Costly rings

The Wild Hunch -

Two weeks from now, many Canadians will turn their attention to the athletes congregating in Vancouver, B.C., to take part in the 21st Winter Olympics.

I've grown up with the Olympic Games, and can recall various events through the years - the silver medal performance by the men's hockey team, led by a young Eric Lindros, in Albertville, France, in 1992; Clara Hughes' multiple medals in the summer and winter games; and Donovan Bailey's world record run in the 100-metre sprint, amongst others.

The Games can certainly provide its share of thrilling moments, as is the case with most sporting competitions. However, in recent years I have found myself thinking more about how the Olympics are presented to the world. It leaves me with conflicted feelings.

A lot of money goes into preparations for the Olympics, with an estimated price tag of $1.76 billion. This figure may jump, as early estimates for security, pegged at $200 million, have since climbed to $900 million.

There are 1.6 million tickets available for events related to the Games, and for most people, those tickets are not accessible.

According to John Furlong, CEO of the organizing committee, 50,000 of those tickets would be free (three per cent), and 10,000 would cost less than $25 (0.6 per cent).

This leaves the vast majority of available tickets for events in the hands of those who can afford them.

Opening and closing ceremony prices range from $175 to $1,100, and the men's gold medal game in hockey has range of $350 to $775.

Overall, the pricing scheme for the Olympics fails to make the Games accessible to the general public. It's a competition that is supposed to be celebrating amateur athletes - excluding men's hockey, which would not even be included in the Games if I had my say - but does so with big league prices.

To me, this goes against whatever may be deemed as the Olympic spirit.

Granted, these Olympics will be extensively available for armchair athletes like myself, with all events streaming live through the Internet, and television coverage provided by TSN, Rogers Sportsnet, RDS and CTV will certainly cover all the bases.

Still, for an event in our own backyard, it would be nice to think Canadians could more easily attend some of the competitions.

Additionally, the commercial nature of the Games can be overwhelming. The entire exercise may leave some to more easily recognize the names of sponsors like the Royal Bank of Canada and Telus Mobility rather than competitors in skeleton and figure skating.

Alas, this is how people sitting at home will have an opportunity to view the games on a laptop or with a large high-definition television. If there is advertising dollars to be had, networks will take them.

Likewise, if an event is going to cost over $1 billion dollars, sponsorship funds will be necessary.

Ideally, I would like to see the Olympics scaled back to focus more on the pure competition of the Games - that is where the gold can be found.

What remains for me the most important aspect of the Olympic Games is how they shine a spotlight on many athletes who otherwise receive little widespread exposure.

They are not necessarily household names, but through these competitions, they have a chance at becoming one.

What also separates most of these athletes from professionals is they are in this purely for sport. They have jobs on the side to support their training, and must scrape up funding from government support agencies in order to attend competitions.

For them, the hard work goes beyond practice, as it also involves juggling one's lifestyle to fit around the pursuit of sport.

Without a doubt, most of these athletes are playing simply because they love what they do, and not because of the millions of dollars they can accumulate.

For that reason, I have no intentions of boycotting the Olympics. I want to be able to cheer on those athletes who deserve it, but I just wish the whole exercise was less caught up in corporate hullabaloo.