Organizers of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games pledged an all-out push to ensure that VIP tickets are used and full houses are the norm for the 2010 Games.
While praising Turin organizers during a news conference, Vancouver officials made it clear they wanted to avoid a recurrence of the “empty-seat syndrome”.
Dave Cobb, the top marketing official for VANOC said, “if people aren’t in the seats it affects the atmosphere in the building – it can affect the athletes’ performance”.
Cobb said the problem was not ticket sales – about 90 per cent of all Turin tickets were sold – but he said many of the tickets which organizers must allocate to the Olympic family, sports officials, sponsors, etc., end up not being used.
He said, “we want to talk to the groups who we believe aren’t using all the tickets they have. They don’t want to be short – maybe they are ordering more than they need to protect themselves”.
Cobb offered possible solutions including reducing the number of VIP tickets or developing a sophisticated system for identifying tickets which won’t be used and reallocating them to the public, including school groups.
VANOC chief executive John Furlong said, “it’s in everybody’s interest to have a full house. It’s a problem everyone will want to solve”.
At the Vancouver 2010 Games the ice events and two skiing events will be held in the Vancouver area while the Alpine, Nordic, sliding and Paralympic events will all be held in Whistler, about 120 kilometres north of Vancouver. The athletes’ villages and media facilities will be in both locations.
The Opening and Closing Ceremonies will be at Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium. With 55,000 seats organizers hope half a million people will be able to see the presentations in person during the course of the Games.
BC Place has a roof but weather conditions at the outdoor venues are unpredictable.
Cathy Priestner Allinger, VANOC’s Vice President for sports and venues said, “we know for sure we’ll have it – snow, rain and probably everything else”. She said VANOC would employ sophisticated weather monitoring and develop detailed scenarios for coping with weather-induced postponements.
Another climate-related factor she said is the quality of ice at the speedskating venues. Vancouver’s high humidity is expected to complicate the task of creating ice conducive to world-record times.
VANOC is also preparing a cultural program and a youth and education program supported by 2010 Legacies Now, a group that was formed from the Vancouver 2010 bid corporation and is closely associated with VANOC.
IOC Coordination Commission Rene Fasel said, “the IOC expects the winter sports world will be delighted with what it sees in Vancouver. We have been pleased to see construction starting and a solid team of commercial and non-commercial partners showing support for the project”.
