By Canadian Press

2010 leader John Furlong urges Vancouver to bid for 2030 Winter Games

Feb 22, 2020 | 12:24 PM

While Vancouver celebrates the 10th anniversary of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the man who co-led the bid and headed the organizing committee wants the city to do it again in 2030.

John Furlong told the Vancouver Board of Trade in a speech Thursday he thinks the city could and should bid for the 2030 Winter Games.

“I think the timing is actually very, very good,” Furlong told The Canadian Press. “We have the venues. We could effectively be the only city ever to use exactly the same footprint.

“We have this opportunity. Eventually, these venues will get tired and get old and the timing will go away.”

Furlong and the late Jack Poole led the successful bid for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, B.C.

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Furlong served as president and chief executive officer of the Vancouver organizing committee (VANOC).

VANOC said those games broke even financially.

The cost of hosting was roughly $4 billion.

The B.C. government’s spending on a rail line to the airport and a convention centre completed for those games brought the total to $7.7 billion.

“When you look at Vancouver and the message the IOC has been trying to present for future games about using existing facilities, lowering the cost, this is a perfect case,” Furlong said.

“You can’t lower the cost any more than not having to build any venues.”

Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart called a potential 2030 Olympics a “fun idea” for the city, but stressed it would be up to provincial and federal governments to make a call on whether to look at a bid and provide necessary funding.

He also said he would want a referendum for residents to vote on the idea if there was a thought of going ahead.

“I’m sure if senior governments threw enough money at this, it could all work,” Stewart said. “Really, that’s why it’s their decision whether or not to move ahead with something like this.”

Furlong believes the games could be transformational again for Vancouver because of the current problems the city faces.

“There are housing costs, homelessness, unaffordable housing and transportation infrastructure that’s not really complete,” he said. “We have some very good transportation infrastructure, but not enough.”

“Our young people would rather not be driving. They’d rather be taking the train or the bus. I have five adult children. Four have moved away.

“Standing back and looking at the city and the region that we’re in and the challenges that we have and how difficult it has been to get ahead of some of these challenges, I thought maybe a bid for 2030 could in actual fact bring people around a new vision.”

The 69-year-old says he isn’t putting his name forward to lead another bid.

“If I reach 80 years of age, I’ll be the oldest person ever in my family,” he said. “I will do what I can to help move this along.

“I think there are very talented people that came out of VANOC who are young and will be able to do this.”

The host Canadian team won 26 medals in 2010.

Fourteen gold was a record for the most by any country at a single Winter Olympics, since equalled by Germany and Norway in 2018.

“The Vancouver 2010 Games united Canada through the power of a positive collective experience creating a legacy of venues, facilities and partnerships for all Canadians,” Canadian Olympic Committee chief executive officer David Shoemaker said in a statement.

“Ten years later we are reminded of what Canadians are able to achieve when we pull together to do great things.

“It is not surprising that John Furlong . . . would want to ignite a conversation for a potential and extremely innovative 2030 bid.

“We look forward to having conversations with potential host regions across Canada as we explore opportunities like this to address the pressing issues in our communities and lasting economic benefits of hosting a future home Games.”

Furlong believes there is public appetite for B.C. to throw its hat in the Olympic rings again.

He pointed to an online poll recently conducted in the province indicating 68 per cent of those asked felt the 2010 games were worth the money.

“How expensive could a bid be, given that you have all the tools and the experience is fairly recent?” he asked.

“I think the potential to put a bid in place that is not outrageously costly is staring us in the face.”

Calgary contemplated a bid for the 2026 Winter Games.

The estimated cost of hosting was $5.1 billion, but 56 per cent of those who voted in a 2018 plebiscite said ‘no’ to pursuing a bid.

Calgary was the first Canadian city to host the Winter Olympics in 1988.

A drag on VANOC’s preparations for 2010 was the ballooning cost of security to over $900 million.

Calgary estimated a budget of $610 million for security.

“Calgary opened the door to a conversation about security,” Furlong said.

“I think there is a security model that’s quite a bit less expensive than the one we had in 2010. It’ll be up to us to flesh that out.”

The Olympic Games landscape has altered dramatically in the decade since Vancouver and Whistler.

Fewer cities line up to bid. Beijing won a two-horse race for the 2022 Winter Olympics just 14 years after hosting the Summer Games.

A joint Italian bid from Milan-Cortina beat out Sweden’s Stockholm-Are for 2026.

“Every one of these races for the Olympics is a competition between cities,” Furlong said. “I like our chances against anyone.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 20, 2020.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press