Pique News Magazine reports that Vancouver 2010 has changed its plans for the Athletes Village during the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Instead of using the Callaghan Valley 13 kilometres south of Whistler, the Athletes Village is near a landfill area opposite the town’s industrial park, about 5.5 kilometres south of the Whistler.
According to Pique the new venue will have 216 rooms and a permanent athlete training centre.
A second site that lies on undeveloped land about five kilometres north of Whistler is also being looked at.
Whistler’s Mayor Hugh O’Reilly said, “we showed the (International Olympic Committee) (IOC) team when they were here (in March) the two option sites we were looking at and they had some comments and input into that. Staff will do a report and give a recommendation to council”.
A decision on the new venue may be made by late June or early July.
VANOC, the organizing committee for the 2010 Games, will contribute $32.5 million to construct the village. Following the Games the town plans to use some of the facility for resident-restricted housing.
There are also changes in the plans for the Nordic centre in the Callaghan Valley because most cross-country races now begin with mass starts rather than skiers starting out one at a time. Mass starts require larger starting areas.
Pique reports that a request for proposals for the Nordic centre should be going out within the next two or three weeks and it is hoped that preliminary designs will be available in August or September.
Construction on the Nordic centre will begin in mid-2005 while construction on the sliding centre where the bobsleigh and luge events will be held is scheduled to take place over 2006 and 2007.
Meanwhile Visa International announced it is entering into a new partnership with Tourism Whistler in which it has agreed to become Whistler’s voice to the world leading up to the 2010 Games.
Also the Whistler Question reports that Vancouver 2010 plans to rebrand the regional Olympic symbol and develop an Olympic mascot, following the tradition of past Olympic cities.
A design contest is planned for early 2005.
Linda Harmer, director of VANOC said “once new branding is in place we will identify the companies eligible to buy trademark rights based on our needs”.
She added that although access to the rings and other branding is restricted, small businesses could sell Olympic products through a larger sponsor supplier.
