A Few Monday Morning Links

Hope you are all keeping warm.  Get your week off to an Olympic start with some links for your edification:

• Moscow is looking to double its geographical size.  That's the link to The Guardian article about the plan by president Dimitri Medvedev and Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin to drastically expand the borders of the city.  This is the heart of a scheme to ease the chronic gridlock and congestion that has become a staple of Moscow life.  The plan is to move essential government offices and big businesses out to the suburbs over the course of twenty years, as the city swallows up dachas and forest around the city.  Naturally, this doesn't thrill said owners of dachas or people who like trees but, hey, once that Russian eminent domain machine gets rolling...
• For all you philet, filatell...all you people who like stamps, the official Sochi 2014 stamps will be available in six languages.  The first of the four planned stamp sets will be released this fall and will feature well-known natural scenes and cultural sites.
• This link is my favorite and it probably deserves more words than I'm about to give it, but here goes.  There are increasing signs, as reported by The Moscow Times, that St. Petersburg is considering an Olympic bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics.  Now other than fake job security for me, this development is interesting for a few reasons.  Russia, of course, is already on the hook to host the 2013 Universiade (World Student Games), a grand prix F1 event in 2014, the 2016 World Hockey Championships, and  the 2018 World Cup.  Why would Russia want to lay out even more cash to host another event?Well...

Alexander Zhukov, head of Russia’s Olympic Committee, told Around the Rings, the official Olympic news site, that the country believes major events play a vital role in improving the quality of life for all Russians.

 “Our policy is to have more big championships to promote a healthier style of life in Russia and have more children in different kinds of sports,” he said. “That is our aim as an Olympic committee and an Olympic movement.”

Ok, fine. But surely there must be dramatically cheaper ways to promote healthier lifestyles than hosting mega bucks sporting events.  For example, instead of hosting all of the above, the Russian government could probably afford to buy a year's worth of organic groceries for everyone in Russia.  Or just drop vegetables out of helicopters.  Or make vodka more expensive.  Oh, wait.

Or, maybe, Russia's picking up all these mega events shows the government's commitment to improving the nation's infrastructure.  Dmitry Belousov, of the Center for Macroeconomic Analysis and Short-term Forecasting, points to the upgrades in rail services in advance of the World Cup, improvements to airports and new roads as evidence that these events are driving infrastructure improvements.  

I don't say this to pick on Russia, because it happens all the time in the US as well, but the logic behind this is colossally bad.  Either infrastructure improvements needed to be made, or they didn't.  It shouldn't require a $30+ billion investment in the Olympics to improve road or rail travel to Sochi.  Similarly, you shouldn't need to host a hockey tournament to improve your country's airport or the World Cup to build more swimming pools.  And, unfortunately, when hosting events such as the Olympics, the infrastructure improvements will remain after the Games have passed but so too will the completely or partially unused facilities that the government will have to pay to maintain.  And I understand, to a point why Russia wants to host all these events; everybody likes to see their name in the paper and sports are really fun.  Not to mention, there are certainly some intangible benefits to hosting these events.  And, sure, there are a few cases kicking around of how a baseball stadium helped spur development in a city.  But city (or in this case, national) planning revolving around hosting big league sporting events, doesn't really make much sense.  Hell, the article even notes that Mr. Belusov "concedes that it is unclear why this long-term planning revolves solely around sport, but adds that this is, at least, better than nothing."

As long as 'better than nothing' is good enough, that's what you'll continue to get. 

Russian Budget Minister Warns of Cost Overruns for Sochi

Oh, snap.  Radio Free Europe has pulled from various reports the news that the head of Russia's Federal Service of Financial and Budget Oversight, Sergei Pavlenko, has admitted that the final price tag of the Sochi Games will be somewhere between $13 and $18 billion.  This is due to, as the article notes "greedy contractors and sloppy management," including rising costs to "prevent buildings from sinking into the ground."  (Here's a Russian language report on the same topic.)

As you might recall, the company in charge of the build, Olimpstroi, is on its 3rd chief in four years and Russian president Dimitrii Medvedev ordered an official probe into corruption surrounding the Olympic build earlier this year.  Not to bombard you with links, but corruption in Russian build projects can only be described as "endemic."

Just a bit of clarification on that final price tag of "$13 to $18 billion;" RIA-Novosti, a news mouthpiece for the state, previously stated that the cost would be north of $30 billion dollars in at least two articles. Therefore, it's hard to get a handle on what, exactly, that 13-18 price tag refers to.  I noted yesterday that the operating cost of the Games would be about $2 billion US.  My guess, just from experience, is that the above price tag refers to Olympic specific building projects and that the missing $15+ billion is considered as 'infrastructure improvements' that would have been done regardless of the Olympics.  That, of course, is dubious.

