Procrastination prevails in the Olympic city

I’m forecasting a cross-Canada blizzard of information emanating from Vancouver on Friday, Dec. 17.

The Vancouver Olympic organizing committee will publish its long-overdue, post-Games financial report. (It hasn't published any financials since Dec. 21, 2009.)

The next phase in the PricewaterhouseCoopers study on Olympic economic impacts will also be released.

The annual disclosures of British Columbia legislature members will also become public, including what gifts they received during the Games.

Maybe the minority Tory government (that has hid what it spent on the Games) will join the party and finally cough up its information. City of Vancouver in April and Province of British Columbia in July told their taxpayers how expensive the Games were ($554.3 million and $925.2 million, respectively). Ottawa has been suspiciously silent on how much of your money it spent.

All this activity is coming at a time when citizens are more interested in Christmas shopping or traveling to visit loved ones or get a tan.

Timing is everything and all those who are issuing reports deliberately chose Friday, Dec. 17. That is essentially the last Friday of 2011 on which important public business will be conducted and two days after Parliamentarians begin their break until Jan. 31.

It is human nature to spread good news far, wide and fast. When the news is not so flattering, then procrastination prevails.

Politicians have parroted the line about the Vancouver Games being the most successful Olympics ever without fully quantifying their statements.

The Vancouver Games do deserve the top, golden step in Canada’s Olympic podium. Calgary 1988 gets silver and Montreal 1976 the bronze. Vancouver 2010‘s double gold in hockey and a record 14 overall for a Winter Games host are significant achievements. But the greatest ever?

The memories will inspire a new generation of Canadian athletes. Vancouver, Richmond, Whistler and West Vancouver have varying degrees of new sport and recreation facilities for all ages. The Sea-to-Sky Highway and Canada Line make it easier to move about the region. The Vancouver Convention Centre could be one of the world’s best places for mega-meetings.

Ultimately, the Games were not financially or environmentally sustainable. There were not 3.5 billion viewers, but an estimated 1.8 billion. Ticket sales fell below projections. Salt Lake 2002 organizers published financial results in June 2002, heralding a $40 million surplus for amateur sport. VANOC has waited almost 10 months. Along the way, CEO John Furlong told us there would be no surplus. The budget is expected to balance, but with at least $80 million extra from taxpayers. These were, after all, the Bailout Games.

Nor were the Games the solution to the great ripple effects of the Great Recession. A lot of people had a good time (myself included), but the party was a nightmare for some. The families of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili and Minnesota bus driver Dale Roberge never got to welcome them back home to hear their stories of the Games. Instead, they hosted funerals. Drunken fights and sexual assaults were up region-wide. A woman staying aboard the Mona Lisa cruise ship for VANOC workforce was raped.

We still don’t know what conditions the makers of the famed Hudson's Bay Co. red Olympic mittens faced in their Chinese factory. There was no major legacy project to solve homelessness in Vancouver.

Torontonians should take notice and begin asking questions of their leaders -- including newly elected Mayor Rob Ford. Toronto is getting the Pan American Games in 2015. Four-and-a-half-years can go by quickly.

Multisport Games are massive spectacles that transcend sport. They are neither cheap nor easy, regardless of the season in which they're held.

Nov. 14: Expensive Stadium Day in Canada

What do B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver, Rogers Centre in Toronto and the Olympic Stadium in Montreal have in common?

They are all expensive, taxpayer-funded stadiums that have hosted Grey Cups and Nov. 14 is a key date in their histories.

By the time its public debt was retired in 2006, Montreal's "Big Owe" cost $1.47 billion. The French-designed retractable roof never worked. The tower that was key to the design wasn't finished when the Summer Olympics opened July 17, 1976. The Quebec government finally gave up in 1987 and shut the lid. The Montreal Expos moved after the 2004 season to Washington, D.C. The Montreal Alouettes only venture indoors for playoff games and it's closed during winters for fear of the roof collapsing under snow.

On Nov. 14, 1975, the Quebec government seized control of the financing and construction of the Olympic Stadium and created the Regie des installations Olympique. Montreal's Olympics became synonymous with corruption and cost overruns. It's a big reason why the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics had lukewarm support from British Columbians (until Canada started winning gold medals in February 2010).

