Bmwolf21 Posted June 8, 2006 Report Share Posted June 8, 2006 Sorry if this has already been posted... http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2475698 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Ice hockey will be played on the smaller North American-sized surface during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver in a bid to save money, organizers said on Wednesday. Olympic hockey has traditionally been played on the larger ice surfaces used in European leagues, but officials said the change would save an estimated $10 million (Canadian) in construction costs and allow room for more seats. Games organizers warned in February construction costs were running 23 percent higher than was forecast when the city was awarded the Olympics three years ago. So Vancouver can't keep the costs down, and as a result they screw with the hockey rinks? I'd rather the Olympics stay on the big sheet. The smaller ice surfaces will make it more like the World Cup of hockey... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopeleslyobvious Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Sorry if this has already been posted... http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/news/story?id=2475698 VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Ice hockey will be played on the smaller North American-sized surface during the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver in a bid to save money, organizers said on Wednesday. Olympic hockey has traditionally been played on the larger ice surfaces used in European leagues, but officials said the change would save an estimated $10 million (Canadian) in construction costs and allow room for more seats. Games organizers warned in February construction costs were running 23 percent higher than was forecast when the city was awarded the Olympics three years ago. So Vancouver can't keep the costs down, and as a result they screw with the hockey rinks? I'd rather the Olympics stay on the big sheet. The smaller ice surfaces will make it more like the World Cup of hockey... I don't like it either! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristian Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Hmm, the NHL has chosen to play on small rinks, and now the oplympics need to follow suit? What's next, NHL rules then? This is just wrong, if the olympics should be played on small rinks it should be because they DECIDE to, not due to economics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bmwolf21 Posted June 9, 2006 Author Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 I guess we shouldn't be surprised about a city understimating the costs associated with the Olympics, but are we talking about retro-fitting existing venues, or are they building new arenas from scratch? The article wasn't clear on that, and I assume it would cost them more to re-fit the Olympic-sized rinks into an existing NHL building than it would if they were building from the ground up. Also, I have to wonder how much this shifts the expectations and chances for each team - do the USA and Canada have higher hopes now that they can play the more rugged, North American style and not have to worry (as much) about the wide-open, high scoring European style from past Olympics? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopeleslyobvious Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 I guess we shouldn't be surprised about a city understimating the costs associated with the Olympics, but are we talking about retro-fitting existing venues, or are they building new arenas from scratch? The article wasn't clear on that, and I assume it would cost them more to re-fit the Olympic-sized rinks into an existing NHL building than it would if they were building from the ground up. Also, I have to wonder how much this shifts the expectations and chances for each team - do the USA and Canada have higher hopes now that they can play the more rugged, North American style and not have to worry (as much) about the wide-open, high scoring European style from past Olympics? You know, I had a similar thought. Kind of funny how the host city for 2010 decides to go to a smaller rink after having a bad outing on the International size rink. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
apuszczalowski Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 The cost they are talking about is to retrofit GM PLace (where the Canucks play) to the larger ice size by removing seats, cutting up parts of the floor to add more of the cooling lines for the ice under the rink and adding the additions to the boards. THis would also remove seating, so this allows them to sell more tickets to games Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hopeleslyobvious Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 The cost they are talking about is to retrofit GM PLace (where the Canucks play) to the larger ice size by removing seats, cutting up parts of the floor to add more of the cooling lines for the ice under the rink and adding the additions to the boards. THis would also remove seating, so this allows them to sell more tickets to games GM Place has a much larger capacity than most arenas at the Olympics. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't they usually pretty small? I know Salt Lake didn't have too many seats, and Turin looked relatively small too (at least compared to an NHL arena). Didn't Vancouver just host the World Juniors? Wouldn't they have an International Sized rink from that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristian Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 AFAIK rinks in the Olympics don't hold over 8000-12000 people, so if I would say that if Vancouver are banking on atracting crowds of 18.000 they're in for a suprise, as it won't happen at least until the semi's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mphs mike Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Bad decsion and bad precedent. I still think that the rink size makes the Eorpean game a better one. It is one change I'd love to see the NHL make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kristian Posted June 9, 2006 Report Share Posted June 9, 2006 Bad decsion and bad precedent. I still think that the rink size makes the Eorpean game a better one. It is one change I'd love to see the NHL make. Couldn't agree more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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