During the 2005-2006 holiday season, Vancouver hosted the World Junior Ice Hockey Championship. The event was a major success (although the U.S. Team, which was greeted with the same chorus of boos that followed Soviet Union teams 30 years ago, might justifiably feel otherwise). However, the way that this event was covered by the local press should be a source of caution if you're planning to travel to the 2010 Winter Games as a spectator or a participant.

Over two months before the tournament started, there was an announcement that the entire tournament was sold out. This was factually correct, as tickets were sold only as packages for the entire tournament. From that point on, the Vancouver Sun, The Province, Global TV (all three owned by the same media conglomerate), and the rest of the local media all dutifully repeated the message "the entire tournament is sold out" on a daily basis. The principal result of this was a windfall for scalpers, who were able to get $200 and up for tickets to the first-round Canada-US matchup.

Veterans of sports events of this nature knew better. Sure, the building will be full for games involving Canada, the home team. But who's going to show up for a relegation-round game between Latvia and Norway? Parents and girl friends of the players, mostly, and it was a long plane flight for them. For most of the games, only half of the seats were occupied. Hockey fans who didn't fall for the media hype were able get tickets at low cost, or free.

Vancouverites have been pioneers in alternative media. To give one example, this site was developed using Drupal, a product based in Vancouver. (See http://www.drupal.org/.) What we have set out to do with this site is to tell people the real story about the 2010 Winter Games. How to get accommodations without getting ripped off. Where to get good restaurant meals for reasonable prices. How to get to out-of-town events if you're not one of the VIP's who have been guaranteed helicopter rides.

Most of all, we're going to try to separate the Olympic Experience (yes, there is such a thing) from the script followed by NBC and the other commercial media. Watch this site over the next four years, and you'll be reading accounts from people here on the ground in Vancouver. We will tell you The Real Story.

About the masthead

The pictures, left to right, are of:

• Sonia Henie, Norwegian figure skater who won an incredible ten consecutive world championships, and Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932, and 1936. She had a film career after retiring from competition.
  

   
  
  

   
  
  

   
  
  

   
  
  

   
  
  

   
  
  

• Mike Eruzione scoring the winning goal for the US against the Soviet Union in 1980. He had a career as a motivational speaker after the 1980 olympics.

   
  
  

   
  
  

   
  
  
  

• Kerrin-Lee Gartner, a Canadian who won a gold medal in downhill skiing in 1992.

 



 



 



 



• Johann Olav Koss, a Norwegian who won three gold medals in speed skating in 1994. Koss became a doctor, and now runs the Right to Play charity.

• Sandra Schmirler, skip of the Canadian team that won the first Olympic gold medal in curling in 1998.

• Jennifer Heil, a Canadian who won the gold medal in moguls in 2006.