Vancouver’s 2010 Olympic bid CEO Jack Poole remained stoic as he received an update in Toronto on the potentially damaging situation with Salzburg’s bid and learned that the problem was likely solved. And when asked, he explained that the same situation couldn’t happen to the Vancouver bid because the planning was so deep and thorough that no venue could possibly change this late in the race.
Yesterday, the mayor of Kitzbuhel threatened to destroy Salzburg’s plans by withdrawing ski venues from the bid after the curling venues were suddenly removed in order to create a more compact plan. A Salzburg bid spokeperson had told GamesBids.com that the problem seem to be solved and this information was relayed to Poole.
Although he wouldn’t admit it outright, it’s clear that Poole now believes that Vancouver 2010 is in the driver’s seat as it approaches the July 2 Winter Games bid vote in Prague. When asked what his biggest concern was between now and the election he responded with “the unexpected”.
“The plebiscite was unexpected”, Poole said referring to the February 22nd vote in Vancouver when 64% indicated that they supported the bid.
Although the plebiscite worked in Vancouver’s favor, a poor result could have just as easily killed the bid – just as a devastating referendum caused Berne, Switzerland to pull out of the race late last year. And now Salzburg is being forced to deal with an unexpected issue of its own.
As the media favorite in this race, Poole and his team are being very careful not to make any mistakes or violate any written or unwritten IOC rules such as discussing other bids – which might have been the case had he reacted to the Salzburg news. Instead of pointing out competitor’s weaknesses Poole encouraged an apple-to-apple comparison of components of the three bids, such as airports and accomodations, with obvious confidence that his bid would top a majority of the categories.
Additionally, Poole suggested that venues could be built “as early as [the IOC] needs them” with an obvious allusion to the delays and problems with venues in Athens for the 2004 Games.
“We are asking to be trusted with the very powerful Olympic brand and we have to show them that we can do it” Poole told GamesBids.com as he described the overall message he wants to send to IOC members, “The evaluation report said they like our overall presentation”.
Poole said the only significant change that will be included in a four-page response to the evaluation report will be the addition of temporary media accomodations in Whistler because “the evaluation team thought it would be a good idea”. This contrasts with reports from Salzburg and PyeongChang that describe significant changes to be proposed by the May 11th deadline.
Now, as Salzburg tinkers with its venues and PyeongChang tirelessly promotes the benefits its plan could have on Peace in the Korean Peninsula, Vancouver is sitting back and dealing with “softer” and less risky issues such as the launch of its Roots branded clothing line. What possible harm could come from a Vancouver 2010 “Kanga Hoody”?
