If you’re thinking of becoming a volunteer for the 2010 Vancouver-Whistler Winter Olympics, you may want to think again.

Even though the volunteer recruiting and screening process won’t begin until 2008, approximately 60,000 people have already applied for 25,000 goodwill ambassador positions, which range from assisting at events to driving International Olympic Committee members to various venues.

In other words, British Columbians are very anxious to get involved in the Games. With more than 2,400 days to go before the Olympic cauldron is lit, there is still much work to do, but no one task is more important than another right now, says Frank King.

“It’s all-encompassing,” says King, a veteran Olympic organizer who was chairman and chief executive officer of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games organizing committee.

David Lazarowych, Business Edge
Frank King was the top executive on the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games’ organizing committee, but has eliminated himself from the Vancouver job.

“You can’t just say ‘We should be working on venues,’ or ‘We should be working on financing,’ or ‘We should be working on volunteers’ – or any of those things. You have to rush forward in all aspects of planning.”

One of the first tasks will be to put a face on the Games. The chief executive is slated to be hired in the first quarter of this year.

“You need to have the skills of a project planner, not that you can’t get help in that area, but you need to have a mentality that comes from doing projects and understanding how things get done in logical sequence and so on,” says King, who served on Vancouver-Whistler’s bid corporation board, and has advised a search firm on the qualities that the 2010 Games CEO must possess.

“And, you need a good manager of people that can motivate and, also where it’s necessary, even dictate what has to be done,” adds King. “Those kinds of characteristics you don’t get in everybody, so there’s going to be a careful choice.”

King would be an interesting choice. No other Canadian has served as the top executive for two Olympics. But he has ruled himself out as a candidate for the CEO’s post – or another position with the organizing committee.

“I wouldn’t have an interest,” says King. “Not in the sense that it wouldn’t be a great thing to do, but Vancouver’s Games should be exactly that. The organizers should come from Vancouver.”

John Furlong, the president and chief operating officer of Vancouver’s bid corporation, is a candidate to run the organizing committee. King said it’s not crucial for the bid boss to become the Games CEO, but Vancouver is lucky to have someone who is willing to do both jobs.

“It’s 10 years out of your life – and it’s not a part-time job,” says King, who also led Calgary’s bid corporation. “Somebody needs to recognize that.”

Although you should always look for new people, some very good candidates have been working on the bid, says King – “and John (Furlong) would be one of them.” If he’s hired, Furlong will have to master the art of dealing with athletes, IOC members, politicians, bureaucrats, the media, all those volunteers and the public, but not necessarily in that order. His main challenge, suggests King, will be to ensure that organizers communicate openly and honestly with everyone.

The Games organizing committee’s 20-person board of directors, headed by bid corporation chairman Jack Poole, has already been appointed.

The organizing committee will oversee the hiring of venue managers. Former Calgary Olympic Oval manager Cathy Priestner-Allinger is already being mentioned as a candidate for a Vancouver-Whistler venue management position.

She had been appointed as the director of sport for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. But she resigned last May, after less than a year on the job, because she was thousands of kilometres away from her family.

Priestner-Allinger, who won Canada’s first speed-skating gold medal in 1976 at the age of 19 at Innsbruck, also oversaw the construction of three venues, including the Utah Olympic Oval for the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City.

She’s a natural fit to manage the new $44.3-million US oval to be built at Simon Fraser University in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby – if not a higher post.

The SFU oval is one of 16 venues that will host events, athletes, media and broadcasters. Most facilities are already built but 14 will be renovated, said Sam Corea, the Games communications director.

Organizers have allocated $510 million US for construction. The $65.8-million Whistler Nordic Centre, the first facility to be built starting in April, is the most expensive new athletic facility. All other construction work begins in 2005.

Patrick Reid, chairman of Vancouver’s Expo 86, says cost overruns will be the biggest pitfall to avoid. He advises organizers to keep a tight rein on the budget.

It would help to avoid cost overruns in the early years before the Games – like now – because the Olympic organization does not have any significant revenue.

Corea says the Canadian Olympic Committee, which governs Canada’s participation in Olympics, is covering costs until the organizing committee starts receiving income. (The COC will eventually be reimbursed, says Corea.)

But there are millions to be made from the sales of international and Canadian TV rights, sponsorship packages, marketing rights and tickets, which are all upcoming items on the “to do” list.

The IOC will negotiate international TV rights. Vancouver-Whistler gets 49 per cent of the proceeds – $400 million US. Canadian TV rights are expected to fetch $80 million US, of which Vancouver-Whistler will receive one-third.

“Whatever we get, we’re looking to be in pretty good shape at this point,” said Corea.

The IOC will also negotiate millions’ worth of international sponsorship deals with the likes of Coca-Cola and Xerox. The Games organizing committee will negotiate other sponsorship agreements.

Not all sponsorships are exclusive, which means that two or more companies producing similar products may be able to get in. Tier 1 packages will cost a cool $20 million US. Licensing rights cost $22.5 million US.

“Typically, everyone that goes to a Games will come out with something (in the way of a souvenir),” said Corea. “Whether it’s an umbrella or a T-shirt, they’ll (buy) something.”

Although 2004 has just begun, Games organizers are already thinking about next year, when they’ll launch a marketing program designed to raise $255 million US and complete the Games logo – in time for Vancouver-Whistler officials to head to the Turin Winter Games in 2006 and the Athens Summer Olympics in 2008.

When the building and selling are done, organizers will focus on hosting. IOC rules require that each Games venue host a major international event a year before the Olympics.

Watch for Vancouver and Whistler to receive speedskating, figure skating, bobsled, luge and ski jumping World Cups and world championships, among other events.

Whistler already hosts annual World Cup skiing events and they should continue.

In other words, potential Olympic volunteers will get plenty of opportunities to practise their goodwill before the Games – and make up for the disappointment of not being selected.