The Gregor All-Star XI

Mayor Gregor Robertson plays soccer. He has selected 10 of the city's property development elite to join him on a team to rescue the Vancouver Olympic Village. Cost overruns, financing, scheduling... it's a nightmare and it has to be finished Nov. 1 for handover to VANOC so it can become the temporary home of 2,800 athletes and officials in February 2010. 

Here is the lineup, including positions as chosen by me.

Forwards: Ward McAllister (Ledingham McAllister Properties) and Maureen Enser (Urban Development Institute)

Midfielders: David Podmore (Concert Properties), David Negrin (Aquilini Investment Group), Andrew Grant (PCI Development), Rob Macdonald (Macdonald Development); 

Defenders: Eric Martin (Bosa Development), Al Poettcker (UBC Properties Trust), John Mackay (Strand Properties), Peeter Wesik (Wesgroup Income Properties).

Goalkeeper: Robertson (Vision Vancouver/Happy Planet Juice Co.)

It should be noted that Concert was one of the five companies that were shortlisted to build the village, but withdrew in 2005 to avoid conflict of interest because the company's chairman is also VANOC chairman Jack Poole. Podmore is a busy fella. As chairman of B.C. Pavilion Corp., he is overseeing the construction of the $883.2 million Vancouver Convention Centre and $365 million renovation of B.C. Place Stadium. Both are Olympic venues. 

Take a number

Nortel Networks' list of creditors is on file in the State of Delaware and VANOC is among the cast of thousands. It was assigned creditor number 1000046184 and is between ES Thailand and BNS ASCOM - Italy. The Government of British Columbia is listed as creditor number 1000046555, Vancouver Public Library 1000047880. Canada Post and Vancouver Arena LP (General Motors Place), on another document, are listed with the footnote "address unavailable at time of filing."

Lap of luxury

The most exclusive place to watch the 2010 Winter Olympics? Luxury suites!

Even if you had the money to spend -- and who does during this recession -- you couldn't get one, unless you work for certain governments, aboriginal tribes or official sponsors. 

Page 62 of the Ticket Sales Guide for Government Partners, Four Host First Nations, Contributing Provinces includes the rate sheet below:

Here's my story from Vancouver 24 hours.

B.C. Place Stadium - ceremonies

Types 1-4, capacity 12-18: $63,600-$95,400

Team Suite, capacity 32: $113,600

Balcony or Goal Post, capacity 35: $124,250 

Skybox (70), Gallery Lounge (75) and Club Suite (40): prices to be determined.

(All suites on level 3)

General Motors Place (aka Canada Hockey Place) - hockey

Level 200 private suites, capacity 20: $231,000-$264,000

Level 400 sports lounges, capacity 70: prices to be determined

Level 500 private suites, capacity 18-34: $133,650-$252,450

Pacific Coliseum - figure skating and short-track speedskating

Level 300 private suites, capacity 14: $115,500

A take on ticketing

How many tickets are available for the public to buy to attend the 2010 Winter Olympics and how many have been sold so far?

If you have the answer, please tell me. VANOC has a $96 million account in case the Games are canceled, heaven forbid, by disaster. That's the only hint released so far. The first phase ticket sales won't be disclosed until sometime after the Jan. 31, 2009 quarter-end financials are published. 

How many tickets were supposed to be available? The 2003-released bid book includes a preliminary list (above right, click to enlarge). The bid book, as Vancouverites have learned, is akin to an etch-a-sketch book. It should've come with a giant asterisk, as in "subject to change."

VANOC has demonized the secondary ticket market. Call them what you will. Ticket brokers. Scalpers. Selling event tickets for more than the face value is illegal in various North American cities, but not in Metro Vancouver. 

Meanwhile, governments that have paid taxpayers' money into VANOC coffers have exercised contractual rights to buy tickets. No discount, but there is a separate and secretive process.

City of Surrey can buy more than 900 for the Games, but did it buy that many? And for how much? 

Surrey doesn't want taxpayers to know, because it fears harming the business interests of VANOC. It censored documents obtained under the British Columbia Freedom of Information act (above centre, click to enlarge). Surrey is not the only public body acting this way, but it is the best example of a disturbing trend.

Imagine that, governments hiding expenditures from their citizens. 

Only in British Columbia, the "Best Place on Earth!"

Behold, the Millennium contract

EXCLUSIVE

Saturday, Nov. 15 (TODAY!) is local election day across British Columbia.

The central issue in the City of Vancouver race is the Olympic Village financing scandal. 

A secret meeting was held Oct. 14 by city council to approve a $100 million bailout for financially troubled Millennium Development. It would've stayed secret had it not been for the good luck and good work of the Globe and Mail newspaper.

While the NPA's Peter Ladner has the better credentials to be mayor, Vision Vancouver's Gregor Robertson is the likely victor. "Happy Planet Juice Man" Robertson's campaign strategists know the public doesn't like secret handouts amid a recession and that taxpayers are worried about a financial hangover from the Olympics. Ladner says there are legitimate reasons for civic real estate deals like this one to be negotiated in private. Record advance poll turnout means voters are passionate about the issue. 

But how did it start? 2010 Gold Rush has a Freedom of Information-released copy of the lease agreement of Aug. 31, 2006 obtained by the Work Less Party. Stories based on this document have appeared since early 2008 on Vancouver 24 hours, Business in Vancouver and Around the Rings. Check out the contract highlights here.

The Olympic Village public/private partnership is supposed to be substantially complete by Sept. 30, 2009 and handed over to VANOC by Nov. 1, 2009 for use by 2,800 athletes and officials during the 2010 Winter Olympics. 

