Tonight's full dress rehearsal of the official opening ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games will demonstrate the great degree to which public and spectator participation will be part of the real deal Friday night at BC Place.
It will showcase a major aboriginal dance and music element. Video images telling the story of Canada and Canada's Games will be prominent. The rehearsal will showcase many of the acts and performers who will be featured Friday at 6 p.m. PT before a global television audience the likes and size of which has never had its collective eye on Vancouver, British Columbia or Canada at any time in our history.
The Olympic Cauldron, although it might not be fully "uncovered", will be ready to go in its central location in the middle of the 60,000-seat stadium.
Who lights the highly-symbolic cauldron for its 17-day burn in Vancouver will not, however, be revealed (or at least confirmed) until that very moment the well-known Canadian with Olympic credentials will actually pull the trigger in whatever technically-brilliant way it is done as the defining moment of the ceremonies Friday night.
That the actual lighting will be cleverly engineered is to be expected given the role of Bombardier of Canada as Vancouver 2010 official suppliers and designers of the Olympic Cauldron and the individual torches carried by the 12,000 Canadians and international guests who made up the 106-day Olympic Torch Relay presented by RBC and Coca-Cola (the longest domestic relay in both days spanned and kilometres traveled).
In fact, VANOC and the Canadian Olympic Committee will likely do everything they can to delay revealing the list of the special torchbearers slated to carry the Olympic flame from City Live Yaletown -- where it will rest in an official Olympic lantern for a few hours Friday afternoon -- into BC Place.
Canadians would be proud to have any one of a group of famous Olympians and other famous Canadians light the torch Friday night. Nancy Green Raine, Cindy Klassen, Catriona Lemay Doan and Gaetan Boucher are among the obvious high-profile, medal-winning Canadian Olympians, while Rick Hansen and Gordie Howe would not disappoint, nor would the memory of Terry Fox.
Yet there is only one obvious answer to the question of who is the best and natural choice to light the Olympic Cauldron Friday night. It's been stated elsewhere this week in print by columnist Gary Mason of the Globe and Mail and on air by Vancouver sports radio host David Pratt of TEAM 1040, among others, but the answer is Wayne Gretzky.
The selection of Gretzky makes sense at several levels, whether he does the final act solo or in concert with a high-profile female Olympian of medal-winning pedigree (keeping in mind that the Olympic Torch Relay began in Victoria October 30th under the auspices of male summer Olympian Simon Whitfield and female winter Olympian Lemay Doan, who were in turn followed by male summer Olympian Alexandre Despatie and female summer Olympian Silken Laumann).
From a sport business perspective, it is the right choice for a few reasons.
First, the official opening ceremonies are one of VANOC's two greatest opportunities -- with the closing ceremonies February 28th the other -- to tell the story of these Olympic Winter Games and sell the Vancouver 2010 brand to the country and the world. That story and brand is based on the vision of Vancouver 2010 as "Canada's Games". Born and bred in Brantford, Ont., a junior player in Toronto and Sault Ste-Marie and a treasure in Edmonton in four Stanley Cup wins for the Oilers of the 1980s, Gretzky fits that bill.
Second, the official opening ceremonies are the single greatest global branding opportunity that the host city, province and country will have ever had in our lifetimes. Neither Calgary 1988 or even the larger Montreal 1976 Summer Games -- which were both pre-digital and essentially single television platform events -- enjoyed anywhere near the international access that will be afforded Vancouver 2010 in this increasingly global Internet era.
The event will be produced across all three screens of television, computer and mobile platforms. The dynamic at play is Canada to the world, not Vancouver to Canada or even Vancouver to North America. Gretzky works in that respect as well as one of few Canadian athletes who transcends hockey to the point where he is recognized across our country, throughout the United States and in much of Europe. In other words, the red-blooded Canadian of eastern European ancestry has name recognition in virtually all of the winter sports countries serving as the core of the global audience for Vancouver 2010.
Third, the final torchbearer often sets the tone for the Games that follow. Placing the accent on hockey before the greatest hockeyfest the world has ever seen plays well for the tournament's single-biggest ticket seller and overwhelmingly-dominant television draw. That's true for the event, broadcast rightsholders such as CTV and NBC and for the corporate partners of Vancouver 2010.
Yet more than anything, the official opening ceremonies are the number one vehicle to convey the defining characteristics of a country such as Canada. The game of hockey is one of our signatures on the global stage. Vancouver 2010 could help create a winter sports culture in this country, but Gretzky epitomizes what Canada has: our hockey culture.
Gretzky does that on the strength of his childhood playing on an outdoor rink built by his father Walter. He does that as a multiple winner of the Stanley Cup, which is for Canadians the most prized trophy in sports. Yet he also does that as an Olympian, both as a player in a disappointing team performance in Nagano 1998 and as the team executive director in an inspiring, glorious and historic gold medal win in Salt Lake 2002.
Gretzky is the right choice because as hockey icon he will appeal to Canadians from coast-to-coast-to-coast. More important to the larger audience, he is the right choice because he will make sense to Americans, Europeans and many others as the Canadian picked to light the Olympic Cauldron at these Winter Games.