So this is all well and good and it's always interesting when someone in Russian government speaks out against construction.  The problem, from where I'm sitting, is that this is unlikely to produce interesting news; odds are that this minister is not going to be fired and odds are the building will continue as it has.  Mr. Pavlenko is not going to be disappeared for saying this; rather, he'll probably get a pat on the back from president Medvedev.  Generic complaints of corruption/fraud/waste against big companies, so long as the president and prime minister have sufficient distance from them, is more than likely welcomed by those in power.  Broad campaigns against corruption are as old as, well, birch trees in Russia.  Shit, it's how this guy ended up in jail 

Ticketing Process for Sochi 2014 Based on London 2012 Model

Well, welcome back.  Thank you, thank you.  I've actually been away; job interview in NY, an unplanned night at a hotel bar in Queens after Delta cancelled my return flight and a trip to Cincinnati over the weekend all took priority over the Olympics.  I know, I know, shame on me.  Also, I'm also working on my other website at www.wtfisadebtceiling.com (warning: not a real website).  So, I've had that going for me, which is nice.

It does, however, mean that I remain behind in the news cycle (what's new?) to the intrepid reporters over at aroundtherings.net.  Mark Bisson reports that Sochi 2014 plans to emulate the controversial 'ballot' ticketing scheme that has been something of a nightmare for London 2012. 

Speaking of WTF, WTF is a 'ballot' when it comes to buying tickets?  The Telegraph printed something of a FAQ to the first round of ticket purchasing opportunities but I'll summarize it in this space because the process is confusing to the point that the paper created an interactive app to help navigate it: Over a 42-day period in March and April, one could fill out a form to apply for the 6.6 million tickets made available for 645 sessions and there was no penalty for applying late in the process.  One would then fill out what sport/venue/day/price point they wanted, while also indicating whether they would be willing to accept more or less expensive tickets if the tickets they want are not available.  One could do this, obviously, for more than one session if they so chose.  Sessions that were oversold would have tickets allocated on a lottery system, while unsold tickets (of which there were about 1 million after this first round of the process, for less desirable sports and sports such as soccer, which will be played in massive stadiums) are available in a second-chance ballot.  Simple enough, right?

Well, there were/are a couple problems.  The obvious and most fixable one is the fact that the ticketing site crashed on the last day, overwhelmed with last-minute ticket seekers.  The other problem, as evidenced by the number of buyers who blew up twitter, is what I would call "Holy shit, I hope I don't get all the tickets I ordered."  That is, many people over-ordered, operating under the assumption that they would not actually get tickets for all the sessions they picked.  Not that there was much they could do about it, because London organizers were debiting/charging your Visa for whatever you were awarded.  Accounts that came back with 'insufficient funds' got a bit of grace period but, other than that, you got what you got.  There will eventually be an official secondary market set up where you can sell tickets you don't want/had to sell your car to get, but that won't be for another year.  Until then, you're paying interest on Olympic tix.

As we square the circle here, naturally none of this has deterred Sochi 2014 president Dimitri Chernyshenko:

Sochi 2014 president Dmitry Chernyshenko says Russia's Winter Olympics organizers will sell tickets via the controversial ballot system adopted for London 2012 Olympics.

Thousands of people missed out on tickets in the first and second round of ticket sales for next year's Games when the official ticketing website buckled under heavy demand.

But London's experience has not deterred Sochi Olympics chiefs, who are shortly to launch the tender for the 2014 Games ticketing agent.

"I believe we will use the best practices and the same approach in our ticketing campaign," Chernshenko said.

Asked if that meant using a ballot system, he added: "We are certainly going to use it."

 Well, straight from the horse's mouth, so to speak.   And there are other items in the first article I linked on aroundtherings.net, namely that Chernyshenko says that Sochi 2014 is on pace to have some venues completed even by the end of this year.  Also, he reports that Sochi 2014 has already raised $1.1 billion toward the projected $2 billion operating expense to run the Games and that no private money will be used.  Then again, when the cost of the Games is north of $30 billion, does anyone really give a shit about operating costs?  Though I guess it must feel good to say the words 'privately' and 'financed' in the same sentence; not often you can say that about any operation in Russia.

NATO-Russia Meet in Sochi, Olympic Guy There Too

For the millionth time in the last 20 years, NATO (with secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen) met with prime minister Dimitri Medvedev to discuss, among other things, Russian displeasure with the NATO campaign in Libya and the intractable issue of a European missile defense system.  So, uh, how did it go?

Well, it went really well, thank you very much. 

Wait, scratch that.  It was awful, just awful. 

The Russian issue with regard to the NATO bombing campaign in Libya is relatively straightforward; Russia is irritated with what it feels is NATO's ever-expanding presence in Libya, arguing the mission's objective is to protect innocent civilians in Libya.  Russian officials protest that the delivery of arms to the rebels, as well as the presence of foreign military instructors in Libya, are in direct violation of resolutions passed by the UN earlier this year.  NATO, of course, does not see things way.  Russia, naturally, has decided to go with the 'Bobby Fischer' approach to diplomacy, so hopefully that works out better than Mr Fischer's last press conference.

