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Subject: Vancouver Olympics 2010 = disappointment Posted by: Seattle Zen - Leader [055343019] Fri, Jan 08, 2010, 11:47 At every turn, I am more and more disappointed with the Winter Olympics that will be starting in just a few weeks.  I remember rooting for Vancouver to land these Olympics since they started to campaign for the bid over 10 years ago. Living in Seattle, I figured I would get to a few events and I was really excited about that prospect. Ten years alter, I do not know a single person going to an Olympic event because the way tickets were allocated was simply disgusting. Only 2% of all Olympic tickets were reserved for the US public and in order to get them, you had to deal with one NJ company that sells them bundled with $1000/night hotel rooms Welcome to the dark side of the Olympic flame. The Games get lofty billing as a celebration of human achievement - an amateur sports event that builds community and transcends class barriers. It seemed a natural fit for progressive Vancouver, where organizers promised the most fan-friendly Games ever. Depending on the event, 30-70% of the tickets will be given to corporate sponsors. That's ridiculous. And one quarter of GM Place, the hockey venue, will be set aside for broadcast media. I guess the whole "Spirit of the Olympics" has been refined into a money making television spectacle. Good luck to families of athletes from small countries getting to see their child's dream being fulfilled in person. Well, I was at least a little excited that I was moving back to the Seattle TV market in time for the Games because I have really enjoyed watching the Winter Olympics on CBC in years past. Then this bad news! The Winter Olympics won't be on CBC after all! I will be rooting against Canada in every event! | |||||||
| 1 | biliruben ID: 16105237 Fri, Jan 08, 2010, 11:57 |
I agree. Lame. I know one family who got tickets, but they are rich and got them as a gift from someone working for a sponsor. We really wanted to go, but I just can't justify nearly bankrupting us to do it. | ||||||
| 2 | RecycledSpinalFluid Dude ID: 204401122 Fri, Jan 08, 2010, 12:04 | I wonder how different this is from any other Olympics. I'm thinking back to when I went with my father to the '84 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. I believe those were also corporate sponsor tickets even then. | ||||||
| 3 | Seattle Zen ID: 1410391215 Fri, Jan 08, 2010, 13:04 |
I'm sure there have been Olympic corporate sponsor tickets comped for decades, but the percentage of tickets sure has gone through the roof. I went to two soccer matches at the '84 Olympics, both in Stanford Stadium. The Brazil v. Italy match was a highlight of my sport fandom, the crowd of 80,000+ was energized, there must have been over 20,000 Brazilians each of them with a musical instrument. Trust me, that stadium was not anywhere near 30% corporate sponsors. | ||||||
| 4 | bibA ID: 01116297 Fri, Jan 08, 2010, 14:07 |
Yeah, the 84 Olympics were truly open to the public. I was able to attend 5 different sports events. Getting tickets was about the same as obtaining them for anything else. ps- Many were leery of the Olympics coming here for fear of terrorists, even back in those days of innocence. | ||||||
| 5 | JeffG Leader ID: 01584348 Fri, Jan 08, 2010, 15:46 |
I went to many events during the 1996 in Atlanta. Tickets to US citizens were sold from the organizing comittee and I even was able to purchase tickets to high demand events that were sold via a lottery system. I guess now going to the Olympics has become like going to other sporting events that now more cater to high end specator and corporations, which cuts down availability and increases the costs for the regular fan. Maybe not so fast on that anti-Canada sentiment Zen, since I believe each country gets an allotment of tickets, and citizens from the visiting countries usually have to buy their tickets via their national Olympic Committee (or what it sounds like, their exclusive ticket resale vendor). If everything is being packaged with hotels, the day trippers probably have to hope to get secondary market tickets via places like Stub Hub, where a quick check shows the only events you can see in Vancouver for under $100 is the biathalon or curling. | ||||||
| 6 | Pancho Villa ID: 29118157 Fri, Jan 08, 2010, 16:47 |
I was fortunate to be working in sports media during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake, so I got to see several events for free. However, tickets were readily available to the public, although some were hard to come by, like the gold medal hockey game and the figure skating finals, both men and women. I'm sorry to hear that these Olympis are so exclusive, as it is a lifetime thrill attending an event, and Vancouver is one of the finest cities in the world. | ||||||
| 7 | Frick ID: 9103036 Fri, Jan 08, 2010, 16:59 | Are they more available in Canada? | ||||||
| 8 | nerveclinic ID: 390561510 Fri, Jan 15, 2010, 12:03 |
I also landed a number of tickets to the Olympics in Atlanta.
