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"Leverage Olympic Momentum"
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Vancouver Sun Thinks Kids Should be Forced to Volunteer

VANOC Rings Workopolis Bell

VANOC Wants to Close Universities - Students Will Suffer




Vancouver Sun Thinks Kids
Should be Forced to Volunteer

According to an "editorial" in the Vancouver Sun on October 19, 2006, an anonymous CanWest writer thinks that local school children should be forced to become Olympic volunteers, and accordingly, that teachers should be forced to manage the program.

The Sun obviously didn't say it in these exact words, but it is exactly what they mean. My complaint all along with the Vancouver Sun is that they either tell half-truths, or they don't have a clue what they are talking about. This editorial is a first, because this time around, both complaints are true. The Sun often irresponsibly boosts the Games without taking into consideration how it negatively impacts the community. I steadfastly maintain that you have to tell both sides of the story in order for our community to make an educated decision. When the Sun fails to report critical information it hurts our community. They still operate in the middle ages as if the public doesn't have a voice - like this blog. Their recent editorial is a perfect example of a news media process that Noam Chomsky describes as necessary illusion. In other words, the Sun makes it look like it is good for you, but in the end, the sugar will rot your teeth and make you fat.

The anonymous Sun writer (I don't trust anyone who doesn't have enough courage to put their name on it) feels that it is our obligation (through tax money given to the board of education) to support the 2010 Games. What they fail to tell us is that support comes with a price tag. For example, even though many parents in Olympic regions pull their kids from school for security reasons, who will pay for daycare when kids are forced to take two weeks off? And more importantly, why should school children be forced to partake in political wrangling? At an academic level the Olympics is about politics, not sports, or health, or anything else.

The Sun comes up with these flimsy schemes that undermine the community, and then they actually try to lead readers to believe they are the first to think of these scams. Stop the Presses!! It happens like this in all Olympic regions, but the Sun would like us to believe their vision is unique. The truth is, they are playing you.

The headline for the editorial was, "Give students a role in the Olympics, not just a get-out-of-school pass." Well thank you very much anonymous editorial writer whoever you are. It's very slick how you've by-passed addressing in depth whether or not schools should even be shut down for the two week period. Thank you for siding with VANOC in all their vision and wisdom. It's a slick "compliance tactic" to assume the sale. You want to shut down the schools, but who will pay to watch the kids during this period? You are right when you wrote that Olympic organizations historically do not want grade school students as volunteers. They want university students. What the Sun failed to tell their readers was that Olympic organizations do however want to conscript grade school students to help them raise money, sell tickets, and raise local awareness. Olympic organizations also need teachers to manage the hype, but the Sun also failed to point that out.

Ironically, when it comes to teachers spending extra time at school to coach or manage intramural sports teams, they strenuously resist and sometimes outright refuse to play along. So how does the Sun figure that teachers will be so eager to become Olympic boosters? Where does it say that teachers were hired to raise money for the Olympics. Every second that teachers spend hyping the Games to their students is paid for by tax dollars, but did you see any of this listed as an expense on the auditor general's report last month. Of course not, because it's another hidden cost.

Here's the "closer" for the Sun editorial. Their "Headless Horseman" wrote, "School boards and the Ministry of Education should be considering ways for students to take advantage of the Games." Translation; Students shouldn't be just given time off, they should be forced to volunteer. The Sun goes on to spout Olympic rhetoric that echoed in ALL past Olympic regions, when they also wrote, (cue the horns and strings) "The Olympics bring with them values that are particularly appropriate for students (ed. Like maybe doping and cheating judges?), who are in the stage of life when inspirational role models are important, blah, blah, blah." Dear gentle reader, you're going to have a stroke when you see what I predicted in my book, and in this blog well over a year ago.

According to the Sun editorial, John Furlong CEO VANOC wants to make sure kids get to experience the Games firsthand. Well hell's bells John, why don't you give them free tickets to the opening and closing ceremonies? Or maybe free tickets to popular sports like hockey, figure skating or snowboarding? That would certainly do it for 99.9% of the kids. It would be a memory to last a lifetime. Give every kid in the region a free ticket to at least one popular event, then maybe a parent won't feel so bad when he or she has to fork over $500 per ticket so they can join little Sara or Tommy.

