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Arena proposal in limbo

Whistler waits for province, province points to VANOC
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VANOC execs, Whistler, met this week to discuss sledge hockey arena options, illustration submitted

Top Whistler and Olympic officials met in an evening meeting this week to discuss the fate of the resort’s Paralympic arena.

The meeting included VANOC CEO John Furlong and executive vice president of construction Dan Doyle, along with Whistler Mayor Ken Melamed, Administrator Bill Barratt and Olympic executive director Jim Godfrey.

They gathered Monday evening in Squamish, the halfway point between the two host cities, after Whistler’s mayor spent the day fielding questions from the media about the sledge hockey arena.

It is still not clear what was decided that night, if anything, but the face-to-face meeting with the top players reveals the level of concern about the fate of the Paralympic arena in Whistler.

There is a new proposal in the works but the details have not yet been made public as delicate negotiations between the partners continue.

This week VANOC, the Resort Municipality of Whistler and the province all passed the buck when asked who had to make a decision on the new proposal associated with the arena.

"The minute you start talking about the what ifs, then you have to start negotiating with the other partners and that’s where we are now," said Melamed. "What we’re hoping to do is to get the alternatives to a point that we can have them solidified or committed to enough to take to the community and to council and make a final decision."

He said he’s waiting for the province to decide on those alternatives and said they were working with Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen and with the federal minister responsible for the Olympics, David Emerson.

"We’re not the masters of our destiny here," the mayor told the Whistler Rotary Club Tuesday morning. "It is to the wire. Everybody is on the edge of their seats."

But Minister Hansen, in a phone interview with Pique Newsmagazine Tuesday afternoon, said it’s not up to the province. He said the ball is in VANOC’s court.

"This new ask that’s come from Whistler… VANOC and Whistler would probably love it if we say ‘sure, here’s more money’ but we don’t have more money in our envelope to provide," said Hansen.

"What we’ve said back to VANOC is that we’re not prepared to consider a request for increased obligations over and above what we’re already obligated to that would take us over the $580 million (Olympic venue construction budget)."

VANOC released a media statement via e-mail with comments from Cathy Priestner Allinger, executive vice president of sport, Paralympic Games and venue management.

"Until such time as the RMOW makes a final decision on the construction of the arena and out of respect for the process, it would be inappropriate to engage in further public discussions or to speculate on the alternatives under consideration."

Earlier this summer Mayor Melamed revealed that the cost to build the village arena, even with a $20 million contribution from VANOC, could be too high for the community. A new proposal was developed and taken to the government.

There has been much speculation about the details of that proposal. Hansen confirmed this week that Whistler and VANOC have not asked for more money for the arena. He said the proposal involves "other things that they think they can do in Whistler over and above what the province has already committed to.

"… VANOC has to figure out where it’s going to get the additional funds from to finance these but it’s over and above what was committed by the province and in the Bid Book to the IOC (International Olympic Committee.)

"VANOC needs to be able to demonstrate that we can deliver on all of our existing commitments to the IOC before we would entertain or be willing to give our blessing to any new obligations."

The original Bid Book agreement stated Whistler would get $20 million to build the arena, or $2 million should the community chose not to.

Last year municipal staff realized $20 million wouldn’t go far in building a village arena. Council of the day began closed door negotiations and worked on a deal that would get Whistler $8 million for a practice arena, $4 million in community amenities and $8 million would go to Squamish to build the Paralympic arena there.

But when news leaked out that Whistler was losing the arena and there had been no public consultation there was a backlash in the community.

In October 2005 one of the last decisions made under Mayor Hugh O’Reilly’s tenure, in the face of immense public pressure, was to accept the $20 million and build a village arena.

But they had negotiated a backdoor deal.

After public consultation if the numbers still didn’t pencil and the arena was abandoned, VANOC had agreed to amend the 2002 Venue Agreement to increase their $2 million contribution to $8 million.

Essentially, the community would still get a second sheet of ice at Meadow Park, which could be used as a practice facility during the Paralympics.

There was a one-line caveat in the staff report: the amendment was subject to approval by the Government of Canada and the Province of British Columbia.

It is not clear that approval has ever been forthcoming and it is not clear if this is one of the options in the new proposal.

Over time, however, Melamed said the community has built up an expectation of achieving a legacy from the Paralympics.

"I wish I could tell you more," he said. "We remain committed to the Paralympics and to the promises we made to the community."

He admits the community has come to really identify itself as the host city of the Paralympic Games.

"Over the years that we’ve been debating this issue, the commitment and the attachment, the respect for the movement, has just continued to grow," he said.

In addition to the sheer cost of building a Paralympic arena in Whistler, however, other factors have come into play – including the huge success of the sledge hockey games at the 2006 Torino Olympics.

The Canadian team took home the gold in Torino to a crowd of 4,100. Whistler’s proposed arena is much smaller, with only 2,750 seats. This raised the question in Torino about whether a small arena is the best thing to raise the profile of the sport and there were suggestions from Hockey Canada that some of the sledge hockey events could move to Vancouver.

This, however, flies in the face of one of the major selling points of the 2010 Paralympics – they would be the most compact games ever with all the events in Whistler.

When asked how committed the province is to seeing a compact games, Hansen said: "I think it comes down to how it can it be the most successful for everybody concerned and in particular the athletes. And I know within the Paralympic movement, where this all sort of stems from, is the experience in Torino where the sledge hockey was very successful and we anticipate, given that Canada was the gold medal winner, there might be even greater interest here… So it’s a great opportunity for the Paralympic Committee to profile one of their sports in a very big way, providing there’s a venue that’s big enough to accommodate the spectators that would be interested in it. I think everybody is looking at what those options are in terms of how you accomplish that and I guess they have to weigh that against the other things that are important to them and one of those things is the notion of a compact games."

The Canadian Paralympic Committee’s chief operating officer, Brian MacPherson, maintains a desire for a compact games.

"The more compact, the better for the environment, and a better environment for athletes means better performances," he said. "That’s why we’ve always been, from day one of the Vancouver bid, a proponent for unprecedented compact Winter Games in Whistler."

- with files from Andrew Mitchell-