The other biggie, and one that is the main thrust of the second and third links, is the future of a NATO-sponsored European missile defense system.  I'll spare you the gory details but, suffice it to say, NATO and Russia still have a pretty wide gulf to bridge if this thing is to ever get off the ground.  Here's NATO's official statement about the future of missile defense.  And here is an article claiming that the proposal is not only ineffective, but might also actually endanger Russia. 

What's interesting is the throwaway article at The Voice of Russia about NATO praising the security measures implemented by Russia for the 2014 Sochi Games.  What's interesting to me and, in addition, something that I've had a hell of a time finding more about, is Russia's demonstration of what's known as STANDEX; that is, Stand-off Explosive Detection.  One of the larger pursuits of the NATO-Russia council is the development of this technology.  It is hoped that this technology will be successful at "identifying and recognizing explosives on a suicide bomber or on a movable object in urban transport." 

With security issues already a major concern for the 2014 Games, it will be interesting to follow the development of this technology to see whether this might change the way potential terrorists are caught in the act before they have the chance to reek Munich '72 style violence in 2014. 

Slopestyle Approved for Sochi 2014

That vanguard of XTREME!!! sports, The New York Times, is first to report the addition of slopestyle events for the 2014 Winter Olympics.  What is slopestyle, says you?  Why, it's when you stick shit that isn't normally on a mountain (rails, for example) and combine that with bumps and jumps.  All these things are known collectively as 'features.'  Slopestyle will be a part of both snowboarding and freestyle skiing, though the really important part is that the only snowboarder anyone has ever heard of, Target's Shaun White, says he'd like to compete.

Here's Bobby Brown's freeskiing slopestyle X Games gold medal run:

And here's Finland's Eero Ettala doing the same on a snowboard:

Bilyaletdinov in as New Russian Hockey Head through Sochi Games

Zinetula Bilyaletdinov is in as the new head coach of the Russian national hockey team, replacing Vyacheslav Bykov, who was ousted in May, in no small part due to the national team's 6th place finish in Vancouver.  Bilyaletdinov, was plucked from his position as head coach of the Ak Bars KHL team, which is based in Kazan.

A defenseman,  Bilyaletdinov played for the Soviet national team from 1973-1988 and was on the silver medal-winning team in Lake Placid in 1980 and the gold medal-winners in 1984 in Sarajevo.  In addition, he won numerous world championship golds, as well as a gold in the 1981 Canada Cup.  The world's most-decorated goaltender (and the guy who got pulled after giving up 2 goals in the first period of the 1980 semi-finals against the US), Vladimir Tretiyak, had positive things to say about the new head man in the above linked article (here's some of what Tretiyak said in English, via The Moscow News).

Bilyaletdinov's Ak Bars squad won the first ever Gagarin Cup in 2007 and, in various media sources in Russia, the head coach has expressed repeatedly how happy he was to coach team in the region (Tartarstan) where he grew up.

So why did he leave?  Well, let me paraphrase:   The question of my appointment was answered at the level of prime minister Vladimir Putin and president of Tartarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov--to refuse in such a situation was impossible.

So there.

Old News Is Better Than No News

Kind of a slow news weekend in Sochi, so I'll hit a few news items from the last few weeks that I haven't touched on yet.

• Earlier this month, the Jugba-Lazarevskoye-Sochi natural gas pipeline opened, at a cost of just over $1 billion.  This is one of the good things about development; the citizens of Sochi certainly deserve access to piped gas, especially when they live in one of the largest natural gas-exporting nations in the world.  Should they have had to give up their quiet little resort town to Olimpstroy to get it?  Wait, don't answer that.
• National Hockey League Commissioner Gary Bettman "continues to drag out" his decision on whether NHL players will compete for Olympic medals in Sochi, at least according to the Toronto Globe and Mail.  That's a misleading headline for a number of reasons, not least of which simply because Bettman isn't dragging anything out; he doesn't need to make any decision on this for a while.  The NHL and its commissioner/owners have a number of concerns about sending their players to play in the Olympics: the league and the owners are not compensated for sending the players to play, increased risk of injury, the safety of its players in the Caucasus and, most importantly, shutting down the league for 3 weeks in February, just after the Superbowl, when the NHL is the only pro game in town and the regular season is starting to get good.  Not to mention Bettman has enough on his dinner plate right now, with the move of the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg and the apparently extensive realignment to come in 2013.
• What did you do celebrate 'Olympic Day' on June 24th?  Me, I set myself up a nice little biathlon course in my backyard; it pissed off the neighbors, but I have a feeling they'll be thanking me in December. 

