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Regional Business News
regarding the 2010 Olympics
in British Columbia, Canada

OlyBLOG is for businesses across Canada, especially in Vancouver / Whistler and throughout B.C. We also hope companies in Alberta and United States (i.e. Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and California) will find OlyBLOG interesting and informative.




Letters to the Editor (Vancouver Sun)

Submitted on January 30, 2005, to Jeff Lee, Kirk LaPointe & Trevor Boddy - Jeff Lee responded, but it was never published . . .

Jacques Rogge, "NHL players driven by money."

99% of the people in the room took Rogge's comment as a humorous icebreaker to warm up the crowd, while the Sun turned it into an inflammatory headline on the front page. The crowd dismissed it the moment the laughter died, but the Sun gave it an artificial life. And now that you have, I'd like to take your interpretation one step further and explain what his comment really means.

Rogge is confused about more than just the NHL machinations. Considering that many Olympic athletes will do anything to win gold medals, it was a funny, but misplaced segue to imply that pro sports is driven by greed and Olympic sports is somehow pure. Everyone except the most naive knows that gold medals transpose to incredible wealth and that both sporting enterprises are driven by money. Basically, they are Hollywood-style entertainment machines.

Unfortunately, the general public still doesn't realize that by leveraging the entertainment spectacle the IOC and their corporate sponsors have turned the purity of Olympic performance into a money grab rife with doping, fraud and corruption. If Vancouver/Whistler wants to benefit economically from 2010 we have to regard the Olympics for what it is today, and not the romanticized fantasy Rogge pitifully endeavors to keep alive.

Rogge would like you to regard the Olympics the way you did when you were a kid. It’s time to grow up. Greece is $15 billion US in debt -- $72,000 US per household. Considering this nightmare, it’s not important that we win more gold medals than other countries. More importantly, we need to succeed economically. Fiscal health (short and long term) should be the priority and everything else a bonus. I don’t object at all to the Olympics being regarded as entertainment and a venue to create wealth. But I do object to Rogge pretending that wealth isn’t what it’s about. He spoke to us like we were children. If we have to pay for it we should all benefit, including the small businesses and all the athletes that place fourth and beyond. It’s a job, a livelihood -- a business. Why should only the top players share the wealth if everyone has to pay?

Olympic competition used to be based on athlete-against-athlete, but today, thanks to shareholder-managed sponsors, it is now about seeing which country can horde the most medals. During his speech Rogge actually said, "Forget about huge salaries and wages. Olympic athletes compete for the honor of their country. They compete for a gold medal."

Nice try Jacques, but no one buys it except very young naive junior Olympian hopefuls. You can’t eat a gold medal, or buy a fancy sports car with it, but you can trade it for an endorsement. And since when was the Olympic mandate to "compete for the honor of your country?" Originally it was to compete individually against other athletes. The creed of the modern Olympics sprung from a quote by Baron de Coubertin; "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well."

The Olympic motto consists of the Latin words Citius, Altius, Fortius, which means "Swifter, Higher, Stronger." The motto was introduced in 1924 and is meant to encourage athletes to embrace the Olympic spirit and perform to the best of their abilities. It says nothing of representing the honor of your country. In fact it implies the exact opposite. It was meant to unite, not divide.

Today, medals mean wealth for athletes, but more importantly it means wealth for large sponsoring corporations. Ironically, most athletes can be compared to starving artists -- they are passionate about their work, but can’t find funding to train and live reasonably. They also can’t organize a union like the NHL. They’re too poor and the IOC would fight them tooth and nail even if they had the economic wherewithal.

Rogge shamelessly promotes that winning is the priority for us in 2010 while VANOC sniffs behind him like a puppy through their "Own the Podium" campaign. The Olympics was originally about promoting amateur sports, creating character and bringing athletes together under an umbrella of peace. It is now a greed-fest for large corporations and a handful of elite athletes who know how to work around doping and the soon-to-come DNA tests. (Genetic engineering is a hot topic in Olympic circles.)

Rogge made it clear that 2010 is an opportunity for large corporations to make oodles of money.

He also made it abundantly clear that no one else has a place in this man’s Olympics.

We have to learn to think differently.

Sincerely, Maurice Cardinal
OlyBLOG.com



Next Letter to the Editor

Submitted on October 29, 2005 to Kirk Lapointe and Dennis Skulsky at the Vancouver Sun, never acknowledged or published . . .

Unbelievably, one day after the Esso fiasco boiled over John Furlong, CEO of the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee in an effort to gain public favor and manipulate the masses bought a full page color ad in the Vancouver Sun and stated, “This week, Bell’s $15 million commitment to support our athletes in their quest for excellence demonstrates their leadership position in Canadian business and is an inspiration for Canadian athletes to go for gold. In this world of millisecond and millimeter differences between winning a medal and going home empty handed, the science of sport technology plays a critical role.”

How’s that John? Are you agreeing with Nike? “You don’t win Silver. You lose Gold? Furlong’s statement of “going home empty handed” implies that if you don’t win a gold medal you are an empty handed loser. Nice John. Maybe we should get a few Canadian silver medallists together so you can tell them to their faces you think they are losers. I’ll call Karen Cockburn, Jake Wetzel, Barney Williams, Cameron Baerg, Thomas Herschmiller, Alexandre Despatie, Ross Macdonald, Mike Wolfs, Marie-Helene Premont and Tonya Verbeek to let them know where you want to meet. Next time you want to make a public statement maybe you should first run it by VANOC puppet master IOC President Jacques Rogge.

Don’t believe Furlong for a second when he says he gallantly defends all athletes. It is clear after this statement that he puts Olympic organizations and elite athletes first, ahead of the Vancouver / Whistler community, and especially the bulk of Canadian athletes. Local media must quit playing into his hands.

Most Canadians don’t know it, but it cost Australian taxpayers $40 million per gold medal to own their podium -- in 2000 on their home turf they won 58 medals total including 16 gold, 25 silver and 17 bronze. Do the math. Hopefully Bell and all the other corporate sponsors like RBC, Rona and HBC will pick up the tab so taxpayers and small business don’t get stuck with it.

Own the Podium?

How about own your home or own your business?

Maurice Cardinal
OlyBLOG.com



Next Letter to the Editor

Submitted May 25, 2005 to Glenn Bohn who responded by suggesting that I forward it to a senior editor. I responsed by telling him that I had already, plus to 227 other reporters. Never heard back and the piece was not published by the Sun, but it was by other news companies.


Will the Sun ever quit pandering to John Furlong?

He is a big boy and can stand on
his own without the Sun's help.

Furlong's thinly veiled defense of Ilanaaq is condescending. According to Furlong, very few people dislike the logo. If this is the case why kill so many trees to defend it?

Smart artists do not defend their work. This rule of survival also applies to marketing and promotion strategists. Create it, display it and let it stand on it's own merit. Explaining your work only serves to undermine it. Why cast even a shred of doubt into the minds of people who love, or at the very least accept the logo?

Furlong sounds like Ricky and Lucy Ricardo rolled into one Bobblehead.

Ilanaaq doesn't need any 'splainin'.

Furlong's job isn't to lecture. It is to lead.

A good leader makes choices that do not need 'splainin.'

A good teacher engages students through example.

Maurice Cardinal
OlyBLOG.com

* We invested two years and a six-figure budget researching Olympic organization relationships with sponsors, contractors, suppliers, partners, etc. The results surprised us too -- mouseover below





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