Olympic Games executive director Gilbert Felli, part of an International Olympic Committee (IOC) co-ordination commission visiting Vancouver this week, said Vancouver 2010 organizers are making good progress in their preparations for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
On Tuesday the first day of the three-day visit, Vancouver officials presented the co-ordination commission with reports dealing with items including the new convention centre, the Olympic villages, sports and venues. There was also a tour of local venues.
As he praised the organizers Felli cautioned them against feeling too pleased with themselves. He said, “and any minute you lose now, you pay for in the end”.
Felli said the commission’s task is to monitor preparations for the Games and try to assist the host city achieve its goals as smoothly as possible.
The commission will visit Whistler, site of the Alpine events, on Wednesday, and hold a final news conference Thursday.
Several proposed venues such as the Pacific Coliseum for figure skating and GM Place for hockey are already built.
The proposed construction costs of the Games were $620 million in 2002.
Felli advised the Vancouver 2010 team to hire well and hire now. He said, “it’s better to hire good people with few staff than to try to staff the Games with lower-level people and then try to get good people later on”.
John Furlong, chief executive officer of Vancouver 2010, said he plans to do some hiring by the end of the month. His priorities are to appoint staff for venue construction and planning, and also for human resources.
Security headed the agenda Tuesday. Furlong said with the Olympics still six years away the questions were general in nature.
There have been concerns the $180 million budgeted for security for the 2010 Games is too low. The security budget for the Athens Games is more than a record $800 million, while Salt Lake City 2002 spent more than $300 million on security.
Meanwhile, it’s been reported that the B.C. government says Vancouver 2010 will have to make do with the money it has, despite rising costs.
Jack Poole, chairman of Vancouver 2010, said unforeseen construction costs mean venues will be more expensive to build and plans to ask the province and the federal government for more money.
Furlong will be holding a series of meetings across Canada starting later this month asking sponsors of the Canadian Olympic Committee and of Vancouver’s 2010 bid to support the 2010 Games.
