Greek debt crisis can be traced back to staging the Athens Summer Olympics. Everything that was built for the Olympics (venues, athletes village, subways, highways, &tc) were bought with debt, and this debt has still not been repaid. Every year since the Olympics this debt (and accrued interest) has been rolled over into new debt with minimal payments to bring the debt down.

Unfortunately, the the British are falling into the same game, and their grandchildren will be paying down the accumulated Olympic costs.

[SpongeG]

yeah the summer olympics are much more costly affair - we have our own montreal that took years to pay off too

[SpongeG]

• Video Link

[RobH]

Originally Posted by Yume-sama

Yeah, but the figure of 9.3 billion pounds comes directly from the government for games related spending only. The original bid called for 2 billion pounds in spending. Their conspiracy theorists are actually claiming a much higher price than the official 9.3 billion price tag (20 billion pounds seems to be a popular figure thrown about!), and who knows they may actually be right about 2012 (unlike 2010...).

But none of this really has a point

The total cost is likely to be a fair amount lower than the 9bn (more like 7bn according to the FT), because the 9bn includes a contingency fund and because savings have since been found in the revised budget. Conspiracy theorists don't know what they're talking about when they say it'll be higher than 9bn and 20bn is a ridiculous figure.

Nevertheless, there was a significant rise from the original bid budget, that's obviously undeniable.

[Delirium]

i must say, our media sure is having a field day with these mascots.

today's National Post commentary headline:

Remember, Britain made fun of the Vancouver Olympics

Read more: http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2010...of-the-vancouver-olympics/#ixzz0oZAjyxhh

"Amazingly enough, these walking alien penis creatures are marketed toward children, hoping to raise £15 million in merchandising these frighteningly ugly mascots in toy form. Yes, you can bring the joy of the 2012 London Olympic Games into your home by purchasing Wenlock, the one-eyed mascot that walks erect."

LOL. Ah you can only laugh.

what i find curious though is for a country as rich in history as England, they sure seem to be struggling to find their identity. everything from the logo to these mascots, nothing says Britian to me. Nothing. What happened?