Mayor Ian Sutherland said he blames Whistler for a corridor-wide loss of $18 million following VANOC's decision to move sledge hockey and wheelchair curling Paralympic events to Vancouver.
"VANOC says the province and the feds played a role in this, Whistler blames VANOC for part of it, everybody blames everybody for it," said Sutherland. "But the fact is that $18 million less is being spent in the corridor than would've spent in the corridor. I think that could've been corrected if Whistler had made a decision a whole lot earlier."
Whistler Council voted unanimously Monday (Aug. 21) to turn down $20 million from VANOC to build an arena after VANOC CEO John Furlong sent a letter asking them to decline the project. The Lot 1/9 taskforce came to the same conclusion, saying a sledge hockey arena on the site would not be affordable, practical or sustainable.
Whistlerites who campaigned for the Paralympic sledge hockey arena to be built in the resort had strong words for Mayor Ken Melamed and council's decision.
"I think that this is the worst decision that any council we've ever had here has made," said Mike Thaxter, a local business owner who was part of a group trying to make the arena happen.
Norbert Doebelin, another local businessman who put forward a proposal for an arena concept last summer, echoed those comments. He questioned the promised legacy of the athletes' village. "There's no legacy. It's a liability," he said.
Doebelin said he's even considering leaving Whistler. "The whole thing is a joke," he said. "The public has been taken for a ride here."
Sutherland criticized Whistler lawmakers for taking so long to make a decision, adding that the delay limited Squamish's chances of building the arena.
"If Whistler had been more decisive on what it wanted to do, then I'm confident that we could've convinced VANOC and the Province to go with Squamish," he said.
Whistler resident, Phil Chew, a three-time Paralympian and coach of the B.C. Disabled Ski Team acknowledged, however, that the estimated $60 million-plus cost of an arena on Lots 1/9 wasn't realistic.
"As a resident of Whistler and a taxpayer, I don't want to be on the hook for $30 to $40 million [after the $20 million provided from VANOC]. That's crazy," said Chew.
But he added that the proposed arena was a big reason Whistlerites got behind the Olympic bid. "They waved that arena ... as a carrot."
Chew also said one of the things that attracted the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to Vancouver and Whistler as host cities for the 2010 Games was the concept of holding the entire Paralympic Games in one location. Even though the sledge hockey event will have better exposure in the 7,500-seat arena being built at the University of B.C., that concept of a "compact Games" has been lost, he said.
He would have liked to see VANOC come forward with more money to make the arena happen. "It's funny how they buck up for the other venues but they don't want to seem to want to buck up for this," he said.
Melamed acknowledged that members of the community would be disappointed with the decision.
"Some would say that the bid was filled with promises. We know that bids aren't promises, they're bids, they're best efforts," he said Tuesday (Aug. 22). "But certainly expectations were out there."
Both sledge hockey and wheelchair curling were popular in the 2006 Torino Games and Canada will be defending gold medals in both sports in 2010.
Sutherland said the best attendance would've been in Squamish.
"The arena would've been filled for every game," he said. "I don't think that's going to happen at UBC, I don't think it would've happened in Whistler."
Whistler will remain the site for 84 Paralympic events including nightly Paralympic celebrations and the closing ceremonies, said Terry Wright, VANOC's executive vice-president.
Whistler will also receive the $2 million promised by VANOC in the event that the arena did not go ahead, as well as a minimum of $3 million more toward a "community celebration plaza" legacy on Lots 1/9, Melamed said. About $800,000 has been spent so far on the Lot 1/9 planning process.
