Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Business as usual for 2010 bid

Vancouver-Whistler bid corporation taking next steps after Toronto loses bid to host 2008 Although you would expect champagne corks to be flying at the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Bid Corporation headquarters when the International Olympic Committee anno

Vancouver-Whistler bid corporation taking next steps after Toronto loses bid to host 2008

Although you would expect champagne corks to be flying at the Vancouver Whistler 2010 Bid Corporation headquarters when the International Olympic Committee announced on July 13 that Beijing would host the 2008 Summer Games, the atmosphere was actually quite subdued.

While there was a good chance that the Vancouver-Whistler bid would have been shelved if Toronto won the 2008 Olympics, with only two years to go until the IOC chooses the host city for the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, it’s time to get to work in earnest.

"Certainly the road was cleared for us on Friday," 2010 bid CEO Don Calder told participants at the most recent fireside chat at the Whistler Mountain Ski Club cabin on July 17.

"What would have been a major obstacle to our bid was removed, but it is clear that we have some work to do. As you may have noticed on Friday and yesterday, there are about 22 people in the International Olympic Committee who vote for Canada, and you need a majority to win. There are 108 members of the IOC, and you need at least 55 votes to win, and we don’t think it will be easy for us."

In only the second round of IOC voting on July 13, Beijing got the 56 votes it needed to host the games. On July 16, when the IOC members elected a new president, 46 people voted for Belgian delegate Jacques Rogge compared to 23 for Kim Un-Yong of South Korea, and 22 for Canadian delegate Dick Pound.

With the Canadian Olympic Association now putting its full support behind the Vancouver-Whistler bid, the 2010 Bid Corporation will have to follow a tight timeline up until the 2003 IOC congress in Prague, Czech Republic.

In September the world’s 200-plus national Olympic associations are invited to submit candidates for the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the candidate cities will have until February of 2002 to fill out a questionnaire with 22 questions dealing with everything from transportation, to athlete housing, to security, to ticket sales.

By August of 2002, the applicant cities will make their first submissions to the IOC, which will then release a short list of applicants. All cities on the short list become official "candidate cities" and are required to prepare detailed bid books covering every aspect of the Games.

The Toronto bid book was over 700 pages. If the Vancouver-Whistler bid is shortlisted, they will have until January 2003 to submit a bid book to the IOC. The IOC evaluation commission then visits candidate cities between February and April to evaluate the bids on their technical merits.

Complicating the process further, the 2010 Bid Corporation doesn’t know who the competition will be. So far Switzerland, Sweden, Finland, Spain, South Korea (possibly with North Korea), Bosnia-Herzegovina, and New Zealand have all indicated that they are interested in bidding for the 2010 Winter Games. There is also a possibility that a South American country will enter a bid.

"Until February, however, we have no idea who the competition is," says Calder. "In the meantime, we can work on our questionnaire and put out an excellent bid book, and look for an edge that is going to put Vancouver-Whistler in the minds of IOC members."

What makes it particularly challenging is the fact that just 44 countries participate in the Winter Games, which means that many of the IOC members who will be taking part in the vote don’t even have an interest in the competition.

"We have to find a way to reach these people. Our job is to make sure that all of these people know the advantages of our bid, whether it’s the fact that Vancouver is a world-class city where you can play golf while the downhill is going on, or something else," Calder says. "You have to have a technically strong bid to start with, but after that the question is what kind of edge can you put on it?"

Some of the other countries are already working on the edge.

Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina has released a video chronicling the recent war and asking for the Olympics to resolve internal conflict and help rebuild the country.

North and South Korea may reunite to host the games, which would "put a completely unique spin on the bid," says Calder.

The New Zealand bid, as well as any South American bids, are expected to play up the fact that the Winter Games have never been held in the southern hemisphere. Although this would mean that the Winter Games would be held in the summer, it’s a possibility.

In terms of strengths and weaknesses, Calder feels Vancouver-Whistler is already ahead of the competition.

"We already have indications of strong government support and strong financial support from all levels of government, and if you haven’t noticed, the Olympics are a very business-oriented institution," he says.

The facilities that already exist in Vancouver and Whistler are also a strong selling point, including ice surfaces and one of the top downhill courses in the world.

A number of successful events have been held recently, including the freestyle world championships on Blackcomb in January, and the World Figure Skating Championships in Vancouver in March.

The weaknesses, which have been acknowledged since the beginning, are transportation to and from Whistler and accommodation.

"Because of the split venues, very likely we’re going to have to have two villages, one in Vancouver and one in Whistler," says Calder.

Recent Winter Olympics show that the neither of these weaknesses is as bad they may look, however. Events at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City are scattered throughout the state, and previous Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and Albertville, France, had similar transportation and accommodation issues to deal with.

The 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, also have similar logistical problems that the IOC has overlooked.

"We will have to make the highway safer, but it’s my understanding that the province is already looking at the situation there as part of their own plans," says Calder. A number of other transportation initiatives have been looked at, including ferry rides to Squamish from the airport and alternative routes from Vancouver, but any project will have to be viable after the Olympics have wrapped up.

The use of buses, staging areas, and tying both to a ticketing system could be the answer to the transportation problem. A similar system was used at Lillehammer in Norway, and will likely be used in Turin.

Calder also answered questions about debt at the fireside chat, telling the 40 participants that Montreal was the last Olympics to go into debt. "Certainly it’s happened in the past, but since then things have turned around," says Calder. The 1988 Calgary Winter Games actually generated a surplus in excess of $100 million, which currently funds and maintains the facilities left behind after the Olympics.

"The revenue for us from the 2010 Olympics, from the television rights alone, will be in excess of $600 mlllion," Calder says. Ticket sales are another major source of revenues, with the Sydney Summer Olympics generating over $100 million from the events themselves.

The ticketing system will have to be decided and spelled out in detail in the bid book, but Calder hopes that blocks of tickets can be set aside for Whistler locals to watch the events.

"Of course the best way to get close is to volunteer, and we’ll be looking for lots of those if the Vancouver-Whistler bid is successful," he says.