Vancouver Wins the Olympics...Barely

[lapniappe]

I'm a HUGE olympic fan. as some of you may know, I was more of an International Hockey fan (world championships, wjcs, olympic hockey) before I became a NHL/Leaf Fan.

but i love the olympics, because of the few sports i love and i can only see on a so so bases (tennis, gymnastics, figure skating, speed skating, and free style skiing).

with that being said, I couldn't give a rats hairy patooey where the olympics are being held. as long as it is in an area where i can watch my favourite sports at a reasonable hour (LIVE perferable, in Nagano, it sucked because you knew who won before you watched). but i'm super glad vancouver won (mostly because I really didn't want Toronto running (again) for a bid in 2012).

but I'm really surprised that no one is harping on the fact that

1: Salzburg, Austria got eliminated in the first ballot.
2: Korea was leading after the first ballot
3: Vancouver only won by 3 votes (so all but 2 votes went to Vancover).

then the IOC gets all snotty when we go how corrupt they are.
but they ARE!

i mean Korea? for the olympics?
i understand why austria got knocked out, because europe more then likely is going to be getting the new few olympics (or maybe south america), but when China wins the olympics you are going to have another olympics right next door? (basically)?

how can no one see the corruptness of this group?
(sigh).

[TOMGUNNER]

Darn

There goes my tax money......

Who-ever hosts the Olympics lose a fortune!

The only thing good about this...will be the home-ice -advantage for Team Canada's Hockey Teams!

[Leafs_Pam]

I would have loved the Winter Olympics to be in Toronto, but Vancouver is next best. All the Hockey games will be in MY timezone for a change. ;D

After the debacle of the 2002 Winter Olympics for Figure Skating, I'm no longer interested in the Figure Skating. That debacle ruined it for me, and I've watched the Figure Skating all my life.

[lapniappe]

tom, it also helps the amateur athletes, they get 20 million dollars for training, plus new facilities.

i know it's a huge drain on the dollar, but if you stop and think about it, most of the facilities are already built, and the money being spent is to update things that really need to be updated anyway (sea to sky highway), and it would have been taxpayer money anyway.

[TMan]

I think Calgary made some money in 88.It all boils down to good volunteers that will make the show run smoothly.Good luck BC!!

[Gerard]

I've never been an Olympic 'fan'. I watch the hockey and a few minutes of other stuff but, generally, I couldn't care less. Guess that makes me non-patriotic!! ;D

[Leafs_Pam]

All I ever watch of the Olympics is the Hockey and the Figure Skating: Men, Women, Pairs and Ice Dancing, but I'll probably drop the Figure Skating after what happened in St. Lake City, Utah last year when the judges were bribed in the Pairs Skating. It's a Travesty the Gold Medal is being shared. (It should have been taken away from the Russian Couple because they didn't really win.)

[Leafs_Pam]

www.canoe.ca/Slam030703/oly_2010a-cp.html

NHL players likely to appear at Vancouver Olympics


By JIM MORRIS -- Canadian Press

PRAGUE (CP) -- Vancouver hosting the 2010 Winter Games could help keep the NHL players in the Olympics, says the head of the International Ice Hockey Federation.

"I do not see the NHL not wishing to go to Vancouver," Rene Fasel said Thursday.

Fasel, the president of the IIHF, was appointed the International Olympic Committee's co-ordinator for the Vancouver Games on Thursday.

"Going to Canada is a great hockey place. It would be a great promotion for hockey and also for the NHL. I think it would make it easier to find an agreement with the NHL and the Players Association."

NHL players participated in the 1998 Nagano Olympics and the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, where the Canadian men won their first hockey gold in 50 years.

Whether or not the NHL will participate in the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, will be an item for after the next collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players. The current deal expires Sept. 15, 2004 -- one day after the World Cup ends.

"The players definitely want to come," said Fasel.

Vancouver's Olympic hopes received a boost in the days leading up Wednesday's IOC vote when Fasel publicly endorsed the city's bid.

Vancouver won a nail-biting vote 56-53 over Pyeongchang, South Korea on Wednesday.

Fasel said he delayed holding talks with the NHL about returning to the Olympics until he knew where the 2010 Games were being held.

"It makes a different meeting when you sit at a table and you have Turin and South Korea or you have Turin and Canada," Fasel, a Swiss dentist, said with a grin.

"We have a much better card in our hand now to speak with the NHL about Turin."

Fasel's role with the co-ordination commission will be to act as a liaison between the Vancouver organizing committee and the IOC.

"I'm not only confident it will be a good Games but absolutely sure," he said. "I'm pleased to be working with the Canadians. I know the Canadian people. They are honest, they keep their promises."