If you're a parent don't get your hopes up folks, because it ain't gonna happen. It can't happen because the Olympic business model is flawed, and as a consequence it is economically impossible to do as I suggest above. Olympic organizations do not give away good tickets to locals. The good tickets are reserved for corporate sponsors. If you are lucky, and if you volunteer at least six weeks of your time you might receive a single ticket for the "DRESS REHEARSAL" to an opening or closing ceremony, or a single ticket in the nosebleeds for a sport that Olympic organizations cannot sell tickets to, but I guarantee, a local will not be able to buy a good seat for a popular event at any price unless you go to a professional Olympic scalper. If you're interested in how it really works read the following excerpts from my book.

Excerpt from Leverage Olympic Momentum . . .

Everyone in an Olympic region gets in the ticket-selling game including students, parents and the school system, whether they want to or not. The public school system in most countries is already stressed, and adding a heavier workload severely impacts their primary mandate, which is to improve the educational experience for children. Olympic organizations don't see it that way. They see the public school system as an organized association with a captive audience. It's one thing for universities to get involved, but at the public school level it causes a myriad of problems that aren't easily resolved. To begin with, students in the public school system are younger and cannot take on the more complex administration workload that a university student can assume, which means it is passed on to teachers and parents. Students can however be counted on to do the grunt work. Inviting the Olympic enterprise into the school system also opens the doors for corporations like McDonalds and Coca-Cola. In Sydney, Olympic education kits sponsored by Coca-Cola and IBM were distributed to schools as early as 1995. It was a sophisticated branding project to get students tuned into Olympic ideology and subsequently introduce them to Olympic commercialism. The programs were presented using an educational subtext, but in reality provided a direct channel to impart the associated brands into the young budding psyche. School documents were branded with corporate logos, and students did literacy and numeric tests with Olympic themes. When interviewed by media one young student thought there should be a "test to see how much McDonald's you could eat in an hour." The imprinting plan worked incredibly well. Visa also got in the game and presented an "Olympics of the Imagination" program. The idea was to have kids create art that symbolized what the Olympic motto, "faster, higher, stronger" represents. The contest was featured in a regular Herald insert called "Olympic Insight." Teachers managed the competition in the classroom and as [Helen] Lenskyj pointed out, through default became "Visa and Olympic volunteers." Art contests were also promoted that attracted 54,000 entries. In order to enter, students had to give up their copyright and agree to let Olympic organizations use the artwork for free to promote the Games. The artwork was reproduced on t-shirts, mugs, pins, ties, etc. It generates considerable revenue that is channeled to poorer Olympic countries. VANOC used a similar contest to entice artists to design their logo (Ilanaaq the Inukshuk), except in Vancouver artists had to actually pay a fee upfront to enter the contest. (hjl80) end of this excerpt.

All the while NBC and all the other Olympic sponsors made a fortune, while Athens incurred a 12 billion dollar debt, Salt Lake City $1.2 billion deficit, and Turin is still counting their damage.

Next excerpt from Leverage Olympic Momentum . . .

