Looking back at half a decade since Vancouver's "excellent and friendly" Games

Five years... has it really been five years? 
The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics opened at B.C. Place Stadium Feb. 12, 2010. 
While we fondly look back at the memories of the Games, it is also the time again to gauge the costs and benefits. The legacies. 
In the latest edition of Business in Vancouver, I look at the burgeoning residential district around the Richmond Olympic Oval and the recovery in the tourism industry. While the Richmond Olympic Oval itself requires subsidies to stay open, it is the anchor of a new community by the banks of the Fraser River's middle arm in similar fashion to the Vancouver Olympic Village at Southeast False Creek. 
Along the way, this became one of the world's most-expensive cities. Across the region, the benchmark price for a detached house was $800,796 in 2010. By December 2014, that had inflated to $1,002,200. 
The Games didn't bring the $10 billion boost that ex-Premier Gordon Campbell said they would. From 2003 to 2010, about $2.3 billion was added to the economy. Campbell's lofty goal of an $18 billion tourism industry by 2015 is unlikely, after 2013's $13.9 billion estimate. The 2008 recession turned many estimates upside down.
In the Georgia Straight on Feb. 12, I revealed some secrets of the VANOC archives. You too can go and thumb through the files at the City of Vancouver Archives in Vanier Park. But, be warned, the juiciest files that contain minutes of board meetings, financial statements and legal correspondence are closed until Oct. 1, 2025. Some files are even closed until 2111 -- the year after the Games' centennial!  
News1130 senior reporter Martin MacMahon kicked-off a feature series on the Games' legacies Feb. 10, including an interview with me conducted at Cypress Bowl. Nobody will be attempting to ski the freestyle slope there like Alexandre Bilodeau, the first Canadian to win Olympic gold at home. It is another El Nino winter, just like 2010. On Feb. 11, Martin pondered the price of the Games. His Feb. 12 instalment looked back at the tragic death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili. 
Thanks to CTV News Channel for having me on Feb. 14. You can watch it at this link. and thank-you to Global's BC1 for having me as a guest in studio on Feb. 12. Here is the interview below. (Skip to the bottom for a special, limited-time offer on the Red Mittens & Red Ink e-book.) More to come...



Get your copy of Red Mittens & Red Ink: The Vancouver Olympics now. To mark three years since its release, buy it from Smashwords for the special price of $5.99 -- a savings of $3! Use coupon code ET289. Offer expires March 1, 2015.

Opening day jitters: the Fisht flake seen around the world (except Russia)

Snowflakes suspended from the ceiling of Fisht Olympic Stadium were supposed to join, then morph into the five Olympic rings and ignite fireworks during the Feb. 7 opening ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics. It was the mandatory showing of the rings part of the opening ceremony script and it didn't work out. There ended up being four rings and a snowflake.

In Vancouver, it was the first spectacular thing that happened on Feb. 12, 2010, when snowboarder Johnny Lyall flawlessly jumped through the rings and landed in the east end zone of B.C. Place Stadium to begin the 2010 Games opening ceremony.

While viewers around the world saw the hiccup by the Black Sea, Russian broadcaster Rossiya 1 switched to footage from the rehearsal. Some deft Olympic trickery. The coverup was worse than the mistake. 

The snowflake that stuck bore an uncanny resemblance to the BP logo. Ironically, after the oil company's Deepwater Horizon oil rig disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, CEO Tony "I'd Rather Be Yachting" Hayward was transferred to the company's Russian joint venture TNK-BP. 

BP, by the way, sponsored the London 2012 Olympics and is a backer of the U.S. Olympic Committee. 

The ring malfunction drew instant comparisons to Vancouver, where all but one of the arms on the indoor cauldron emerged from beneath the false floor for the climax of the ceremony. Speedskater Catriona LeMay Doan was left standing while hockey's Wayne Gretzky, basketball's Steve Nash and skiing's Nancy Greene Raine stepped forward and did their duty to light the burner.  

It could have been far worse than embarrassing. Had the company that provided the cauldron not pondered problems ahead of time, it could have turned into a deadly, fiery mess. There had been no fire drill at B.C. Place for the two years preceding the Games. 

