Cypress Mountain Olympic Venue Sends Fans Home
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
There’s been a new twist in the problems of excessive rainfall at Olympic venue Cypress Mountain near Vancouver. Although events are largely going ahead on schedule at present thanks to the heroic efforts of Olympic organisers fighting the elements, it has been determined that the general admission ‘standing area’ for fans could be unsafe. As a result sold out $50 – $65 tickets to snowboard halfpipe, ski cross and snowboard parallel giant slalom events at Cypress Mountain Tickets are being refunded.
The tickets have been cancelled not just for the next few days but for the rest of the Olympics including the men’s and ladies’ snowboard halfpipe, ski cross and snowboard parallel giant slalom events. This cancellation will affect approximately 20,000 spectators.
“Heavy warm rains on Saturday and Sunday have made the general admission standing room area at the Cypress snowboard stadium unsafe for spectators. The rains washed away almost a foot of snow in the area where the standing room area was to be located. General admission standing room tickets for men’s and ladies’ snowboard cross events were also previously cancelled for February 15 and 16.†Said a statement from the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC).
“With safety the top priority and with snowboard events taking place daily, there is insufficient snow to move and build the standing room area back up at the Cypress snowboard stadium. VANOC has protected sufficient contingency snow for field of play at Cypress Mountain.†The statement continues.
“Our senior management and venue team have spent significant time on site to try and find a way to accommodate spectators in the standing room areas for the events. We’ve exhausted all avenues but it just wasn’t possible to make the area safe for spectators,†said Caley Denton, VANOC’s vice president of ticketing and consumer marketing.
Spectators who have tickets for seating in the grandstand are not affected, nor are those who have general admission standing room tickets for freestyle skiing aerials competitions later in the Games. This sport discipline is held in a separate stadium at Cypress Mountain.
