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About LinkBacksYeah, and then they let the Velodrome go to ... well, you know.
At least it wasn't great the last time I saw it about 15 years ago.
Yeah, and then they let the Velodrome go to ... well, you know.
At least it wasn't great the last time I saw it about 15 years ago.
- Gregg
Currently raising funds for the AMAZING Give Kids The World for their annual Coasting for Kids event. Any amount would go a long way in helping a family enjoy an amazing Orlando vacation. You can donate on my page.
Paul Pressler. The plan is, that with no snow, there will be no sports to watch, and everyone will spend money on souvenirs and food instead. Ka-ching!Originally Posted by sir clinksalot
Actually, the ski hills have a bit less snow than usual this year, so it has to be moved around from the higher elevations. That's just the Vancouver ski hills, Whistler is fine I think.
It's not a case of there being no snow.
My Micechat cruise trip report, Part 1:http://micechat.com/14795-disney-wonder/
Unfortunately, it is about business. One thing that bugs me is if you take a look at some of the recent photos from Vancouver, a number of provinces are setting up pavilions on the old Expo 86 site near BC Place. It's looking like Expo 86 again. One has to remember that this is just a two week event whereas Expo runs for 6 months. Shanghai is hosting Expo this year from May 1 to Oct 31, here's their website: Expo 2010 Shanghai China and I recently heard that both Edmonton and Calgary put in bids to host a future Expo. Sochi is setting up a pavilion in Science World which is fine as they're the next hosts.
The sponsorships are fine. They help out by supporting the athletes and VANOC and I guess part of the venue construction, but I don't know how much is going towards venues. Then there are projects that are soley funded by taxpayers like the RAV line from Downtown to the airport and the Sea-to-Sky highway, and the new convention centre beside Canada Place. Vancouver is lucky that it didnt' have to build all the venues from scratch (like they're doing in Sochi I believe). Here's what was already in place before Vancouver won the bid:
Venues that had to be built:
- BC Place Stadium
- GM Place (renamed Canada Hockey Place during the games, home of the Canucks)
- Pacific Coliseum (former home of the Canucks)
- Whistler Creekside (previously used for World Cup Downhill ski events, was upgraded though)
One first for these games, hockey will be played on an NHL sized ice surface rather than international ice. International ice surface is a little bigger. The IOC allowed it and saved VANOC some money rather than having to convert GM Place to the bigger surface. Plus, most of the guys playing hockey are from the NHL anyways. Would've interfered with the NHL schedule afterwards having to put the smaller ice surface back in as well.
- Whistler Sliding Center (on Blackcomb mountain)
- Whistler Olympic Park (nordic and ski jumps)
- Cypress Mountain Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding courses (ski area existed but courses didn't)
- Vancouver Olympic Centre (curling)
- Athletes villages in Vancouver and Whistler
- UBC Thunderbird Arena (this facility existed, but was rebuilt. At least the university gains from getting a new facility)
- Richmond Oval
Yup, good ol' El Nino. The other day on the ski hill I work at, I was joking that we should sell some of our extra snow to Cypress.
A thought occured to me. I don't understand the temporary renaming of GM Place to Canada Hockey Place, when GM is a sponsor of the Olympics. Hmm, must be something in those contracts or an IOC request...
As if the NHL schedule hasn't been interfered with enough already...
Thank you POISONEDAPPLES!
It's all about $$. Otherwise why would our friends who are going be paying $800+ for a ticket to the opening ceremonies.
- Gregg
Currently raising funds for the AMAZING Give Kids The World for their annual Coasting for Kids event. Any amount would go a long way in helping a family enjoy an amazing Orlando vacation. You can donate on my page.
Just found this on Sochi's website. This is how Sochi World will look like as they takover Science World for a few weeks:
SOCHI2014.RU WORLD, RUSSKY DOM - About Us - Sochi 2014
Scroll down the page to see the images.
The Science World building was originally built as the Expo Centre for Expo 86. The ball has an Omnimax (curved IMAX screen) theater and the rest of the building is a science centre, which will be converted to the Russian House during the Olympics.
Speaking of Sochi, what do you guys think of their logo which was revealed earlier this month? It's the first Olympics logo to incorporate a web adress, but I don't see anything in the logo that ties it to winter.
Please, tell me you know what the Velodrome is today.
"Here You Leave the World of California Today and Enter the World of, um, er, California Today."
I got a kick out of this and thought I'd post it here. With the Olympics there's always some protestors present. There were a few at the community celebration on Monday night, however they were well behaved and just standing around with signs. I found this pic on another board. This is yesterday in Vernon as the Torch Relay made it's way there:
http://i591.photobucket.com/albums/s...lympicFail.jpg
For anyone that's interested, here is the route for the torch relay thru Vancouver for the final two days before the Opening Ceremonies:
Opening Day Olympic Torch Relay Route In Vancouver - GamesBids.com Forums
The current McDonald's Happy Meal promo just in time for the Olympics. There's 8 in the set, the mascots doing various sports:
I guess this promo is going to be around until the end of the games.
I can't wait to see what the border looks like once the games start. I work in Blaine and take the last exit before the boarder and I begining to wonder if I will need to take an earlier exit and take back roads to avoid the lines at the border.
Taking contributions to get me back to Disneyland!
I wonder what the border line-ups will be like as well. I'll just avoid going to the USA during that time, but I am curious. A friend is picking up another friend at Sea-Tac on Sunday the 14th, and I hope he won't have to endure overly long lines.
The olympic torch passes by about three blocks from where I work next Tuesday, so I'll go check it out then. I'd like to go at least one of the community events for the torch, possibly Whistler on Friday, Abbotsford on Sunday, Surrey on Monday, West Vancouver on Wednesday, or maybe even downtown Thursday night...
My Micechat cruise trip report, Part 1:http://micechat.com/14795-disney-wonder/
It should be interesting. I love Vancouver and since I am so close I would love to go this month to do various things but I will just have to wait until March to go back.
Taking contributions to get me back to Disneyland!
I work at one of the local ski hills. On our days off we do staff trips to other hills nearby. One of the trips we are thinking about doing is to Mt. Baker, but I think so far I was the only one that realized there will be issues crossing the border during the month of February and March. Not sure how much the border crossing security is going to be heightened by, but it will be for sure. I suggested we should go to Cypress instead.
On a side note, lots of international teams are practicing here in the Okanagan. A number of Nordic teams are up at Sovereign Lake Nordic Centre at Silver Star Mountain in Vernon. The Swedish Women's Hockey Team is practicing here in Kelowna. And today I went skiing with my fellow employees to Apex; I believe the Swiss, Japanese, Americans, and Canadians are practicing freestyle and moguls skiing there. The T-Bar wasn't running during the day, but after hours they turned it on and the lights came on on the freestyle course. Saw a bunch of skiers heading up.
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