I Just Want You to Link Me

• Johnny Weir plans to skip the 2011-2012 skating season, but still plans to compete in Sochi.  This link is worth it just for the picture of Weir at Gay Pride 2011, with a hairstyle that makes him look like a balding Mexican woman.  Meanwhile, Evgeni Plushenko, who finished second to American Evan Lysacek in Vancouver, has had surgery and kissed and made up with the International Skating Union, so he's planning to be in Sochi.
• I have no idea what this is, but it's happening in Sochi.
• Gamesbids.com reports that Russia's railway infrastructure project is on time, for what it's worth.
• Microsoft is now the the official software supplier to the Sochi Olympics and I have absolutely no idea what anything in the article means.  Russia, of course, has been swimming upstream for years trying to join the World Trade Organization and, for years, a lack of respect for intellectual property rights has been a key sticking point.  Microsoft, in particular, has complained for years about the free distribution of its products in Russia.  Microsoft's most recent interaction with Russia was its condemnation of the Russian government's, uh, selective enforcement of IP rights, a favorite way of the government to shut down uncooperative NGOs. 
• And finally, Around the Rings has a pithy Q & A with Olympic organizer Dimitri Chernyshenko about the "look" of the Games.  

Happy reading, all.  Enjoy the weekend!

The Two Sides of Sochi

There's an excellent piece over at the online site of The St. Petersburg Times (the Russian one), detailing the persistent issue of housing in Sochi.  It's something I've touched on before, albeit from a different angle, and one that doesn't seem to be subsiding.

Sochi residents (and residents of towns nearby) are beneficiaries of the splendid progress train that is currently barreling through Sochi.  Or at least that's what the government's mouthpiece in Sochi, Tatyana Strakhova, believes:

The Olympics will be a huge celebration for Russia, and the modernized infrastructure it brings will have positive effects for the citizens of Sochi for a long time to come...

 Of course, every city has its problems,” she says. “But the Olympics have given us a chance to improve everything here, and all these changes would have taken many years to accomplish if it wasn’t for the extra funds we’ve received because of the Games.” She explains that it is an impossible task to keep everyone satisfied while working on a project of this scale.

The people who are negative about the Games just want everything to stay the way it always has been,” said Strakhova. “The people of Bukhta are used to living a quiet life near the sea and living off tourism. Of course they are bitter about losing their homes and land.

Oh, those pesky townspeople.  However, on the one hand, Ms. Strakhova is correct: progress is not without growing pains.  People get used to doing things a certain way for long enough and any change is anathema to them.  People complained about cars replacing horses, the internet, etc.  Any time there is progress made for the greater good, there are always going to be dissenters who either have a vested (financial or emotional) stake in what's being replaced or are simply stuck in their ways.  I could call my grandmother right now and in five minutes be talking about how much new kitchen mixers suck and how America peaked in 1964.  I can't speak to the mixers but I think most people would disagree with the second half.  Most of the gnashing of teeth over progress/change reflects a distinctly human condition in which nearly all things associated with youth are remembered as good.  Being young is awesome, especially in America, and every time some institution from your youth is replaced, it's just one more reminder that you're getting older which, surely, is bad.

But quibbling about feelings isn't really my point here, nor is it the point of this blog.  At a national level, everyone who knows anything about Russia would agree that poor/lack of infrastructure is a real problem.  The roads are for shit and the traffic is awful, power plant failures are all too common, the August, 2009 Sayano-Shushenskaya Dam disaster cost 75 lives, etc.  The stuff that does get built is too often only in Moscow and Russian building projects are notoriously, if not comically, corrupt: Then there's the Olympic road from Adler to Krasnaya Polyana (that's 30 miles) that will cost north of $7 billion, which is about $233 million a mile.  Which would be funny, if it wasn't so sad.


Point being, the question at the heart of my little blog is whether or not Russia should be pumping north of $30 billion into building sports stadiums and highways, razing houses, extending rail lines, etc. when there are a host of other problems plaguing Russia. 

At any rate, with Russia's version of eminent domain forcing more Sochi residents from their homes, more and more of the displaced are complaining for one of two reasons: those who accepted the government's offer to have a house built for them in a different part of town are finding their new homes to be about what you'd expect from a government contractor throwing up as many houses as possible in a short period of time.  Those who took the payoff from the feds are at least able to rent nicer places elsewhere in town, though even then it's a steep downgrade from home owner to apartment renter. So reports Simon Eliasson:

 The citizens of Imeretinskaya Bukhta do not all share her [Strakhova's] unreserved optimism about the Olympics. In total, about a thousand citizens in Sochi have had their property expropriated by the state to make way for construction. Valentina Selivanova is one of them. She lives with her husband in the area, but they don’t have much time left here. Their house will soon be demolished, though they still haven’t been informed exactly when it will happen.

“We have lived in this house since 1972, and now nothing remains of it,” said Selivanova.

Her son Nikolai is emptying the house he grew up in. Roofing, copper pipes — everything that might be of value is stacked in a pile on the lawn in front of the house.

The house itself is empty, except for the one room in which Valentina and her husband still live. The empty windows of the other rooms gape hauntingly, and the roof is partially gone. Nearby the heap of metal scraps lies a mound of grapevines, torn up from the backyard. Selivanovna and her family chose to accept financial compensation for their house rather than move to a new house supplied by Olympstroi, the state corporation in charge of construction for the Olympics.

