As the temperature cools, the pressure is heating up for Vancouver's 2010 Winter Olympic organization.
"The next 100 days will be dramatically more difficult than anything we've had to do until now. We are now at the experience stage, we now have to finish the project," VANOC CEO John Furlong said Wednesday. "We have temporary structures to erect, $100 million of them, we have transportation plans we have to perfect, we have to test and re-test. The 100 days ahead will be the toughest we've confronted."
The third domestic ticket sale begins online Saturday while the Olympic torch relay snakes its way around Canada. VANOC could move into B.C. Place as early as this weekend should the B.C. Lions fail to advance to the CFL playoffs. The Feb. 12 opening ceremony under the dome will be the most-watched event of the Games and only one to feature all countries entered.
VANOC is expected to choose a successor to chairman Jack Poole when the board meets Nov. 18. Poole, who spearheaded the successful Games bid in 2003, died Oct. 23 after a battle with pancreatic cancer.
Last fall, VANOC was struggling as the global economy lurched into the worst crisis since the Great Depression.
The organizing committee struggled through the bankruptcy of sponsors Nortel and General Motors while being propped up by governments.
The International Olympic Committee made a surprise pledge in August to help solve post-Games losses. B.C. taxpayers, however, are the ultimate guarantor.
