Musical Entertainment

Something that is really neat for the 2010 Games is that there will be a band performing at medal ceremonies throughout the games. We have tickets to the medal ceremony the night that Trooper and Loverboy are there... Scott's not overly happy but my dad thinks it's awesome! haha! So, here's a list of the performers:

BC Place - Nelly Furtado, Barenaked Ladies, Paul Brandt, Hedley, Theory of a Deadman, Stereophonics, Trooper and Loverboy, Billy Talent, INXS, Burton Cummings, Great Big Sea

Whistler - All American Rejects, Estelle, Pierre Lapointe, Feist, Our Lady Peace, Deadmau5, Hedley, Stars, OneRepublic, The Fray, Jet, The Roots.

Richmond - Our Lady Peace, Hawksley Workman, Marianas Trench, Bedouin Soundclash, Wintersleep and Tokyo Police Club.

Of these bands, I would have really enjoyed seeing: Hedly, All American Rejects, Feist, Our Lady Peace, Stars, OneRepublic, The Fray (who we might get to see, we are in Whistler the night they perform) and Tokyo Police Club.

I was curious about previous games and if they had as much musical entertainment as 2010 will have, and really, didn't come up with much.

2006 - Avril Lavigne, Elisa (Italian singer) & Ricky Martin

2002- Kiss, Yo Yo Ma, R. Kelly, Christina Aguilera, Sting, Dianne Reeves, Harry Connick Jr., Dave Matthews Band, 'N Sync, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Dixie Chicks, Josh Groban, Charlotte Church.

Weird mixture of genres in 2002. I think if I HAD to see one of those acts, I'd pick Sting in a heartbeat.

I will now leave you with a classic from Trooper and Loverboy :)

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Olympic Rings in the Fraser River

Alright…here’s a strange one. The Canadian Olympic Committee announced that during the Games, they will be placing a large floating logo in the Fraser River…just offshore of the Richmond Olympic Oval:


Looks pretty cool eh? So whats so weird about that you ask? Looks perfectly natural...

Well…thats cause it is natural.....its going to be made out of Cranberries…yes...like the things you eat...

I kid you not...

Link

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Phase III - Random Additions

Was over on Gamesbids.com, and it was posted on the message board that there are a few more tickets up on the official site for sale. Very strange with no announcement.

Anyways, as of right now, there are tickets up for:
SS002 - W 3000m
SS003 - M 500m
SB002 - Women's Snowboard Cross
SS004 - W 500m
SS005 - M 1000m
SS006 - W 1000m
FS005 - Ice Dance Compulsory
FR006 - Women's Ski Cross
SS009 - M 10,000m
SS010 - L 5,000m
SB005 - Women's PGS
SS011 - Team Pursuit Qualification
ZC001 - Closing Ceremony

Thats in addition to the preliminary curling/hockey tickets that were already up there.

Guess they found more seating at the Richmond Oval eh?

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Seat Assignment!

So the day has finally arrived…..our seats have been assigned! The presentation below gives an overview of where all our tickets have landed.



The presentation includes the tickets we picked up for Holly/Kingston, and we're still waiting on the ticket placements for the ones we got from 'other' sources (Stubhub, Ms. Kauk)

The biggest thing we’ve noticed is how much our ‘A’ level tickets have been pushed to the end of the rink. Almost without fail, these are either right behind the net, or at best, in the corner. I suppose it was to be expected, sponsors and media getting all the ‘prime’ seats, but it’s still a little annoying that the best seats didn’t seem to make it to the public.

Now that we have our assigned places, we can better establish which tickets we’re going to sell for events where we have the choice. I think in general we’re going to sell the better seats, and keep the crappier ones. For example, for the USA-NOR and USA-SWI games, we’ll sell the lower bowl tickets behind the net, and sit in the upper bowl in the corner. Although we’re giving up the better seats, we’re also gonna be able to sell them for more.

I think overall, our ‘best’ assignment was for the Long Track Team Pursuit Finals at the Richmond Olympic Oval, where Pam and I have the 4th row, in between turns 1 and 2. However, since there is an aisle near our seats, that’s actually the 2nd row. Should be right on top of the action!

Updated as tickets change...

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Google Streetview

So Google Streetview has finally come to Canada. As useful as this is in everyday life/work, one of the things I've been using it for the most is taking a bit of a virtual tour of Vancouver. Below are some of the more relevant items in regards to our trip:

Our Hotel

Here is our Hotel at 733 Beatty Street. During the games, Beatty St. will be a closed off pedestrian area for most of the day. Not sure what they'll be filling the street with instead of cars, but I'm sure its going to be a lively area. On the Streetview, you can spin it around 180° and see how close we are to BC Place. I'd really love it if we ended up getting a room that overlooked the stadium!