Considering that the Olympic spectacle is primarily a television spectacle, and most revenue is generated through broadcasting as opposed to live event ticket sales, it is important to note that locals are not given special access to tickets for events. It is always a sensitive issue, especially considering that the best seats on the open market are always reserved for purchase by people from outside the host country. Popular event tickets are often priced above what local fans can afford, and when they do buy tickets they rarely have access to great seats. Olympic organizations make a big deal about keeping ticket prices low and available for local purchasers, but what they don't say is that the bulk of the tickets they offer for local purchase are for unpopular events and positioned in the upper reaches of the venues. From a promoter's perspective it makes sense because you could not sell enough tickets locally to fill the venues. Also, in most cases, if the hype and price is right locals will purchase sub-par tickets because it is relatively easy for them to get to the venue compared to someone who travels from out of town. In order to entice someone from half way around the world you have to ensure they have access to great seats and popular events. Plus, contrary to what Olympic organizations would have the general public believe, the absolute best seats in the house are always reserved for heads of state and high-ranking executives of sponsor companies, and also executives of companies that might invest in future Games. To make matters worse, they squander them. In almost all Olympic regions prime tickets are allotted to sponsor VIPs, but they rarely use them all or put the unused tickets back in the system. It happens in almost all Olympic regions, which caused me to wonder why John Furlong, was surprised to learn it happened in Turin. It's not news. If you want good seats in 2010 look to sponsors like Bell, RBC, HBC, Rona, PetroCanada, GM, CTV, and Rogers. They will all have prime tickets and they will have them by the thousands. Olympic organizations also run a string of special ticketing promotions to boost sales that include series sales (for example you must buy a package that includes three events or more), to country promotions and membership packages. They even promote 'Season Pass-like' packages. Tickets are sold through "mail order, in malls, door-to-door," and in conjunction with promotions where, for example, a purchaser can win an "Olympian-For-A-Day" prize. It's also typical of Olympic organizations to boost or decrease ticket pricing relative to the popularity of the first run of ticket sales. If they underestimate the popularity of an event and the first tickets they market sell quickly, they have been known to inflate the price for the rest of the tickets. When this is done at a normal concert or event patrons go crazy because tickets in row Z could cost more than in AA. Olympic organizations aren't too concerned though with what patrons think because it is very hard for people to figure out who pays what when there are so many complex packages being sold around the world. Secrecy once again plays a huge role in ticket pricing. On the other end of the spectrum when ticket sales are slow volunteers are given more tickets than they can use and are told to give them away to family and friends. Although in Turin, they were so disorganized they couldn't get it together so many events looked barren. In the traditional world of entertainment it's called 'papering the house.' The 'gift' to the volunteers is positioned so it looks like Olympic organizations are good guys taking care of their flock, when in reality Olympic organizers are in panic mode because venues will look empty and they need bodies in the seats to avoid embarrassment. Athens 2004 was also so poorly managed they too never leveraged this strategy effectively. Many events looked almost empty. Again, secrecy is of the utmost importance because if it looks like Olympic organizations are 'papering the event' unaccredited media will go crazy reporting it as a failure. Perception is nine tenths of the law in the promotion game. Olympic organizations will also sit on tickets with the hope they will increase in value. In Sydney it was referred to as "executive scalping." Eight hundred thousand (800,000) tickets were held and eventually offered to wealthy private club members who were willing to pay on average two and a half times the price printed on the ticket. Average citizens become upset because they were told they could purchase tickets at face value in reasonable quantities. (hjl78)

Ticketing incongruities in Sydney were so serious the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission investigated the process. The law firm Clayton Utz and Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu on behalf of the NSW Legislative Assembly also did an independent review. The investigations reported "management and oversight failures, lack of transparency, carelessness and an absence of internal controls and safeguards predominantly in regard to ticket inventory." According to the IOC, Sydney was supposed to be, 'the best Games ever'. In resulting Herald articles SOCOG was portrayed as having a "culture of secrecy and lack of accountability." Olympic spin-masters turned the scandal around to make it sound like Aussies were enthusiastic to purchase tickets and that the weight of the system caused them to experience uncharacteristic challenges. Instead of an apology to the public the best they could come up with was to admit that they "might have overdone themselves." Media had a field day with it locally and around the world. A Nielson poll indicated that tickets were overpriced and that only nine percent of households with gross incomes of more than $30,000 planned to purchase tickets.

It wasn't until the bitter end that tickets were offered to low income people at a rate they could afford. Olympic organizations felt that to offer tickets to low-income families would be unfair to the rest of the population, but they did offer special concessions for wealthy purchasers. It was a clear double standard and the media ran with it. By June of 2000 only about 109,000 tickets were sold and the panic meter jumped a notch, but still the local Olympic committee refused to reduce ticket prices for low-income households. Leaders in social services felt local Olympic organizations were being "mean-spirited." By this time the ticketing program was investigated a second time due to complaints that Visa held a monopoly as a sponsor and wanted all tickets to be purchased only using their credit card. After a bit of controversy they agreed to also accept checks and cash. Nice guys. (hjl79) end of this excerpt

To put a fine point on all of this, the Headless Horesman at the Vancouver Sun wrote, "The best way to take advantage of all those learning opportunities is to incorporate them into our schools, before, during, and after the Games." What an idiotic, self-serving, and hurtful-to-the-community statement.

If you want to know more about why VANOC wants to close schools, read the article below entitled, VANOC Wants to Close Schools and Universities - Students Will Suffer.

If you're tired of all the misinformation from mainstream media,
and you can't make heads or tails of all the confusion, buy the book . . .


VANOC Signs Ontario Supplier
to Manage 2010 Resumes


On October 3, 2006, Workopolis was named "Exclusive Official Supplier of Online Recruitment for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games"

VANOC negotiated a sponsorship agreement with Workopolis.com to provide HR services respective to finding and processing volunteers and paid workers for the 2010 Games. Bell Canada, which owns Bell Globemedia, parent of CTV (the official 2010 television broadcaster), also owns Workopolis.

