Whistler and Valley Express (WAVE) may have a plan to expand bus service throughout the Sea to Sky Corridor during the 2010 Olympics. Caley Denton, VANOC vice president of ticketing and consumer marketing, told local media on Friday (Oct. 3) a proposed local transportation scheme may be in the works."From my understanding there is going to be an enhanced WAVE service that will go from Squamish into Whistler," Denton said during a conference call. The Vancouver 2010 website says the Olympic bus network will be linked to park-and-ride locations throughout Metro Vancouver and will move spectators to venues in Whistler. But with no spectator parking in Whistler or Vancouver due to a desire to reduce the amount of congestion on the Sea to Sky Highway, and no plans for local pick up, Squamish residents are left with few options to enjoy the Games.Local media was invited to participate in a conference call Friday to get information on VANOC's first phase of 2010 events ticketing for Canada.Denton said the number of hits on VANOC's website increased about tenfold the instant officials began accepting ticket requests. If any events have maxed their seat limit, a random lottery will be used to award the seats, he said. Remaining tickets will go on sale on a first-come, first-served basis from Dec. 8 to 22.Corridor residents may be most interested in one of three Whistler Locals Olympic Experience Packages (OEPs), which is designed to include four to six events spread out over weekends and evenings so that locals can see competitions and ceremonies around their work schedules. The three packages include tickets to five or six events each and cost $305, $371 and $775, respectively.Those packages are also available to anyone wishing to purchase them, Denton said."When we looked at the model from Salt Lake, there wasn't really anything directed at locals," he said. "We thought that from that perspective, we wanted to put something together that would give them the full experience, with mostly events on the weekends so that they could continue to work, and still enjoy the experience of the Games."Of the 51 OEPs available, eight are designed specifically for those wishing to focus their attention on the Whistler events. The Whistler OEPs, ranging from $156 to $1,274 (the latter includes a premium ticket to the Opening Ceremonies in Vancouver, priced individually at $1,118), include events spread over a three- or four-day period. For $156, ticket holders will be able to attend cross-country skiing Feb. 19, 2010, bobsleigh Feb. 20 and alpine skiing Feb. 21.VANOC has yet to include the Whistler celebration/medal ceremonies in the packages because, according to Denton, officials don't yet have a good grasp of how many people the venue can hold and how it will be set up for the ceremonies. Officials also have yet to decide whether tickets for the ceremonies in Whistler will be free, as are some, but not all, ceremonies in Vancouver. Denton said officials should be able to answer that question by mid-2009.Denton said he was pleased to see from the website that people across the country are interested in coming to Vancouver during the Olympics."The nice thing we have seen in all of our surveys is that Canadians are really embracing the idea of the Olympic experience. Whether it is going to the ski jump with a bus load of Finnish people or watching the biathlon with some Germans, or hanging out with the Austrians at the alpine event or coming to the city, everyone just wants to go and enjoy it and get the feeling of the magic of the game as it happens," Denton said. -with files from David Burke, The Question