Canada Hockey Place and BC Place

Default view here is of GM Place, to be renamed Canada Hockey Place during the games, as seen from the Georgia Viaduct. This is one of my favourite views I've come across, as it highlights just how close we are going to be to everything from the hotel. From the default view, you can swing 90° to the right, to see BC Place, and 180° to see our hotel. It’s the brown building with the smokestack partially obstructing it about 250 metres off. Similar to Beatty Street, the Georgia Viaduct will be closed off during the games.

BC Place is of course home to the Opening/Closing Ceremonies and the nightly Victory Ceremonies. One neat thing to see here are the numerous cranes operating around the building, working on upgrades to the roof in support of the Ceremonies.

I'm really glad that we've got the Day 10 Victory Ceremony ticket, just so that we have a chance to actually get inside the Main Olympic Stadium.

UBC Thunderbird Arena

This one is a little weird for me. Having attended a Canadian University for 5 years, I know what to expect from a Campus, and from a Campus Athletics Centre. It’s got to be a little weird for UBC to actually house an official Olympic venue. Nevertheless, above is a view of the UBC Thunderbird Arena, which is the secondary hockey venue. I'm really looking forward to the Canada v. Sweden women's hockey game there, as with such an intimate atmosphere, I bet the place will be rockin'.

Pacific Coliseum

Home to Figure Skating and Short-Track Speedskating, we will only make it over to the Pacific Coliseum once during our trip. Out in suburbia a bit when compared to the other venues, it has apparently gotten a complete facelift from what is shown here. Above that, I'm sure that all of these street-views will look very different during the games with all the building wraps, banners, adverts etc that are sure to be in place.

Richmond Olympic Oval

The so-called 'Crown-Jewel' of the games, the Richmond Olympic Oval is the #1 venue that I wanted to see while out there. We only get there once, and not until Day 16, but it'll totally be worth the wait. I'm really hoping to get out there well in advance of the event itself so that we can spend some time just wandering around the building, both inside and out. One thing I've noticed on the streetview however is how much of an industrial area the Oval is in. The large open field directly to the west of the Oval is particularly ugly. Hopefully things will be 'spruced up' a bit between the timing of this photo and the games.

Vancouver Olympic Centre

This is a great view of the Vancouver Olympic Centre, home to Curling. As you can see, they are still working on the finishing touches here in this photo, but I'm sure the venue will be amazing come the games. I'm still not sure how all that direct sunlight works from a practical point of view, but it should make for a great building.

Whistler

Unfortunately, the Whistler venues are all just out of the reach of the Street view coverage areas, so instead, here is a view of the Whistler Village. Post-Bobsled on Day 12, I think we're definitely going to have to hit up for a bar down here. I'm sure the place is amazing in the winter normally, let alone during the games.

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Venue Preview: Richmond Olympic Oval

Name: Richmond Olympic Oval
Sports: Long-Track Speed-Skating
Sessions: SS012 (Team Pursuit Finals)
Days: Day 16
Location: 6111 River Road, Richmond, British Columbia
Capacity: 8,000
Opened: 2008
Costs: $178 million CAD

Of all the venues that we're going to see, the Richmond Olympic Oval is the one I'm looking forward to most on a pure 'I just want to see the Facility' level. During the Phase II ticketing sale, Pam and I were lucky enough to score the Team Pursuit Finals on Day 16. We have 'A Level' tickets for that event, but as you can see from the seating chart below, all that really means is that we won't be tucked way up into one of the corners.



The Oval itself is situated in Richmond on the Fraser River (WooHoo!), about a kilometre off the Canada Line from Lansdowne Station. Games-Time seating capacity will be about 8,000 people.

The primary architectural feature is of course the 'Wood Wave' roof, built from reclaimed BC wood. I'm sure that its an increadibly impressive sight when you keep in mind the shear size of the facility. I sometimes think of a Long-Track Speed-Skating facility as being fairly analogus to a hockey arena, when in fact...its like putting a roof over an outdoor 400m running track.

From where we're staying in Downtown Vancouver, I think its about a 20-30 minute ride along the new LRT Line, plus about 10 minutes in walking time. On the day that we're going to be there, we actually will have to leave pretty quickly after the event. The Team Pursuit Finals run 12:30 to 2:25 PM, with the Men's Gold Medal Curling Game following at 3:00. Hopefully those 35 minutes will be enough time to get over to the Vancouver Olympic Centre!!

Since we won't have much of a chance to linger at the facility, I'm hoping to get out there really early on Day 16 so that we have a good chance to tour the facility before event time. Judging from the pictures below, I'm gonna want as much time there as possible! Its too bad that we won't get a chance to see the facility at night, as it looks amazing lit-up.

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