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Thanks Beijing! See You In Vancouver In 2010!


SkiFreak

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Now that Beijing is wrapped up, tickets for Vancouver will be going on sale soon. Tickets will be on sale October 3 to November 7, 2008, a very short window. Here is the link for ticket information:

Vancouver 2010 Ticket Information

Thanks for the great games Beijing! :D

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THANK YOU BEIJING!

These were breathtaking, memorable Games.....and despite the critics, including myself, they have been nearly flawless (during the 17 days). Security was not an issue, and the air was never cleaner.

I really hope Vancouver can take note of Beijing's successes and try to adopt those ideas for the 2010 Games. When the flame is extinguished tonight, the world will turn to Vancouver....and our marketing plan will virtually explode from the start line in a few weeks.

Again, thank you Beijing for an incredible Olympics.

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Now that Beijing is wrapped up, tickets for Vancouver will be going on sale soon. Tickets will be on sale October 3 to November 7, 2008, a very short window. Here is the link for ticket information:

Vancouver 2010 Ticket Information

Thanks for the great games Beijing! :D

why is the ticket purchasing window so short? what happens to the people that decide to go to the games in 2009?

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They are making people "apply" for tickets. If there is a huge demand, those people will be put in a lottery. And if not, the tickets will just be sold on a "come as you want" basis.

that's ridiculous.

who wants to buy tickets for me? i'll paypal you back.

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There is always a lottery application.

yes,

but canadians have first dibs right? so if a canadian put in an application for me, then i would get a better shot at getting better tickets than i would otherwise, right?

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yes,

but canadians have first dibs right? so if a canadian put in an application for me, then i would get a better shot at getting better tickets than i would otherwise, right?

Not necessarily. Americans would actually have a better chance this time around because of cosport getting one allocation for all of North America, this time they get 1 allocation for just the USA. And since the USA is our boarder and it would be easier for Americans to come up than Norwegians to fly over, who do you think is gonna get a better allocation? So in the end, there will be a better applicant to ticket ratio in the USA and VANOC will make sure the neighbours are fully welcome to the party so good seats will be available. But it wouldn't hurt to dip in two pots.

I would do it, but I hate paypal.

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Not necessarily. Americans would actually have a better chance this time around because of cosport getting one allocation for all of North America, this time they get 1 allocation for just the USA. And since the USA is our boarder and it would be easier for Americans to come up than Norwegians to fly over, who do you think is gonna get a better allocation? So in the end, there will be a better applicant to ticket ratio in the USA and VANOC will make sure the neighbours are fully welcome to the party so good seats will be available. But it wouldn't hurt to dip in two pots.

I would do it, but I hate paypal.

ok, but does cosport's ticket allocation take into account our bigger population? canada only has like 30 million people, and i can't imagine that they wouldn't skew the allocation in such a way that there would be more canadians than anyone else in the stands. how awful it would be if americans outnumbered you guys and booed your teams.

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ok, but does cosport's ticket allocation take into account our bigger population? canada only has like 30 million people, and i can't imagine that they wouldn't skew the allocation in such a way that there would be more canadians than anyone else in the stands. how awful it would be if americans outnumbered you guys and booed your teams.

I'm sure they will. I think VANOC and the BC gov't would rather have Americans WITH tickets in hand coming rather than coping with HORDES of Americans coming WITHOUT tickets and getting all frustrated and irate about not getting tix at the gates. They know yanks will be suckers for those Games. How can they pass that up?

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Tickets to 2010 Vancouver Games go on sale in October

All pumped up with Olympic fever and ready to buy tickets to the 2010 Vancouver Games, now only 18 months away? Be patient, and get in line. The special one, over there, for Americans.

By Ron Judd

Seattle Times staff columnist

All pumped up with Olympic fever and ready to buy tickets to the 2010 Vancouver Games, now only 18 months away?

Be patient, and get in line. No, not that one. The special one, over there, for Americans.

The Games coming to Vancouver and Whistler — Feb. 12-28, 2010 — are expected to create an unprecedented ticket demand for a Winter Olympics, for obvious reasons. Canada is a winter-sports-crazed nation. And the presence of a secondary, similarly enthusiastic U.S. market just over the border adds to the crunch.

