Friday, July 3, 2009

No B.S. about BCS

There are two BCSs in North American sport.

Don't get me started about the silliness that is United States college football's Bowl Championship Series. It's a series of unrelated bowl games, not the true playoff that it should be. President Obama won't make medical insurance a right of Americans before 2012, but by golly, he's going to reform the Bowl Championship Series.

Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton is another ball of wax. Expect to see the likes of Edmonton's Pierre Lueders, Summerland's Justin Kripps, Calgary's Jeff Pain and Melissa Hollingsworth somewhere on a podium in Whistler in February. (Neat fact: Kripps was born in Hawaii and Pain in Alaska).

The north of the border BCS has partnered with Ludus Tours of Austin, Texas to market 2010 Winter Olympics hotel, hospitality, tour and airport transfer packages to fans, friends and family of the sledders and face-first sliders. Ludus has similar relationships with U.S. Bobsled and Skeleton and the Jamaican Bobsled Team, but it's the first Ludus deal with a home team for Canada's Games.

"It was very important for us to offer accommodations and hospitality assistance to Canadian athletes and their support groups," said Ludus' COO Ann Lanari.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

Air Canada shows off 2010 Olympic design in Seattle

Seattle-area plane spotters got the first peek at the Vancouver 2010 decorations on an Air Canada Boeing 777. The Olympic-themed livery features the psychedelic, blue and green look of the Games with stylized athletes in action. The ski jumper, however, will appear to be going backwards when the jet is in flight. Oops. Check it out here.

Delta Airlines was a sponsor of both the Atlanta 1996 and Salt Lake 2002 Games and featured bolder, simpler graphics on its jets. Air China planes showed the Beijing 2008 Games' five mascots in sport mode. Vancouver is flying fancy.

But there is a bigger story in the air. It seems Air Canada is temporarily renting space at one of its Vancouver International Airport hangars to the Department of National Defence. Defence Construction Canada is looking for a company to do $1.5 million of work by Oct. 1. Few details are included in the procurement document. Air Canada has not returned my phone calls or emails. Joint Task Force Games in Victoria and NORAD in Winnipeg are equally dumbfounded.

There must be someone in the federal government who can talk about how part of YVR will be turned into an air force base for the 2010 Winter Olympics, just like it was for World War II.

The procurement document was published June 25.

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