In Vancouver, athletes from India, the world's second most-populous nation, paraded in borrowed clothes. At Sochi, they came in under the International Olympic Committee flag. 

The IOC suspended the India Olympic Association because of governance problems stemming from corruption at the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games.  Delhi handed the baton to Sochi, where the Games are costing $51 billion and that big price tag is unofficially blamed on corruption. (Sochi officials told me in June 2010 during my visit to the ice cluster construction site that the bill would be $20 billion. Oops!) 

How about that cauldron, lit by Hockey Hall of Fame goalie Vladislav Tretiak and figure skater Irina Rodina? It reminded me of the shape of the Montreal Olympic Stadium's tower. Once upon a time, the 1976 Summer Olympics were the poster child for a big event boondoggle. Montreal's Mayor Jean Drapeau gave a great "legacy" quote after the IOC chose his city: "The Montreal Olympics can no more have a deficit, than a man can have a baby."

And finally... Ideas for a nickname of the Sochi Olympic Stadium/cauldron combo, anyone? 

I propose "Fisht and Chip."

News and sports journalist Bob Mackin is author of the e-book, Red Mittens & Red Ink: The Vancouver Olympics, the only independent chronicle of how the 2010 Winter Olympics came and went. Available for 21% off via Smashwords through Feb. 23 (enter code CR34F). 

In the media? Click here to contact Bob for an interview.  

On the cusp of Sochi 2014, one more look at Vancouver 2010

The Games of the "Putingrad Olympiad" are finally upon us. Will Sochi 2014 measure up to Vancouver 2010? Or will these Games on the Russian riviera be known for fear (of terrorism), greed (rampant corruption) and bathroom jokes (toxic tapwater and twin toilets)? Who will own the podium?

Good luck, Russia/Udachi, Rossiya/Удачи, Россия

Four years after Vancouver, where Canada owned the gold step of the podium, many Canadians still have fond memories of that magical February. Many more wonder about the costs. 

Here are links to some of my recent stories about the Games of the Great Recession. The legacy, the comedy and the tragedy.

  

Vancouver's recession-rocked Olympics left a mixed economic legacy

Grab bag of legacies at Vancouver Olympic venues

Luge tragedy remains the darkest legacy of 2010

Vancouver 2010: The Olympics of numbers

Whatever became of VANOC?  

Olympic booster Griffiths vs. opponent Shaw on Vancouver 2010 Legacy

Sochi slip-ups will be Vancouver 2010 Olympic legacy's gain

Five predictions for Sochi's five-ring circus

Read more about how the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics came and went in Red Mittens & Red Ink. The only independent e-book tells the story of the biggest sports event in Canadian history... and the politics and economics behind it all. 

Available on iTunes Bookstore , Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. 

(The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics were the 21st Olympic Winter Games. Buy Red Mittens & Red Ink on Smashwords and receive a 21% discount when you use the code CR34F. Offer expires Feb. 23, 2014).

Listen for my Olympic Notebook during the Sochi Olympics on Sportstalk with Dan Russell on AM 650. 

If you're a reporter from anywhere in the world and you seek expert comment about the Winter Olympics from a news or sports standpoint, contact Bob Mackin to arrange an interview. Review copies of Red Mittens & Red Ink are available upon request.

Three years ago...

Yes, it has been three years.

Three years since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics began on Feb. 12, 2010.

The Games of the Great Recession. The Bailout Games. The El Nino Games. The Summer Games in Wintertime.

Hands up if you remember the heatwave or got sunburn; the sunsets were fabulous from my perch in the press tribune at Cypress Mountain.

Since then, the London 2012 Olympics came and went. We're now less than a year until the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.

Coming later this month is the 10th anniversary of the City of Vancouver plebiscite on the Olympic bid, which was passed by 64% of the 46% of voters who went to the polls on Feb. 22.

Relive all the memories and learn shocking, never-before told stories. Read Red Mittens & Red Ink: The Vancouver Olympics e-book by Bob Mackin. The only book of its kind on the biggest, most-controversial sport and security spectacle in Canadian history.

Special $3 off discount -- only available on Feb. 12, 2013 -- to celebrate the third anniversary of opening day.