Vancouver organizers will place the bulk of the 1.6 million tickets on sale in October, with a lottery through the Games' Web site, www.vancouver2010.com.

But American fans won't be able to simply get in line online with Canadians. Those tickets, ranging in price from $25 for cross-country skiing to $1,100 for the opening ceremony, will be sold only to Canadian residents. Americans will need to pursue a separate procedure, purchasing through Jet Set Sports, the sole agency licensed to resell Vancouver 2010 tickets in America.

Final ticket allotments have yet to be set by the International Olympic Committee. But the pool of available tickets for Americans will be drastically smaller than for Canadians.

Tickets sold in America also will be more expensive. All tickets through Cosport, an arm of Jet Set Sports that will handle complete lodging-ticket packages as well as individual event tickets, will be sold "at prices higher than face value, and there are transaction charges," company president Mark Lewis told The Times in an e-mail.

"All of these costs are set by the IOC and [the Vancouver Organizing Committee], and our company is required to buy all of the tickets up front, and we then take the risk of resale."

It does not seem a large risk in this case.

"The U.S. is sort of special, I think, because it's our closest neighbor," said Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) CEO John Furlong. "Our view is that much larger numbers will be coming in from the United States than any other country. I've had more inquiries from leaders in the U.S., particularly in the Northwest, than from any other part of the world. We're expecting this, and we're currently sifting our way through it."

The ticket-sale process will begin in early October for both Canadians and Americans, VANOC confirmed Saturday:

• Canadian residents can sign up to receive ticket applications at www.vancouver2010.com. Those applications will be sorted beginning Oct. 3. For all events where demand exceeds supply, a ticket lottery will be held. Successful ticket purchasers will be informed in early 2009. Another round of sales will follow for any unsold tickets.

• American buyers can already join a customer list, essentially a mailing list for ticket details, with no obligation, at www.cosport.com. The company says its tickets will be sold through a lottery, to be conducted by an outside accounting firm to ensure fairness. It's yet unknown how many tickets will be available for Americans.

Vancouver organizers are taking seriously the challenge of creating packed, "intimate" environments for sports events.

"We want to make sure we do it in such a way that there's a real value to having a ticket to the Olympics," Furlong said. "It's not just another ticket to another sporting event."

They have intentionally kept seating at many venues small, both to keep construction costs down, to ensure full houses and to avoid the legacy of large, expensive facilities that sit unused after the Games.

The heated Canada-U.S. rivalry in sports such as hockey will only add to the allure, he believes.

"All of us in Canada are reveling in the idea that our biggest neighbor is coming north, and we get to take you on on our own turf," he said. "We look forward to sending you home with silver medals."

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

Next up: Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics

As Beijing wraps up its over-the-top show, Vancouver promises a very different event: "We have our own magic," its chief says.

By Ron Judd

Seattle Times staff columnist

Even before the flame was doused above Beijing's Bird's Nest stadium, John Furlong sensed that inevitable moment when the eyes of the world shift, and an Olympic host city goes from being a benchwarmer to next at bat.

"We feel it already," Furlong, the CEO of the Vancouver Organizing Committee, said by phone Saturday from Beijing.

"It's pressure. We're very excited about it, but we have a serious piece of work to complete before the world shows up on our doorstep in 2010."

The Vancouver 2010 Games — perhaps the closest the Olympics will ever get to Seattle — are less than 18 months away. But in terms of ticket sales and sport-venue test events, both of which launch in October — the countdown now shifts to a matter of weeks.

To prepare, Furlong and his staff spent a month in Beijing, riding buses, walking through turnstiles, eating food — kicking the tires of an Olympics. His impression:

"You'd have to be a pretty severe critic not to have enjoyed this," he said. "It's been impressive. They've done a great job. Of course, there are always little things ... "

The little things are likely to mean big differences in the way Vancouver's Games play out in 2010.

