Canadian Press reports that Dick Ebersol, head of NBC sports said he was so impressed with Vancouver’s bid for the 2010 Winter Games that he convinced NBC and its parent company General Electric to submit a record bid for the U.S. TV rights for the Games. But this was done in June 2003, a month before Vancouver was selected to host the 2010 Games.
He told a conference on Olympic business opportunities that when the actual vote was taking place in Prague last year and he saw that Vancouver’s rival Pyeongchang almost stole the Games from Vancouver, Ebersol said he saw his 30-year TV career flash before his eyes.
“When the rumours started drifting back to me that Korea was within two votes of Vancouver, it wasn’t just that I was so sad for you. I was thinking of a wonderful career that had gone on for many years”.
NBC paid $820 million (U.S.) for the 2010 Games, a record for a Winter Olympics, while General Electric paid another $200 million to become a direct Games sponsor, a first for the company.
Ebersol said he put his money on Vancouver because he expected it to be an overwhelming winner but was almost derailed by the lobbying of rivals leading up to the Prague vote. He last said, “Vancouver played by the rules. Thank God they won, but they won by a margin that wan’t fair”.
He added that he has never seen a city better organized in its bid than Vancouver.
More than 250 million Americans will see hundreds of hours of live and taped coverage through NBC’s seven broadcast and cable channels, and Internet streaming video.
Although much of the events in Athens will be taped because of the time difference in Vancouver many key events such as figure skating and hockey will be live.
Meanwhile following a settlement that averted a province wide general strike, B.C. cabinet minister John Les said there are no plans to sit down with trade unions to ensure a calm labour climate heading into the 2010 Games.
During the weekend there was some labour unrest but Ebersol said the walkouts were nothing compared with labour disruptions that clouded other Olympics.
“There’s no way that what happened here this weekend can be compared to what I’ve seen in other cities”.
Delegates at the conference were told that the Vancouver 2010 Games would add about 130,000 person-years of employment, including major projects such as upgrading the highway to Whistler, building a new rapid-transit line and expanding Vancouver’s convention centre.
While most of the jobs will be in tourism-related businesses, the B.C. government projects labour shortages in areas such as construction, transportation and foods service, and accommodation management.
But the province plans to increase the supply of qualified trades’ people.