Click here to go to Smashwords and enter coupon code UV67Y to get your copy for just $5.99.

As a special bonus, click here to enjoy the Feb. 12, 2010 opening ceremony, in full.

12-12-12

On this auspicious day when the 12s align, consider this list of 12 Things About the Number 12. 

A dozen British Columbia craft beers... refreshing.

Canadian football is played 12-aside. 

The Twelve Girls Band? There is not a prettier looking or sounding group anywhere.

Stan Smyl's number 12 was the first jersey retired by the Vancouver Canucks. Go Steamer!

The flag of the European Union has 12 stars. 

Twelve men, all American, have walked on the Moon. 

Jack Klugman portrayed a Baltimore Orioles' fan in Twelve Angry Men. 

There were 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Disciples of Jesus and 12 Imams after Mohammed.

London 2012 soccer bronze medallist Christine Sinclair is @Sincy12 on Twitter (after her jersey number) and Canada's best athlete of 2012. 

There are 12 signs in the zodiac. (I'm a Leo who was born in the Year of the Dog. What's your sign?)

Twelve drummers drumming in the Twelve Days of Christmas. 

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics opened on the 12th of February (watch the whole ceremony here). 

Read all about the Vancouver Games in Red Mittens & Red Ink by Bob Mackin. The only independent account of the historic Canadian event is the perfect addition to your tablet computer this Christmas. Order here with Coupon Code NS28M and get 12% off the regular price of $8.99 only on 12-12-12!

The story of how the 2010 Olympics came and went

A decade of political debate, protests and fevered anticipation. Two years of economic upheaval. Seventeen days of Olympic glitches and glory. The price? More than $6 billion. This is the story of how the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, came and went.

Canadians celebrated coast-to-coast-to-coast the record 14 gold medals won by their Olympians in Vancouver, Richmond, West Vancouver and Whistler. The politicians and sponsors who staged the event were quick to declare it a grand success. But was it?

Governments involved in the Games of the Great Recession were never forthcoming with all the costs, but were constantly selling the benefits. Vancouver, constantly striving to be “world class,” got new transportation, convention and recreation facilities. The massive spending diversion put a strain on hospitals, schools and courts.

The athletes of 82 nations who competed at the biggest, most expensive Winter Olympics in history didn’t all return home. Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili died on opening day in a crash at the extreme Whistler Sliding Centre, sparking questions about whether Games officials really did all they could to ensure safety.

It was the most dynamic period in British Columbia history and the Olympics were at the foreground or background of every major government decision. The scandal, the controversy, the tragedy and the comedy. Broken promises, false expectations and Canada's greatest party.

This is a cautionary tale of what happens when a boom goes bust while preparing to welcome the world. All seen through the expert observations of a journalist who was along for the bumpy ride.

This is more than a story of the thrill of victory and agony of defeat. It is about fear and greed, unity and division, celebration and anguish, life and death.

It is red mittens and red ink.

Available NOW as an e-book from Smashwords.com for $8.99. Click here.

Download the free Adobe Digital Editions e-book reader software. Click here!

2010 Games: blueprint for Occupy?

On March 10, TheTyee.ca reprinted an excerpt from Red Mittens & Red Ink, about the 2006 Save the Eagleridge Bluffs movement and end of Vancouver's Olympic honeymoon.

Read it here.

Lau in the Now

The 2010 Winter Olympics were going to be in Burnaby, B.C., until the City of Richmond convinced VANOC in 2004 that a site beside the Fraser River's Middle Arm would be better for the speedskating oval. VANOC's headquarters were one block from the Vancouver border with Burnaby, where Alfie Lau writes for the Burnaby Now and its sister newspaper, the Royal City Record.

Read Lau's March 6 review of Red Mittens & Red Ink.

Book examines 2010 Winter Olympics

The second anniversary of the Golden Goal is Feb. 28. Yet the 2010 Winter Olympics seem so distant.

The record 14th gold medal and the coast-to-coast-to-coast celebration allowed all who stood to gain to proclaim the entire event a success.

Was it really? Was it worth it?

Read more here, from the Vancouver Courier.