aaron1262

Back to the real world.. Enjoyed my time at the Closing Ceremony. Completely different atmosphere actually being there vs. watching nbc's pathetic broadcast that cut out and into some reality program(from what i heard). also it was great to experience Canada's win of what is equivalent to winning a world series or superbowl... I was in robson square right after the hockey match and it was clear madness.

overall it was a good Olympics no matter what the skeptics say. I'm just curious as to what's going to happen in Sochi. It's turning into a big mess with the chairs of their Olympic hosting committee stepping down..

Altaflyer

Had a look at tripadvisor for Sochi.....looks GRIM..and that's being an optimist! Instead of friendly crowds having a blast I envision armed soldiers on every street corner and surly babushkas manning hotel desks yelling at guests. If anyone thought that a 15% service charge at a restaurant was gauging or that $75 for a hockey ticket was expensive I suspect that we are all in for a big shock....if we event have an Olympics there.

gglave

???

Come hell or high water, we *are* having an Olympics there?

RCyyz

I've experienced 2 World Series wins here in YYZ. The hockey win was better.

Hockey really is a religion here in Canada. Passion for the game runs deeper than deep. It's a little hard to explain to non-Canadians, but here's something to note: the population for Canada is about 33.3 million. According to the ratings, 22 million people watched the entire game on Sunday and 28 million saw at least part of the game.

I have to say in all honesty that these numbers don't surprise me. I do wonder though why 6 million only saw part of the game and also what the heck were the other 5 million doing.

seanthepilot

Sochi will be great.

I'll be watching it on TV!

LeSabre74

They were on FT?

I wish Sochi well. However, unlike Vancouver they are creating almost all of the infrastructure from scratch, and that's usually not a good thing.

Altaflyer

I have read some stuff on-line where people are really pessimistic about Sochi and suggesting that there is an ability to move them, in a situation the IOC determines is grave enough, to a former Olympic city...say Vancouver

Clipper801

You may say so if the lottery draw was open and fair. No, it was a secret close door don't know when it was held kind of lottery. Vanoc simply decides who will get ticket. Yes, it's a scam. Even if you were lucky enough to get tickets, all hotels were sold out more than a year ago. I have been checking since February 2009. Absolutely no room available.

The biggest surprise was, the Olympic web site had a link to Cosport and all kinds of tickets and hotel rooms were available there at a hefty premium!

Altaflyer

I stayed at the HI-Vancouver Central youth hostel in a private room with ensuite right on Granville. This option was available to anyone and at a reasonable rate. The party was right outside the front door It was one of the best experiences of my life. There were also loads of private accommodations you could look at - I spoke with some Americans who had booked something on Expedia that had been double booked and they were staying in a brand new Condo in Yaletown for about $300 a night - their whole family (4 people) was staying there. You just need to be creative - the Olympics draw a tonne of people and hotel rooms will be blocked as part of any Olympic bid since there obviously need to be accommodations for all those involved in the games.

As for the lottery, I got a couple tickets through that but many more, incl. Opening Ceremonies through the open sales process in June - yes I spent a bit of time on-line that day but again, its a big event - things don't get handed to you on a silver platter.

gglave

Rubbish - My wife and I went to several curling games, just bought the tickets online. My wife gave her brother hockey tickets for Christmas, just bought them online. I saw short track speed skating - Just bough them online.

There wasn't some secret Vanoc conspiracy.

The hugely popular events went to the lucky people, but there were still thousands upon thousands of tickets available.

Craigslist was full of all kinds of creative accomodations options.

YVR Cockroach

If you read near the beginning on the thread, all the hotels that were existing shortly after the circus hosting right was awarded had to sell up their rooms to Vanoc (which makes Vanoc an economic monopsony) - nothing was booked out as nothing was ever available except ultimately through Vanoc. Vanoc than distributed this accommodation to circus family. Cosport got the circus rights from the USOC so it had a monopoly of tickets awarded to the U.S. and some other countries which also gave it circus rights. Since Cosport is circus family, it also had rights to room that Vanoc obtained.

Altaflyer

Oh, and lest one think that the hotels all made huge bucks, they were limited to their average rates over the previous year plus 10% (may have been 15 but really modest). This was all part of the bid to get the Olympics in the first place.

PRS

Any individual or couple that didn't attend the Olympics for lack of tickets in the initial lottery or subsequent sale phases made a huge mistake. There were some mildly okay deals through the fan-to-fan marketplace for the very risk averse but the prices outside the venues were extremely reasonable, especially for curling and hockey which had so many sessions. At the women's curling bronze scalpers starting prices were $50 (half price) and they were accepting $20. Some fans in line were offering extra single tickets for free. My dad bought a Finland-Sweden round robin men's hockey ticket for face value well before game time and tickets for the USA-Finland semifinal were going for well below face value. I had an extra single B ticket for Canada-Slovakia hockey semi and it took me almost an hour to find a buyer at $350 - only $60 above face value. Women's hockey was far cheaper still and we met many people who had some luck checking for additional tickets that had come available at the box office at the last minute (hockey, bobsleigh, skiing, etc.) or easily finding face value bobsleigh tickets by asking around near the venue. Short track seemed to be one of the hottest tickets - a person next to us in C section on Sat Feb 20th paid $300 USD for a single a few minutes after the event began and pairs for Feb 26 were going for $500+. We had a very big family group so our efforts during all the rounds of ticket sales were worthwhile but singles/couples willing to be spontaneous could have attended most events at reasonable prices without any advance purchases. In fact if you bought at Cosport prices in US or another country for most events you overpaid significantly.

iahphx

Well, as I mentioned earlier, the IOC lets Cosport get away with lots of stuff, including an official mark-up which I believe is 20%. They also seemed to do some other tricks (like with the currency) to get it even higher.

The problem with NOT buying for Cosport is that if you just show up, what you'll be able to get tickets for is random. In Beijing, being at the right place at the right time, people gave me swimming tickets for free! These were selling on the black market for hundreds of dollars -- if you could find them at all! On the other hand, you couldn't get archery tickets from anybody, even though the venue was half empty.

I do recommend folks just "show up" for the Olympics, though. Few do, and it usually works out great. You just need the spirit of adventure, and flexibility.

RCyyz

In other words - you need to go with a proper FT perspective.