In reference to the Workopolis announcement, John Furlong said, “We're searching for Canada's best ‘corporate athletes' who are looking for an experience of a lifetime."

Experience of a lifetime -- what a loaded sentiment, and an understatement.

Here's what I wrote about this signature Olympic phrase
in Leverage Olympic Momentum -- in 2005 . . .

Media is the Olympic organization's most powerful tool. Without media the Olympics would not exist. It is media that promotes 'Olympic Spirit' and leads us to put so much weight on the "once-in-a-lifetime experience." And although the slogan is directed at the public in an effort to conscript volunteers, as a businessperson it is also exactly how you have to look at it too. Take your lead from media. Watch carefully what they do and model your plan after theirs. Media use their relationship with the Olympics to boost their visibility, and in turn sell advertising. You can create a relationship with the Olympics to boost your visibility too. The difference is that you don't necessarily have to do it in an official capacity as a sponsor or supplier. In most cases you will never have an opportunity to ever do it in an official capacity. Not all media become official Olympic sponsors, but all media benefit simply because the Olympics come into their region. How do they benefit? First, official media 'sponsors' pay for the privilege, and in return for providing a conduit to the local public they get first access to Olympic related information. Being the first to publish new information is an outdated model, but nevertheless, still a big deal for old newspaper hounds. For the privilege of being the official Olympic sponsor, a newspaper will have to publish special Olympic notices. For example they will produce "high gloss posters, souvenir programs, Olympic schedules," etc. Each time they do the local public learns to come back for more. As the Games draw near the frequency and sophistication of these "special supplements" will increase. The newspaper soon becomes the media of record. As you saw earlier this creates ethical conflicts because newspapers are regarded as journalistic entities that are supposed to adhere to news gathering and publishing standards. (hjl6)

Unaccredited media (those who do not pay for sponsorship rights) don't have access or the authority to print special supplements, but they have no problem benefiting from the Olympics by finding alternative viewpoints to keep readers interested. Consequently many rely on human-interest stories regarding the people behind the Games, like athletes, executives, sponsors, etc. In other words, they talk it up. As I described earlier, you can talk it up too, and shortly I'll show you exactly how you too can also become a bona fide news source. The closer a region gets to spectacle-time the deeper local people get sucked into the once-in-a-lifetime vortex. Locals actually start to believe the stories about the Olympics in their region, and reasonable consideration on their part is dismissed. The Olympics are coming whether you like it or not, and regardless of whether you have a direct role to play. To fight it outright is futile. The George W. Bush threat of, "you are with us or you are against us" works every time. Opposing factions of media will pull the public all over the place with increased intensity as the Games approach. end of excerpt

VANOC will most likely have to manage well over 100,000 core resumes in order to fill 25,000 volunteer positions and 4,700 paid positions, and it will all be processed online. Olympic organizations at even (what they incorrectly refer to as) the Best Olympics like Sydney 2000 struggle through serious challenges while trying to find and keep workers on the job, volunteer or otherwise. If they can't even get it right during the Games that they boast as being the Best Games Ever, what do you think will happen in your region that is already falling to pieces three years before the event?

As you are starting to see in mid 2006, Olympic organizations are not financially transparent and are also so often mismanaged that at recent past Games many volunteers went through two months of exhaustive part time training, only to quit after one day at their post. Olympic organizations like VANOC have to deal with an employment churn rate of 3:1, and sometimes more, which means that if they need 25,000 volunteers, they must collect 100,000 resumes, interview 75,000 people, get them to commit to a temporary volunteer job three six months in advance, and churn 50,000 of them through the seventeen day ordeal because they quit in droves on day one or two. When it happens, Olympic Spirit takes a big hit, and by day three, even more quit. Unfortunately, this trend continues until the last spectator goes home.

By negotiating a deal with an online HR company like Workopolis.com, VANOC can ease their burden considerably. It also allows VANOC to remove themselves a step from the controversial and traditional sponsorship deal with local newspapers.

Here's another excerpt from my book . . . Leverage Olympic Momentum . . .