Wobbly cops

The World Police and Fire Games begin July 31, 2009 in Vancouver at B.C. Place Stadium.
Darts, golf, shooting, wrist wrestling, hockey, basketball and boxing are just some of the sports on the menu for the 10-day Pemberton to Chilliwack event.
There might be a campaign to add the new sport of .08 Blow.
B.C. media was abuzz with news in the last week of October that three police officers are under suspicion of drinking and driving:
RCMP Cpl. Benjamin Monty Robinson has a Jan. 15 promise to appear in court. He is under investigation after a motorcyclist died in an Oct. 25 Tsawwassen crash.
New Westminster Police Const. Tomi Hamner has a Dec. 17 promise to appear in court. She is under investigation after an Oct. 16 single-vehicle crash in North Vancouver involving a NWPD vehicle.
RCMP Cpl. Darren Baker goes on trial Feb. 3 in connection with a Dec. 15, 2007 incident.
Hamner and Baker are school liaisons. Robinson was part of the squad that is under investigation for the Taser death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport. He was transferred to the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit -- the RCMP led Olympic security detail.
The Dziekanski incident made global headlines. Why one of the cops from that incident would be shifted to V2010 ISU is a mystery. What kind of message is the RCMP trying to send the rest of the world invited to the Olympic province?

Prediction: No Fun Party wins Election 2008

Finally, the most important and least exciting election in Canadian history (until the next one) ends Tuesday.
Whatever happened to fun and frolic on the campaign trail? Remember Conservative Robert Stanfield's famous football fumble caught on film from 1974 or Grit John Turner patting posteriors of Liberal ladies in 1984?
Today’s campaigns are too stage-managed, but there were moments of levity in 2008.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper (yes, he does wear make-up to work every day) tried to show his casual side by taking off his Tory tie and feeding a baby at the Huang family residence in Richmond. It all looked semi-genuine until Harper walked up to the podium. Who keeps a podium in their backyard?
Liberal Stephane Dion's campaign took off and immediately went south in a 29-year-old gas-guzzling Boeing 737 leased from Air Inuit. So much for the Green Shift.
NDP leader Jack Layton promoted a new kind of strong, but weakness in candidate screening quickly became apparent. Two quit for smokin' doob on YouTube and another "kneedipper" was exposed as a skinnydipper. Oh, the humanity!
Then there's Green Party leader Elizabeth May. She ensured Sunday that she wouldn't become Ms. October when she put down the green flag and picked up a white one. The proponent of the single transferrable voting system urged Canadians to transfer their Tuesday vote to any candidate likely to beat a Tory.
Coalition-building on the eve of an election is bound to fail, just like last-minute shopping for Christmas presents at 7-Eleven.

The Whalley 2010 Unpreparation Centre

If you're a citizen of Surrey, B.C., you might want to ask your mayor how city hall expects to break ground on its $10.5 million Games Preparation Centre construction project in Whalley sometime in mid-to-late November and then have it up and running for VANOC to use by the end of February.
The facility to train Olympic workers and volunteers and rehearse ceremonies was announced way back on May 26.
The proposed construction period falls on the part of the calendar with the least sunlight and worst weather. Oh, and there is also Christmas and New Year's holidays!
Surrey promised VANOC that it would have 5,500 square feet ready to occupy for Feb. 1, 2009, but Mayor Dianne Watts admitted last week that won't happen. Yet, there is a clause in the contract between Surrey and VANOC that allows VANOC the right to seek judicial relief without any defense by Surrey if any part of the contract is breached. Watts also admitted that clause stands as-is, without any amendment.
Is Watts a miracle worker or is she gambling her reputation and taxpayers' dollars?
Click on the images to read the relevant portions of the contract, obtained via Freedom of Information.

With glowing hearts, we see fees rise

If you've got bad news to deliver, deliver it on a Friday night or a Saturday morning when nobody's around to ask or answer questions.
That's what VANOC did when it finally revealed the fine details of phase one of ticketing for the Canadian market, which runs Oct. 3-Nov. 7.
Service charges are $4 to $18 per ticket, which supposedly covers the cost of local public transit rides corresponding with the date of the event. (VANOC's $124.1 million transportation budget includes $52.3 million for bus systems.)
Mandatory bus tickets go on sale next year for mountain venues. It will cost an extra $25 for a round-trip ride from Vancouver to Whistler and $12 to Cypress Mountain. There is no public parking at any Games venues and VANOC is encouraging people not to drive so that athletes, VIPs and media can use the dedicated Olympic lane system without fear of traffic chaos.
In their Feb. 28 letter of understanding, VANOC and TransLink agreed to exclude the West Vancouver venue from the Metro Vancouver public transit system.
Visa is the only credit card accepted for the online purchasing process, which is coordinated by Tickets.com. Tickets will be delivered in November 2009 via another VANOC sponsor, Purolator Courier. Ticket buyers will be dinged another $10 to $20 per account for the mandatory delivery fee.
For example, a $50 pair of tickets to women's hockey or cross-country skiing is $58 plus $10 (the under $100 handling levy) for a grand total of $68. That's a 26% markup!
VANOC set a $231.8 million target for ticket sales.

VANOC cruising to sponsorship target?

VANOC has but a few slots remaining open for potential sponsors of the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.
Hotels and cruise lines are two of them. The cruise ship slot could be filled Monday morning in an official supplier announcement coordinated by Hill and Knowlton, which recently installed VANOC director Ken Dobell as its chair of British Columbia operations. Beijing 2008 gold medal rower Kyle Hamilton along with VANOC CEO John Furlong are to speak at the 11 a.m. event. The president and CEO of the new sponsor is also to appear with the official supplier's 200 employees.