“The new houses in [the area of] Nekrasovka are being built in a hurry and lack quality,” said Selivanova. “There have been many problems with them, from bad flooring to skewed doorways. That’s the reason we chose compensation instead, rather than take the risk of ending up in a bad quality house.” Currently, the family is looking for an apartment in central Sochi. The compensation they received will be enough to buy about 60 square meters of living space there, compared to the more than 200 square meters they had in the house.

For the displaced, this better be one hell of an Olympic party.

NBC Drops $4.83 Billion To Broacast Next Four Olympics

So reporteth the Wall Street Journal:

NBCU's bill will be divided into four parts. It will pay $775 million for 2014, $1.226 billion for 2016, $963 million for 2018 and $1.418 billion for 2020, the IOC said. NBC lost $223 million on the 2010 Vancouver Games and is projecting a $250 million loss for London next year.

In a news conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, Tuesday, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said he believes the new deal will be profitable but didn't provide specifics. The company has said it plans to spread its coverage across its cable and broadcast networks as well as its digital outlets. The company is betting on the uptick in the ad market and increases in fees from cable companies and TV stations to defray the costs, a person familiar with the matter said.

One big beneficiary is likely to be NBCU's Versus cable sports network, which has long lagged ESPN. "It will finally now become a big-time national sports network," said Rick Gentile, the former executive producer of CBS Sports.

Acknowledging the need to cater to diehard fans and mainstream viewers, NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said NBCU will show every event live on some platform, in addition to sticking with its taped prime-time coverage.

 For me, the really interesting part of this story is the last sentence of the first paragraph: NBC lost $250 million or so on broadcasting the Vancouver Winter Olympics, even with all the hottest events being broadcast during primetime in America.  And, from what I can find, NBC has lost money on every Olympics broadcast since it started broadcasting them in the 80's.  So why on Earth would NBC fork over nearly five billion for the rights to broadcast something that has been a money loser?

Well, as the above "source familiar with the negotiations" notes, NBC is betting on an increase in ad revenue to offset its expected increase in costs, as the network vows to show all events live on some format (hello modern pentathlon on Nat Geo International!).  While a continuing uptick in ad revenues would be huge for NBC, remember that Comcast now owns 51% of NBCUniversal.  By my count, this means that, between NBC and Comcast, there are around 20 channels (not to mention many more websites) on which NBC will be able to broadcast the Olympics and this is where I think the real money is to be made: Comcast can now hold other cable companies such as Time Warner over a barrel to carry Comcast-owned channels that will be showing Olympic content.  Do you want to explain to your subscribers why they can't watch live curling at 3am?  Didn't think so...

Other interesting things about this deal: It was rumored that Fox actually offered more money than did NBC.  What tipped the scales in NBC's favor were, apparently, two things 1) the IOC's familiarity with NBC over the last 20 or so years and 2) the fact that NBC apparently brought 17 execs to Lausanne to pitch the deal and that this apparently greatly excited IOC members (many IOC members, like FIFA members, love nothing more than to be told and shown how important they are, so credit NBC for that).  Other articles have speculated that merely the status that comes with being the Network That Broadcasts the Olympics will help spark general interest in NBC programming and raise ratings, though no amount of Olympic rings underneath the NBC logo can force me to watch The Event.

There are, of course, huge risks involved for NBC; the network bid blind on the 2018 (it is generally thought that South Korea is the front-runner) and 2020 Games and is likely to be staring at a dearth of high-profile events being broadcast during primetime in the US.  Not to mention that the network is going all-in on the Olympics without Dick Ebersol, the long-time head of NBC Sports, who has presided over every NBC Olympic broadcast since 1992 and who recently resigned after the merger of Comcast and NBC.  Ebersol has long been considered one of the brightest executives in the business and made a cottage industry out of identifying and telling the best in human interest stories from each Olympics.  The absence of Ebersol reportedly unnerved even the IOC, so there's a lot of pressure on NBC to get London right in 2012.  NBC has bet a huge of money that it will. 

What's Old Is New--Sochi Watch Relaunch

With fewer than 1,000 days remaining until the XXII Olympic Winter Games, to be held in Sochi, Russia in 2014, this seemed like an opportune time renew my commitment to covering any- and everything relating to the Sochi Olympics.  You can read my original mission statement here and, to be honest, not a whole lot has changed in terms of my goals.  My aim this time around is to post more frequently, perhaps write a few longer pieces and reliably put together a collection of links for posting each Friday on stuff that doesn't necessarily warrant a full post from me.  Also, I'd like to be funnier.  And I wouldn't mind expanding my readership beyond immediate family members and friends I've blackmailed into doing so. 

At any rate, I do hope you stick around and find at least a little something throughout the week that you think is interesting or maybe didn't know.  And geez, would it kill you to leave a comment every now and again?