... why not tap non-media corporate sponsors to pay for the advertising and logistics needed to conscript volunteers and labour? It would mean local daily newspapers wouldn't have to prostitute themselves. Today, in some countries it probably could be done considering the internet is so deeply ingrained in society, but it will take a lot of courage and BIG vision to take that plunge. Remember too that buying [local news] media off also keeps the fraternity on your side, so even if Olympic organizations did raise enough capital to advertise independently, or if they went online to job sites like Workopolis or Monster.com, it still might not be in their best interests to do so. Another reason newspapers have traditionally been placed in this clandestine sponsor loop is because corporate sponsors like McDonald's or Visa for instance, are in the Olympic business to raise their visibility - and spend the least amount of money doing it. Connections with media through Olympic projects increases face time. Shareholders of Olympic sponsor companies control large corporations. They vote with their money and have no conscience. Their only goal is to make a profit. In fact it is against the law for the directors of public companies not to make as much profit as possible for shareholders, even if it comes at the expense of the community. If you haven't read the book or seen the movie, check out "The Corporation" to get a better idea of what you're up against. It is written by, Professor Joel Bakan, from the University of British Columbia. (jb1) end of excerpt

Although the announcement regarding Workopolis is relatively good news, there is still a complicated back story that local businesses must monitor closely.

Using Workopolis to find and administrate the mountain of resumes represents only one aspect of the HR process. Spirit doesn't just happen. VANOC has to entice people to these positions. Attracting people to upper management hasn't traditionally been a problem, although thanks to blogs like this things are changing rapidly, but jobs from Clerk II and down can be like a drunken stumble along the banks of the Hades. Subtly weaving Olympic influence into their daily mix is a sensitive process of timing and execution for local newspapers. Someone has to manage the hype in order to get and keep the resumes flowing. The question now is, will CanWest newspapers, like The Vancouver Sun or The Province, have any interest in becoming sponsors? Once local residents find out what is required of them, and what it actually costs to become a volunteer, or even a low level worker, they lose interest. In Sidney (apparently the "Best Games Ever), and Athens, they could not find enough help and had to resort to a constant barrage of media propaganda to fill the positions. Prospective volunteers need to address due diligence just like someone applying for a paid job. If they walk into it unprepared it will catch them by surprise. VANOC needs the influence of a local newspaper to manage and pump up the spirit.

Consequently, VANOC has yet to decide which local newspaper to bring onboard to distribute corporately spun messages wrapped in Special Glossy Features during the last two years ramping up to the Games. Glossy features are designed to keep Olympic Spirit artificially inflated, much like we already experienced regarding local real estate prices. It's no secret to anyone by now that the newspaper that wins the dubious honor will be obligated to protect the image of the Games -- even if it is to the detriment of the community. That ... is a very difficult and fine line to tread.

Considering that Workopolis is owned by Bell Globemedia, and that they also own the Globe and Mail, the odds of the Globe and Mail becoming a serious contender just increased considerably. However, considering the Globe and Mail's reputation as a newspaper read by intellectual business types, why would they want to take a chance and jeopardize a hard earned reputation?

Plus, the Globe and Mail owns relatively small marketshare in Vancouver/Whistler, and in order to be effective in the role they would have to grow quickly to at least ten times their current share. Is it worth it, or is the Vancouver Sun still the favorite propaganda horse to saddle? My money is still on the Sun, but now only by a nose.

If the Globe and Mail takes on the challenge, you can bet that the view CanWest newspapers take of the Games will change radically. Overnight they will become the opposition party. In fact maybe they already have and that is the reason for the recent about-face. Have they become a spurned lover?

Look for a local newspaper decision to be made by May of 2007 ... if not sooner.

I made the above prediction regarding the announcement date in October of 2006, and I hate to admit it, but this is the first major prediction I missed. I thought for sure the Vancouver Sun would be named the official 2010 Olympics booster by May of 2007, but as it turned out the announcement wasn't made until June of 2007. Guess who won? Drum roll please ... the new local 2010 Olympics trumpet is none other than The Vancouver Sun. I think they delayed the announcement just to ruin my credibility ;-) Click for more info...



VANOC Wants to Close Schools & Universities - Students Will Suffer

On October 16, 2006, Global tv news ran an interview with VANOC CEO John Furlong that addressed giving university students time off during the Olympics so they could be conscripted as volunteers. Furlong characterized it as a visionary idea, while the ill-prepared reporter never blinked an eye or challenged this proposal that will have a negative impact on students and the entire community. A similar story by Rod Mickleburgh also ran in the Globe and Mail the next day, and there too, the reporter never addressed the ramifications from a community perspective. Not one news media report anywhere addressed the issue of daycare, and how working parents would have to find someone to watch their kids. The articles did however mislead people to believe that it would be a good idea for students to have time off so they could attend the Games. Does anyone in our insular little region have any idea how much Olympic tickets cost, and does anyone here know that it is virtually impossible for locals to get good seats even if you can afford it? Do they also know that any tickets that Olympic organizations like VANOC give away are always for unpopular events that are often absolutely impossible to sell? Students will be in for a rude surprise when they discover that free tickets will NOT be provided for Opening or Closing Ceremonies, and definitely not for hockey, figure skating, or boarding. If you want tickets to those events, you have to pay for them, and they will cost upwards of $500 each. Happy holidays kids. See you at the curling bonspiel.