John Furlong, president of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corp., broke into a big grin when he learned of Fasel's appointment.

"It's good news," said Furlong.

Fasel said he was surprised by the appointment and expected someone like French skiing legend Jean-Claude Killy, who is chairman for the 2006 Games, to get the job.

Fasel has talked to Furlong about holding the women's gold medal hockey game at the 55,000-seat B.C. Place Stadium, home of the CFL B.C. Lions.

Most hockey will be played at the 17,000-seat G.M. Place.

He wanted to stage the 2002 women's final between Canada and the U.S. at the open-air stadium at Salt Lake City where the opening and closing ceremonies were held.

Both teams had agreed, but the plan was scratched because of concerns over the weather, Fasel said.

With B.C. Place having a domed roof, weather wouldn't be a problem.

Fasel knows the men's final might be a bigger draw but the gold medal game is always played on the last day of the Games, just hours before the closing ceremonies.

Vancouver plans to hold the opening and closing ceremonies indoors at B.C. Place.

"We could move the final a bit ahead or play the two semifinals there," said Fasel.

"On the other hand, we have to be fair to everybody. It is not easy to go from G.M. Place to B.C. Place."

Fasel isn't worried about thousands of empty seats in the cavernous stadium if a Canada team doesn't play in a final.

"For sure the tickets would be sold," he said.

"I would say there is no hockey fans like a Canadian hockey fan. For Canadians it is a religion, a culture, a sport. It would be easy to fill the stadium."

[lapniappe]

that tees me off.

sorry.

I'm not a big NHL player go to Olympics supporter.

i mean it's HOCKEY. we could dress monkeys in team canada uniforms, and we'd all cheer for them the same way (lol its sort of TMLis that way).

but i'm a huge supporter of amature hockey, and i think it blows that we (both US and Canada) have shelped out am. teams and begged the pros to win it for us.

obviously our woman's am. teams can do quite well, so why not the men?

the olympics is about the best amaturs in sport, but nearly every high profiled sport both summer and winter, there are pro athletes.

no offense to them all; but they have their wimmbledons, and stanley cups. leave the gold medals to those who have to double morgtage and and second their homes so that little Sue or Bobby can be the best she/he can be at the olympics games.

[shaner]

There are tons of reasons for that lap.

1. TV. The Dream Team thing started with basketball, and it blew the previous Olympic Basketball ratings out of the water. The NHL wants to cash in on the same type of exposure.

2. Level playing field. The Russians would continue winning gold medals because their "amatuer" team was made up of professional hockey players in a soldiers uniform. The end of communism put an end to most of that crap.

3. National pride. I like the idea that a David Aebischer can help his Swiss mates. Or Olaf Kolzig can play for Germany. Makes the games more interesting, and less of a walkover. Because there are NHL calibre players on every team, there is the opportunity for a lesser team to bite a higher seeded team in the ass. Look at Sweden/Belarus last time around.

TG:

Every Olympic games since Calgary '88 has made oodles of dollars for the host city.

[Viper]

lappi said:

no offense to them all; but they have their wimmbledons, and stanley cups. leave the gold medals to those who have to double morgtage and and second their homes so that little Sue or Bobby can be the best she/he can be at the olympics games.

Applause and praise, hoorahs and accolades !!! This is the exact reason olympics should exist and for multi million dollar athletes to steal that thunder from them is not only unfair but downright cruel.

[Leafs_Pam]

Okay, I tried to stay out of this argument, but as always, I have to insert my opinionated opinion. ;D

I agree with Lappi. The Olympics isn't for Pro Sports Athletes. The Olympics is supposed to be all about non Pro Athletes winning the Gold (or Silver or Bronze) for their country. It shouldn't be for the Pros. I was very against Pro Basketball players being in the Olympics and I really don't think the NHL players should be either. The Olympics should be left for the non pros to make their mark on the world and hopefully out of making their mark, it will give them the career they dream for (NHL, etc.) I am very happy that Canada won the Gold Medal last year. I was 100% rooting for Canada to win the Gold and the U.S. to win the Silver. I think I was as happy as any Canadian when it happened that way, but I still say the Olympics should be for the non pro athlete and the NHL shouldn't be in it. The argument can be said it gives the NHL more exposure. I don't buy that. Even non fans know about Hockey and the NHL. That isn't going to get them to watch Hockey in the Olympics if they don't already watch NHL hockey. It's probably only the Hockey fans that will watch the Hockey in the Olympics. Give our NHLr's that time to rest and enjoy the Olympics (if they are interested) with the rest of us.