Attractions - Home Games

It's been two years since Vancouverites learned they’d clinched the Olympics, and the city is just starting to morph into what it soon will be: host city for the 2010 Winter Games. With their municipal partners, Games organizers face a challenge: buildings designed for the world’s top athletes must also suit little league teams and community programs once the Games have gone. So far, the plans seem to hold for both, though not without controversy. The Richmond-Airport-Vancouver line, a rapid transit train that will shuttle athletes and spectators along Cambie Street, has resulted in local protest from merchants, while others worry about an Olympicsized debt. That said, city councils have embraced the Games, offering up prime sites for venue construction — a few of which we’ve highlighted here.

Sea-to-Sky Highway

The drive from Vancouver to Whistler, with its spectacular views to Howe Sound and mountain peaks that rise straight out of the ocean, is oft cited as one of the most beautiful in North America. But unfortunately, it’s just as infamous for legendary traffic tie-ups and far-too-frequent fatalities. Work has already begun on a $600- million upgrading project scheduled for completion in spring 2009. Improvements include widening and straightening the highway in sections, adding passing lanes and constructing retaining walls, all aimed at increasing safety and improving capacity.

Richmond Olympic Oval

Slated to open in April 2007, the $155-million facility — located just across the Fraser River from the airport — will be used for a wide variety of winter and summer sports, including ice hockey, figure skating, martial arts, badminton, and track and field. The project was originally slated for Burnaby Mountain, but Richmond scooped it when preliminary costs were deemed too high — leaving Burnaby none too pleased. During the Olympics, the Oval will be the venue for long-track speed skating with room for 8,000 spectators. Afterward the 33,000-square-metre building will also house a highperformance sports development centre along with space for community programs, restaurants and retail.

Vancouver Olympic Village

Expo 86 kick-started the first round of real estate development on the north side of False Creek, now a showpiece for the city’s livable downtown. One piece is left of the former industrial lands, a 32-hectare site in southeast False Creek and future home to the Olympic Village and 2,800 athletes. After the Games, the neighbourhood will open to Vancouverites (the provincial government has committed about $30 million to ensure at least 200 of those units will be used for social housing), boasting all the features that make the north side of False Creek so desirable: parks, gardens, a community centre, cafés and retail spaces, including shoreline improvements and the completion of the Seaside pedestrian-bicycle route (a great way to check out the ongoing development).

UBC Winter Sports Centre

Apparently we can’t have too many hockey rinks in Canada, so the University of British Columbia is building a new facility in addition to the main venue at General Motors Place. The $40.8-million building will house two international-sized rinks and replace the aging Thunderbird Winter Sports Centre. The arena complex, which will also accommodate sports medicine research labs, will be the centrepiece of an athletic area that features playing fields and a new stadium.

Hillcrest Park

Queen Elizabeth Park boasts the highest point in the city, with famous display gardens and a 360-degree view of the Vancouver skyline. Soon it will have some muscle too, with plans in the making for an athletic complex on the east side near Nat Bailey Stadium. Along with the $28-million Olympic curling venue, the city plans to build a new community centre, ice arena and aquatic centre.

Pacific Coliseum, Hastings Park

The same park that hosted the famous Miracle Mile in 1954 between Roger Bannister and John Landy will again be the stage for dramatic showdowns, with figure skating set to be contested at an upgraded Pacific Coliseum. The nearby Agrodome will also be renovated to accommodate practice facilities for figure skating and short-track speed skating. Improvements to the Coliseum are expected to be complete for the 2006 World Junior Hockey Tournament, a warm-up event before the big show.

Whistler Sliding Centre

Blink and you might miss it: a bobsled plummeting by at 130 km/h. If you visit Whistler-Blackcomb this summer, you won’t miss the construction of the $55-million track, which will take about two years to complete. Just over 1.4 kilometres long with 16 corners, the speedway will also be used for skeleton and luge events. The temporary viewing area will accommodate about 12,000 spectators. If you’re one of them, don’t get caught behind the tall guy.