-adam

Ebersol Out at NBC Sports

Reported first by The New York Times, head of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol, has decided to resign.  Ebersol, who has run NBC Sports since the late-80s was unable to agree to terms on a new contract with new management as he negotiated his first deal since the merger of NBC and Comcast.  His decision is curious because Ebersol was widely-expected to wield even greater power with the merger of the two titans, especially because many of the executives at the post-merger department are holdovers from NBC Sports. 

This is germane to Sochi how, exactly?  Well, I know a thing or two about burying a lead but the real story here is that this comes just weeks before the IOC auctions off the rights to broadcast the Sochi Olympics.  Networks can bid on Sochi 2014, Rio 2016 or a package deal that would include those two plus the 2018 and 2020 Games, which have yet to be awarded (you can see the status of 2018 bids on the invaluable www.gamesbids.com).  NBC has broadcast the Summer Games since Seoul in 1988 and the Winter Games since 2002 in Salt Lake.   As ESPN reports, the IOC is looking to exceed the $2.2 billion they got from NBC in the last deal.

Interesting stuff, if for no other reason than Dick Ebersol has had as big an impact on the way sports are presented than anyone not named Roone Arledge (the guy who thought up Monday Night Football).  NBC now presents the Olympics on about 37 channels domestically (give or take) and shows more live coverage than ever before.  In fact, as renaissance man Peter Uberroth notes in that ESPN story, Ebersol has defined the Olympic Movement over the last 30 years as much as anybody.  In fact, I would say that he's had an impact that is surpassed only by former IOC director Juan Antonio Samaranch's. 

As NBC's impact on sports in the US has receded over the last decade or so (really, other than Sunday Night Football, name an NBC Sports broadcast you watch), they really hitched their wagon to the Olympic brand.  Interesting to see how it turns out for NBC...

So, Uh, It's about that Time

1,000 days to go until the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics!  Hard to believe, I know, but you'll forever more be able to keep track thanks to the official countdown clock of the 2014 Winter Olympics, brought to you by OMEGA.

More interesting than clocks, of course, were the events that commenced across the country to mark the celebration:

The city of Sochi and the whole of Russia celebrated the milestone with a series of events and festivities under the banner of "The Marathon of 1000 Good Deeds". The main themes of the day were: the environment, healthy living, education, and culture.

Some of the events that took place were:

· "1000 Olympic Lessons" were held at schools in Moscow, Krasnodar, Khanty-Mansiysk and Novocherkassk.

· Moscow, St Petersburg, Omsk, Volgograd, Krasnodar and Novorossiysk hosted a sports festival called "A 1000-Metre Dash Towards the Olympic Games". On top of this, volunteers instigated a huge flash mob called "The Olympic Warm-Up", which saw thousands of people taking part. In Volgograd, the warm-up was led by Olympic champion weight-lifter Aleksey Petrov.

· A "Friendship between People" Festival was held in Moscow, Kazan and Tomsk, to reflect the cultural diversity among Russia's nationalities. Volunteers at Kazan State Technical University organized an immense hot-pot banquet with 1,000 national meals for the public to sample.

· In Tomsk the Sochi 2014 Anthem was performed by 1000 musicians from three combined orchestras.

· Krasnodar, Moscow, and Ufa launched a number of social initiatives for the elderly under the title of "1000 Smiles". In addition, a programme called the "1000 Children's Drawings on Asphalt" was organized, where streets were decorated in brightly-coloured drawings created by children taking part in the event.

· Environmental events and “green initiatives” were held in Vladivostok, Tver, Sochi, Pyatigorsk, and Arkhangelsk. Numerous trees were planted alongside the Olympic avenues, and flower beds were arranged in the figure of 1,000.

· The students from the Pyatigorsk State Linguistic University also climbed to the top of Mount Mashuk, which stands at a height of 1,000m, and cleared its slopes of litter. The students began their ascent of the mountain from five different starting-points, one for each of the Olympic rings. The event also saw the Sochi 2014 Flag planted on the very summit of Mount Mashuk.

So, what's your favorite event?  Personally, I really want to know what an Olympic flash mob looks like.  Did 1,000 people simultaneously pretend to throw a discus?  Also, always excited about the '1,000 Children's Drawings on Asphalt'...just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?  Sarcasm aside, I'm always interested the activities around the "Greenest Olympics Ever;" looks like the Russian authorities participated in their favorite activity to celebrate the countdown: arresting hooligans who stand in the way of progress.

Ecological Destruction Continues in Sochi

Good summary of the current ecological situation in Sochi, from an AFP article I caught on vancouversun.com.  Essentially, it covers the basics: that Russia is saying the gargantuan building project to prepare Sochi is "70%" finished and that this will be the "greenest" Olympics ever vs the Ecological Watch on North Caucasus saying that that ain't exactly the case:

“In general, environmental damage in Sochi is much worse than what we expected in the early stages of construction planning,” said Suren Gazaryan of the Environmental Watch on North Caucasus.

