VANOC provides sneak peak at collectible, colourful and secure ticket designs for 2010 Winter Games; confirms more than 1,000 gold medal ice hockey tickets available

Vancouver, BC — Colourful, collectable, dynamic and secure — those are the words that best describe the sport and ceremonies tickets that Canadians and visitors from around the world will use at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

The first four Olympic ticket designs — for the Opening Ceremony, ice hockey, cross-country skiing and curling — were unveiled today by the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC) after months of design and security work. More than a million tickets will be printed and used at the Games in eight months time; ticket buyers will receive them in late 2009 when they are delivered securely by Purolator Courier.

Eager fans may still purchase Olympic tickets, including over one thousand highly sought after gold medal ice hockey tickets, organizers confirmed today. This Saturday, June 6 at 10:00 am (Pacific Time), VANOC will release more than 150,000 tickets for sale to the public at www.vancouver2010.com. Tickets for every sporting event, as well as the Opening, Closing and nightly Victory Ceremonies will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.

The colourful tickets reflect the graphic identity of the Games, with its dynamic palette of blues and greens found in the natural landscape of Vancouver and the Sea to Sky region. This “look” will also be found at Games time in 2010 — on banners, venue signage and buildings — giving the entire Host Region a seamless, festive atmosphere as it welcomes the world.

To protect ticket buyers, a number of security features have been added to the souvenir-sized tickets, features that make the tickets similar to currency in their ability to foil counterfeiters. A bar code is the most obvious high-tech deterrent. VANOC has undertaken significant consumer education and protection initiatives, including a new “Buy Real” print advertising campaign — focused on tickets — that will run this Friday in selected markets.

“We’ve worked hard to make these tickets as secure as possible to protect consumers, while at the same time making them attractive as they are often a treasured souvenir,” explained Caley Denton, VANOC’s vice president, ticketing and consumer marketing. “For example, with our bar code, when a spectator arrives at one of our venues and we scan their ticket, we can tell where that ticket came from, how it was purchased and if it’s been invalidated because it’s been reported stolen or lost. We’ll also be able to spot counterfeit tickets and confiscate them.”

“Again, we want to remind people the only way to have peace of mind about the ticket they’ve purchased is to buy directly from www.vancouver2010.com, or through our official hospitality partners Jet Set Sports and CoSport,” Denton said.

The tickets will prominently display Vancouver 2010 pictograms and sport illustrations, as well as the venues. The sport illustrations — an Olympic and Paralympic Games first — were inspired by photography and give the athletes a heroic feel through a dynamic close-up view of their emotional facial expressions, intensity and athleticism. The entire lineup of pictograms and sport illustrations may be viewed at www.vancouver2010.com.

Additionally, the organizers created entirely new illustrations for ceremonies tickets. For the Opening Ceremony image, a dark-haired female torchbearer approaches BC Place in downtown Vancouver in anticipation of the awe-inspiring lighting of the Olympic Cauldron, in front of a live crowd of 55,000 people and billions more watching around the world.

The remaining ticket designs will be released in the coming months.

The new ticket designs were unveiled to media this morning at the British Columbia Lottery Corporation’s (BCLC) 2010 Winter Games Dome. The dome is helping to spread the excitement of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games to communities throughout British Columbia, while offering visitors an opportunity to experience unique interactive sport experiences and a place to celebrate the 2010 Winter Games.

Note to Photo Editors:
An image of the Vancouver 2010 ice hockey ticket design with Steve Yzerman, executive director of Team Canada for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games, will be made available to media via Canada Newswire.

About VANOC
VANOC is responsible for the planning, organizing, financing and staging of the XXI Olympic Winter Games and the X Paralympic Winter Games in 2010. The 2010 Olympic Winter Games will be staged in Vancouver and Whistler from February 12 to 28, 2010. Vancouver and Whistler will host the Paralympic Winter Games from March 12 to 21, 2010. Visit www.vancouver2010.com.

Contact
If you are a member of the media, please contact mediarelations@vancouver2010.com

For all other inquiries, please contact info@vancouver2010.com