Because of the grand faux pas in Montreal, Vancouver's B.C. Place Stadium became Canada's first successful indoor stadium. It employed an air-supported fabric roof design. On Nov. 14, 1982, the fans were turned on as Premier Bill Bennett witnessed his "bubble" come to life. On March 8, 1983, Queen Elizabeth II invited the world to visit for Expo 86, but the $126 million building's official opening was June 19, 1983.

The roof was deflated on May 4, 2010 and a $458 million retractable system is under construction. A fall 2011 reopening is anticipated. The first and only event confirmed under "Campbell's Crown" is the Nov. 27, 2011 Grey Cup.

Toronto's SkyDome one-upped Vancouver with its $580 million, white, egg-shaped retractable roof beneath the landmark CN Tower that opened June 3, 1989. In 1985, Ontario Premier Bill Davis projected a $130 million cost.

On Nov. 14, 1991, Ontario's NDP government privatized the stadium in a deal with eight companies for $110 million cash and $270 million in debentures. Rogers Communications eventually paid the bargain basement price of $25 million in 2004 for the home of the Toronto Blue Jays.

The 1976 Olympics opened and closed at Olympic Stadium. B.C. Place was the Olympic stadium for the 2010 Games. Rogers Centre is where the 2015 Pan American Games will begin and end.

VANOC exec to post-G20 Toronto

Slowly but surely, Vancouver 2010 alumni are finding new gigs.

Dan Doyle, the VANOC construction executive vice-president, became the BC Hydro chairman last year. Deputy CEO Dave Cobb followed in May and became the provincial power utility's CEO.

On June 29, vice-president of workforce operations and integration Allen Vansen was named senior-vice president of operations for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games organizing committee.

Vansen was among five senior executives introduced at BMO Field by CEO Ian Troop.

Vansen was not available for a phone interview, but I’m betting the Newfoundlander’s red hair will turn grey rather quickly over the next five years. His responsibilities include security, transportation and the athletes’ village.

After the G20 summit mayhem, anybody planning anything in Toronto with security or transportation implications will naturally have a bigger challenge and more headaches than ever before. Troop is putting the best face on what lies ahead.

“We don’t have any political meaning,” he said. “We’re a great athletic event that we’ll make into a great community event.”

VANOC CEO John Furlong wished that was true. From Feb. 12, 2007 onward, VANOC looked over its shoulder as it was constantly dogged by protests. Some opponents had a direct beef with the Games, how much they were costing and how they were impacting the city and environment. Others hoped to use the Games to lever their political cause (or increase donations to their charity). It meant VANOC held few public events until the torch relay.

Furlong admitted in May that transportation was the biggest IOC worry from the bid days to the day after the Olympic flame was was extinguished.

The Olympic village in Vancouver’s Southeast False Creek became a casualty of the Great Recession. Vancouver city hall became the lender and battled to get it back on schedule.

Vancouver had effective watchdogs, like No Games 2010's Chris Shaw, Impact on Community Coalition's Am Johal and B.C. Civil Liberties Association's David Eby. They continuously reminded VANOC, governments and security authorities to be responsible and avoid a repeat of the 1997 Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Their wasn't an organized opposition to G20 in Toronto, because it was organized so quickly by politicians and bureaucrats who maybe never heard of APEC.

That’s just a long way of saying that Troop (centre) and Vansen (second from left) are in for some long days and long nights to organize what will be the biggest summer sports event in Canadian history.

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Who else is on the Toronto 2015 executive team?

Chief financial officer Barbara Anderson has a bachelor of science degree from the University of B.C. and is the former CFO of MaRS Discovery District and MaRS Innovation.

Senior vice-president of marketing and revenue Kathy Henderson is a former Whirlpool Corporation and Colgate-Palmolive Canada marketing executive. Senior vice-president of human resources Elaine Roper is formerly of Think Company, Promis Systems Corporation and Royal Trust Corp.

Senior vice-president of infrastructure Bill Senn helped build Air Canada Centre in Toronto and American Airlines Arena in Miami and was senior vice-president of design and construction for the New York Jets, who are moving into the New Meadowlands Stadium.