The regional NGO continues to monitor Olympic construction sites after both Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund announced they were withdrawing from the process last year.

“Right now construction crews have no oversight, they simply do what suits them, and this landslide is a good example,” Gazaryan said as he walked along a river in Sochi National Park whose shores have become encrusted with asphalt-like mud.

A mudslide from an illegal dump up the hill tore through the park and filled the river’s banks with debris from tunnel construction and other waste in January.

“Clearly leaving thousands of tons of waste on a steep hillside is not a good idea, but its convenient, and it can’t be stopped,” Gazaryan said as he picked off a chunk of the black substance for testing.

I guess you could classify leaving thousands of tons of waste on a steep hillside as "not a good idea" but, then again, this is the same country that has decided to spend over $30 billion to host the Olympics in the first place.  What I'm saying is that maybe two wrongs make a right and everything will go swimmingly in 2014.  Anyway...it's also never a good thing when, annoyed at the sham that is the never-ending meetings and promises from the Russian government to clean up their Sochi act, the World Wildlife Fund and Greenpeace have totally divorced themselves from this entire process of working with the government.  When two of the most devoted and tireless baby seal-saving organizations in the world deice that it's not worth it, that's bad, right?

Now, you can read the article yourself for all the gory details and/or visit the EWNC's website/facebook page/search for its vids on YouTube.  One thing I did want to point out, however, is the case of Gayane Antonova, which was touched on briefly in the article and, I think, highlights the difficulties of principled opposition to this project.  Antonova has been something of an outspoken critic of instances of waste/fraud/cutting down centuries-old pine trees.  As the story notes, when she called the local cops out to point out that, you know, Russian Railways had decided to just start laying track on the shore without any permission to do so, the cops hauled her in instead.  The charges?  Using foul language and/or hooliganism.

Fortunately, Antonova was found not guilty by the municipal courts (warning: link in Russian), which is something of a minor victory in a world where principled opposition, um, you know, sometimes gets run over by cars and flees the country.  The story of Antonova (and, again, I would like to reiterate that I am aware the the EWNC is not an unbiased source.  I would also like to reiterate that I am not a journalist.) serves merely to highlight that Russia remains an unsafe place to do business for those who attempt to speak out and who have a platform. 

Sochi Puts English First

Job Alert: According to The St. Petersburg Times (the one in Russia) reports that Sochi 2014 recently hired English First to teach English to potentially 70,000 Russians in advance of the 2014 Winter Olympics.  If that sounds ambitious, well, it is.  Also, if that sounds like one hell of a classroom, well, the paper reports that most of the teaching will be done in virtual classrooms (even though I'm pretty sure I took an undergrad science course with 70,000 students.  I think we only had 3 TAs, but I digress...).  This is Olympics-specific in that the goal is to train volunteers, taxi drivers, athletes, etc; pretty much anybody who might come in contact with foreigners willing to pull their bulletproof vest out of storage and go to the Olympics. 

But, as I've learned from following the goings on in Sochi, it's also part of a wider initiative to develop more English-speaking civil servants in Russia.  There's a movement afoot in Russia make 20% of the current government employees conversational in English, a movement that goes hand-in-hand with the government's plan to make basic English a requirement for all new federal employees as soon as next year. 

Incidentally, there's an 'English First' initiative rearing its head again in the US, though I'm not sure it's in the same spirit.

Sochi.ru Reveals "Look of the Games"

What, you didn't know that the 2014 Winter Games had an official look?  Hear me now and believe me later.  From Sochi.ru:

At the heart of the Look of the Games concept design lies the principle of the "patchwork quilt" - a combination of 16 designs representing the most famous traditional Russian arts and crafts, ranging from Gzhel to Khokhloma. The Look of the Games concept is the visual embodiment of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games philosophy and is intended to express the character of modern Russia whilst at the same time introducing guests from all over the world to traditional Russian hospitality.

So, uh, that's what it is.  Feel free to read the article further if you really like being confused or you love reading Rhetoric 101 papers about symbolism in "The Heart of Darkness;" lines like "it [the look] portrays emotion and moderation, tact and expression; in short - the Russian character that is inherent in every resident of the host country."   I'm serious; there's a full description of all 16 designs if you click that link, so caveat emptor.  And if you really get off on pain, here's a site that'll talk to you about the Olympic look all the way back to Lillehammer in 1994. 

I've written in the past about Olympic sponsors (and I'm too lazy to link to them), so it should be known that Bosco Sport, a Russian sport apparel manufacturer, is the proud sponsor of the look of the Games.  Bosco Sport, which is part of a larger consortium, has a motto (The Beauty of Success) and the exclusive rights to outfit all Russian Olympic and Paralympic teams and has since Salt Lake in 2002.  I've been unable to locate exactly how much Bosco is paying to sponsor the look but, suffice it to say, I'm sure it ain't cheap. 

