For the Olympic Anecdotal Record

Who would believe some of these figures .....?

• Public Transit welcomed some 200 articles a day including an average of four passports/day, the majority of which are Canadian. Go figure?


• Vancouver International Airport processed a record breaking 39,000 travelers in one day vs its daily average of 26,000. Small numbers for some big cities but a major stepping stone for YVR.


• Within a few days of opening, traveling the Zip Line over Robson Square meant an eight hour wait with many a hopeful zipper starting the line-up at 2:30 AM!


• The Molson Hockey Pavilion served at least 5,000 (large) glasses of beer during the Canada/USA games. Heard that the Heineken pavilion served a shade more than that a day.


• In addition to pin trades, costumes and revelry, the next most common sight were ticket buyers/sellers wearing neck-boards advertising their desire to pay $1,000 for any Canada/USA hockey tickets. Top price was reported in excess of $10,000 for the Gold Medal Hockey finals.


• In TV viewership numbers, the Gold Medal hockey game in the US was second only to those who watched the Obama election; it was the largest in Canadian television history.


• Considering the above (and let’s remember the TON of security personnel too - see earlier blog), it’s little wonder that crime figures during the Games period plummeted, especially B&Es that went from 46 percent to 37 percent.


• Whistler’s two, 80-metre-long composting tunnels swallowed up to 35 tonnes of bio-solids (per week) and are now churning it out the other end as rich, black loam for landscaping.
  
  Legacy thoughts to come ….