The truth is, school closings happen in ALL Winter Olympic regions. Vancouver/Whistler is not unique, and this idea is not visionary. The only difference here is that someone is proposing that all schools in the entire province close for two weeks. I can't figure out exactly who is promoting this idea, but I know why. The reality is that schools in Olympic regions have no choice but to close down because it is one of the best ways to find much needed volunteers, plus they need every bus available in the country. Yes, all of Canada. 3,000+ buses are very hard to come by. So hard in fact that the Olympic transportation system in Salt Lake City imploded at the eleventh hour for the simple reason that they could not contract enough buses. Just imagine what will happen in tiny BC stuck on the far left coast when SLC, which is in the middle of the USA, couldn't make it happen. (You really should read my book for the details)

It is ironic that on the VANOC website (see this article) they claim they already have too many volunteers, but now it seems they have no concern about disrupting the student body in an effort to find more. Furlong is confused. Does he have too many, or not enough? If, as he claims, that too many people have already indicated they want to volunteer, why would he cut into university learning time - time btw that grows more expensive every year? Why pick on university students who are already saddled with heavy schedules and debt? It stuns me that local media cannot, or refuse to connect the dots.

Cutting short the university semester creates serious issues, not the least of which is that students will be forced to CRAM the same amount of learning into one third less time. Furlong stated in the tv interview that he supported giving students two weeks off, and again, not a blink from the reporter. To begin with, someone should tell them both that the Games run for seventeen days, not fourteen. In other Olympic regions, when everything is taken into account, university students lose approximately six full weeks, because, don't forget, volunteers have to be trained. You can't just expect volunteers to show up on day one and know what to do, but at this point I wouldn't put anything past VANOC.

Furlong stated it would be a good idea to give students time off because he was going to shut down the public bus system during the entire run of the Games, and consequently, students, would not be able to get to school anyway, so he might as well give them a holiday and put them to work. This BTW, is another "hidden cost" I addressed in detail long ago. You can guarantee that removing buses from public service will not be counted as an Olympic expense, and that students and local taxpayers will have to absorb the cost and suffer the inconvenience. Seniors and the physically challenged will suffer the most, and will literally be shut in for the entire time the buses are assigned to Olympic service. Again, the oblivious reporters never blinked an eye. Whose side are they on? It's not responsible reporting.

Shutting down universities has only marginal impact on students in the mid-years of study, but anyone graduating in 2010 will be subjected to a living hell that includes having to deal with faculty and staff distracted by their Olympic volunteer duties, which btw constitutes another "hidden cost" when you consider that taxes pay for university salaries.

First year students will also have to deal with losing residence space because universities rent campus rooms to Olympic organizations and make students fend for themselves - mid term.

Here are two excerpts from my book . . .

Universities pride themselves on offering free and open debate on all matters, but when Olympic culture is introduced the freedom to explore and expound openly upon certain trains of thought is impeded. Some students find it unconscionable, especially when they realize the university will place undue stress on their education by putting Olympic needs over the needs of the student body. It doesn't take long to sink in when costs escalate and students are evicted from dorms or forced to cram a three-month semester into eight weeks, etc. A university can generate revenue in the million-dollar plus range as a result of leasing rooms and sport facilities to Olympic organizations. Students often take a back seat. Olympic organizations not only directly sway students they also influence media through professors. By doing so they legitimize their position. What better way to get the media to believe than to hear it from a respected academic? (hjl84) end of excerpt one



excerpt two . . .

Schools in core areas [Salt Lake City] were shut down due to terrorism and traffic concerns. Even when schools in sensitive areas were not closed, parents would not let children attend due to safety concerns. Day care became a nightmare and it was something they hadn't prepared for adequately.

end of excerpt two

Click to find out what else awaits Vancouver / Whistler



Leverage Olympic Momentum - THE BOOK



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