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| 9 | C.SuperFreak ID: 2311461823 Fri, Jan 15, 2010, 21:42 |
Frick, yes, they are more available but they have been sold in packages so the overall cost has been outrageously high. Accomodation is sparse. Norwegian Cruise Lines is leasing out one of their ships for accomodation for a ridiculous amount of money. I'm guessing walk up tickets will be available for the not so popular countries participating in the events. Vancouver residents, and corporations will benefit. Patrons from out of town will find it difficult to find a deal. VANOC is the culprit. They've sleazed it up big time. For example, they put out a national call for volunteers but could not guarantee any accommodation for out of town volunteers, so the response was minimal and then had to go and plea to Vancouver business community for volunteers...idiots. They've also allowed the media (that would be CTV, the network that bought the rights to air the games) to be part of the games allowing multiple reporters to carry the torch. Vancouver will be in debt for sometime after the games end. I hope they enjoy the 2 weeks of glory. IOC won't let women ski jumpers compete either. I can't cheer against Canada cause I love the speed skating, bobsledding, luge, skeleton. They are great events. Hope you can some how jerry rig a set of bunny ears cause Brian Williams will be doing the Olympics for CTV and he's great at telling the story without taking it over. | ||||||
| 10 | Electroman ID: 565182111 Sat, Jan 16, 2010, 08:55 | Vancouver and affordable are two words that I don't think go together. | ||||||
| 11 | Seattle Zen Leader ID: 055343019 Sat, Feb 06, 2010, 14:57 |
Bring money, we're broke. The International Olympic Committee's requirements grew. Costs ballooned. A new convention center would have to be built, for $900 million. A new highway to Whistler would have to be built, for $700 million. A rapid-transit line from the airport to downtown would have to be built, for $2 billion. The billion-dollar athlete's village, projected to make huge profits once the units were sold as condos, incurred so many overruns the City now admits that any profit is unlikely. As for the original cost estimate of $175 million for security, it is now rumored to be well over a billion dollars, though no one in government will speak to that because, well, you know, it's security, and if they said anything the terrorists would win. | ||||||
| 12 | C.SuperFreak ID: 537392611 Tue, Feb 09, 2010, 11:57 |
We're spending millions to save the snow. Our next challenge will be to save the polar caps. Thanks to the government there will be a few more tickets available to the uber-rich. The tickets are useless if you can't get to the events. Tired? need to relax, could be a problem as certain accomodations have been sunk. The Own The Podium program is a $37 million investment ($22 gov't money, $15 mill private) aimed at bringing home 30 medals. Meanwhile average ordinary citizens are squeezed out of the torch relay to accomodate the media. I'm counting on Arnold Scwarzenegger to save games. World Cup 2010 anyone? | ||||||
| 13 | Seattle Zen Leader ID: 055343019 Sun, Feb 14, 2010, 02:30 | Wow, Apolo Ohno is like James Bond and the Korean skaters are like faceless villains. Two of the "bad guys" bumble and stumble and Bond ends up with a metal, living the charmed life. | ||||||
| 14 | Seattle Zen Leader ID: 055343019 Mon, Feb 22, 2010, 10:19 |
Did anyone else see the searing irony in NBC's Miracle on Ice? At the end of the show they start talking about how people remember "where they were when they heard that the US beat USSR", much like an earlier generation remembered JFK's demise. Why is that? You don't ever hear about "where were you when you heard the NY Giants upset the New England Patriots' perfect season", do you? No, because people WATCHED the Super Bowl. The giant elephant in the room that was Miracle on Ice was the fact that the game WAS NOT TELEVISED LIVE! I remember clearly my father listening to the game on the radio. It wasn't replayed until a day or more later. What was so ironic? Well, at least on the West Coast, Miracle on Ice was playing while the US was beating Canada RIGHT THEN. Thanks, NBC, for making sure that the East Coast women can watch Ice Dancing and none of us can watch the premiere national team sporting event live, or at all, as it turns out. Got to watch the Russia v. Czech game live, and even the Finland v. Sweden match. If the US v. Canada game was televised on one of their sister networks, I had no clue, no warning. Thanks, NBC! | ||||||
| 15 | boikin ID: 532592112 Mon, Feb 22, 2010, 11:10 |
Thanks, NBC, for making sure that the East Coast women can watch Ice Dancing and none of us can watch the premiere national team sporting event live, or at all, as it turns out. I saw it live in MSNBC and they advertised in on NBC not sure how you did not know this. | ||||||
| 16 | Seattle Zen Leader ID: 055343019 Mon, Feb 22, 2010, 23:25 | They have MSNBC in Mississippi? Damn, learn something new every day. | ||||||
| 17 | Peter N. ID: 191221519 Tue, Feb 23, 2010, 05:23 | Believe it or not, they even have MSNBC in Texas as well. Along with that, it was well adversised on the NBC affiliate here. Not sure how you missed it. Lay off the pipe, lol. | ||||||
| 18 | Great One ID: 2510199 Tue, Feb 23, 2010, 10:39 | Saw it on MSNBC, which is where all the primetime hockey has been. | ||||||
| 19 | Pancho Villa ID: 29118157 Tue, Feb 23, 2010, 11:04 | Curling has been on CNBC. Ever since I attended a curling match during the Salt Lake games in 2002, I've been a fan. | ||||||
| 20 | Perm Dude ID: 5510572522 Tue, Feb 23, 2010, 11:23 | I watched a bit of the Canadian women's curling yesterday. And with Cheryl Bernard on that team, I'll probably watch a bit more... | ||||||
| 21 | Seattle Zen Leader ID: 055343019 Sun, Feb 28, 2010, 17:37 | No matter who wins, this is the greatest hockey game I've ever watched! | ||||||
| 22 | Frick ID: 14119248 Sun, Feb 28, 2010, 18:48 | The Vancouver games might have been cursed, but they were blessed with one of the most exciting dramatic games of all time. I heard the tickets were going for insane prices and it appears that the people there got their monies worth. Congrats to both teams for an amazing game. | ||||||
| 23 | Seattle Zen Leader ID: 055343019 Sun, Feb 28, 2010, 21:46 | So when is the rubber match? USA is up 7-6 in head-to-head goals, so we should host the third and deciding game, should we not? | ||||||
| 24 | Electroman ID: 565182111 Sun, Feb 28, 2010, 21:58 | And in the next game, the U.S. plays Tim Thomas;) | ||||||
| 25 | barilko6 ID: 22216116 Tue, Mar 02, 2010, 07:24 |
re: 23 Similar to NFL, the only game that counts is the playoff one! :) | ||||||
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