And if you still want to get in on the action, well I'm happy to report that it's not too late.  Sochi.ru is still taking on partners so, if you know someone who'd like to be the official confectionery of the 2014 Olympics, the time is now. 

"A Solid Weather Programme"

That's what they got, says Dimitri Chernyshenko, discussing Sochi 2014's to get out in front of the likely challenge from Sochi's Mediterranean climate to having, uh, snow on the ground in 2014.  Snow will likely be very important to the overall success of the Games, so Chernyshenko hopes to avoid having to fly and truck in snow as happened in Vancouver.  What's the plan?  Why, "hot snow programme," of course:

He [Chernyshenko] said that their "hot snow" programme would provide reliable snow cover in Sochi even at temperatures of up to +15 degrees.

Mr Chernyshenko said the organisers hoped to store enough snow from the previous winter season in case February 2014, when the games are being held, should prove to be unusually warm.

And as well as storing snow for a year, Sochi 2014 also hopes to make use of a number of scientific measures to boost the quality and volume of snow that they need.

One will be to use a chemical additive to improve the bonding quality of the snow.
"Another is to make powder from ice, to create additional snow when needed," said Mr Chernyshenko, a native of Sochi.

 The real enemy, of course is rain; that's what made the skiing conditions so brutally difficult in Vancouver.  That's ok, because what I didn't quote is the fact that the Ministry of Defence has "technology to dissolve rain clouds."  Forcible climate change;  only in Russia...

Malkovich in Russia

That's right, the John Malkovich as something like the guest of honor at the 11th annual Sweet Cherry Forest Open Arts Festival, held in Moscow.  As you undoubtedly already know, this is all part of the Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad Year of the Theatre.  What's that, you ask?  Well, from Around the Games:  

The project, designed to encompass all of Russia and help involve every citizen in a grand celebration, is also aimed at showcasing Russian talent in the build-up to the Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Sochi...

 Dmitry Chernyshenko, the President and chief executive of Sochi 2014, said: "The aim of all our activities under the Cultural Olympiad is to reach the heart of each citizen of the Russia to unite traditions and innovations.

"The Sweet Cherry Forest Festival, with its numerous premieres and the wide variety of genres,  is considered one of the brightest events of Year of theatre of the Sochi2014 Cultural Olympiad."

More than a thousand different cultural events are due to take place in Sochi in the build-up to the Olympics and Paralympics.

Malkovich is there promoting chamber opera play, whatever that is, called "The Giacomo Variations,"using Mozart's music about the life and times of Giacomo Casanova.  Yes, that Casanova.

And I don't know about you but when I think sex symbol, I think Malkovich.

Sochi Bringing the Party to London

Well, what the hell?  When you're already creating an Olympics from scratch, why not build some of it in London?

That's what is happening in 2012, as Russia plans to showoff for the world, looking to rent space near the Marble Arch to build an ice rink, teach the locals about figure skating and display the culture of both Sochi and the surrounding Krasnodar region.  Says the head of Sochi 2014 Dimitri Chernyshenko:

The public activities will run under the name of Sochi World and will focus on master-classes and spectacular shows on an ice-rink. The aim will be to present a new feature of the Sochi Games by reflecting the many different aspects of Russian culture across all its regions.

I like the idea of 'Sochi World.'  Mostly because I imagine riding Space Mountain through the Caucasus or dodging gunfire from Chechen terrorists on the tea cup ride.  Anyway...

This land is going to cost a shitload to rent, it's just how much, exactly, I haven't been able to determine.  Rent for apartments near the Marble Arch is ridiculous, so I'm assuming this is going to cost the government a small fortune.  Then again, hosting the Olympics is going to cost a large fortune, so I guess you should just go all out at this point.

Two Major Russian Businesses Snub (sort of) Sochi Olympics

And I do mean, sort of.  Russian diamond giant Alrosa and state-owned/run/controlled Gazprom, the largest extractor of natural gas in the world, declining to sponsor the 2014 Winter Olympics.  Now, USA Today's headline is a bit disingenuous, considering that Gazprom will be sponsoring the Russian Olympic team, just not the Olympics proper (fyi, Gazprom sponsors soccer teams in Germany, Serbia and Venezuala).  Alrosa, on the other hand, pulled out of a $100 preliminary deal and will instead pursue a sponsorship deal for the 2018 World Cup. 

That's all well and good but I thought the article's tone was interesting; that is the idea that the loss of this $100 million dollars due to Alrosa pulling out is no big deal because organizer Dimitri Chernyshenko has another $200 million in deals lined up, all of which will contribute to what USA Today calls "record revenue."  By their count (and I've been able to verify some of this, thanks to Google), Sochi's organizing committee has already secured $1.1 billion in sponsorship deals. 

Why is this interesting?  Well, for me it's because it pushes the "record revenues" theme (which Russia surely loves) while omitting the part where they are spending more than $30 billion to build and stage the damn Games, which is far and away the highest figure in Olympic history.  $1 billion is a drop in the bucket.  But maybe that's just me being crabby.