For starters, the two Olympics — one summer, one winter — are apples and oranges: The Beijing Games had twice as many athletes, twice as much media, more than four times as many tickets — and its $40 billion-plus budget dwarfs the Vancouver Games' approximate $2 billion budget for operations and facilities (though taxpayers there are spending another $1 billion to $2 billion on infrastructure and transportation improvements).

Everything about Beijing was over the top, state of the art. The administrator in Furlong marveled at the way Beijing was transformed, in such a short time. "I've been here six times in six years," he said. "I've seen six different cities."

Beijing's Olympic Green is three times the size of Vancouver's Stanley Park, and was essentially built in three years — something that likely would take 30 years in the process-oriented environment of British Columbia.

The realist — and the Canadian — in Furlong knows that nothing of that scale could, or even should, occur in Vancouver, even though it will be the largest metro area ever to host a Winter Games.

That's why the stark differences Furlong and his staff are predicting for the 2010 Games are more a matter of style. The Games, to be spread between dual Olympic centers in downtown Vancouver, where most ice sports will take place, and Whistler, home of most alpine events, will feel more intimate, friendly, and open, Furlong vows.

The model Furlong most often invokes is the 2000 Sydney Olympics, which are remembered for the celebratory atmosphere that surrounded every event. A feeling of national pride seemed to ooze through the infrastructure, and Furlong believes Vancouver, one of the world's most diverse cities, can replicate that feeling in a Winter Games. (that's what i said!)

Key to that, however, is providing an "intimate atmosphere" of packed houses and enthusiastic fans — something the past several Olympics have often lacked.

Part of the problem is out of local organizers' hands. The International Olympic Committee takes about 30 percent of all tickets off the top, reserving them for officials, sponsors and other members of the "Olympic Family." The local Games committee has no control over how those tickets are distributed — and whether they get used.

Vancouver organizers will aggressively seek to redistribute tickets that otherwise would go unused. It's a daunting task, but one deemed especially important because demand for events in Vancouver and Whistler is expected to be immense, from both Canadian and American audiences.

Ticket details — and other nagging concerns, such as long border waits for travelers coming and going from B.C. — are still being worked out, though Furlong says he is "encouraged" by public pronouncements from government officials on both sides.

But the major challenges of building the Games' infrastructure have largely already been met — on time and on budget, Furlong adds.

Venues at both Whistler and in the city, built with a $580 million (Canadian dollars) construction budget shared by the province and the federal government, are all on schedule, and mostly complete.

Only the Richmond Oval, the speedskating venue, the curling facility at Queen Elizabeth Park and the massive, glass-enclosed International Broadcast Centre on the city waterfront remain under construction.

As promised when Vancouver won the Games bid in 2005, every venue will be available for a full year of winter-sports testing at a world-class level in advance of the Games.

That winter actually begins in just a matter of weeks, when a short-track speedskating test race is scheduled for the remodeled Pacific Coliseum and could include Seattle's Apollo Ohno. No other Olympic host city has ever had such a work-out-the-bugs opportunity.

Even though the facilities bar has been set ridiculously high by the Chinese, Furlong believes the world will be wowed by some of B.C.'s sports venues.

The massive Richmond Oval, nearing completion on the banks of the Fraser River, is the most impressive structure of its kind anywhere, he said. And other, more natural settings, such as the Whistler Olympic Park, where ski jumpers and Nordic skiers will compete in the Callaghan Valley, "is the most magnificent piece of geography that you could possibly want," he said.

"We have our own magic."

Creating it for television audiences as successfully as the Chinese did might be impossible. Vancouver's opening and closing ceremonies and nightly medal ceremonies, for the first time in Olympic history, will take place indoors, in B.C. Place Stadium.

That presents a challenge, because it prohibits the big, helicopter-aerial opportunities of large outdoor stadiums.

"All this does is spur people on to be more creative," Furlong insisted, noting that the indoor stadium does provide a notable advantage — absolutely predictable weather.

"I think we'll be special in our own way," he said. "It will be very Canadian. We're a very different place, and a very different city. The world lives in Vancouver. It's a very diverse place — an environment that's very friendly.

"We have 18 months of very hard work ahead of us. But I think we're setting ourselves up for success."

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