by Kevin Whipps

If it weren’t for athletes pushing the boundaries of what their bodies can do, there would never be any advancement in sports. But eventually, luck runs out and a major injury happens which can sideline the pro for months or even years. The best way to hear these stories of pain, injury and suffering is straight from the mouths of the people who went through it all, so that’s exactly what we did. Just remember, don’t try this at home.

Mike Vallely
AKA: Mike V
PROFESSION: Skateboarder, Musician
INJURY: Broken ankle & torn ligament
“I was doing a demonstration at a skate park in Westchester, Penn., and about 10 minutes into the performance I fell awkwardly, and kind of did the splits but then fell back over one of my legs as I was doing the splits. It caused my ankle to fracture in a spiral way, and also causing the big ligament on the other side of the ankle to become detached, causing my ankle to kind of flop around like a dead fish. I heard it break, I felt it. I knew it was bad, but I was so in the zone at the time �” especially when I’m doing these demos, I’m in such an aggressive mindset �” that I really thought I could get up and keep skating for another five or 10 minutes before it swelled up so bad that it caused me to stop. I broke it, I tried to get up immediately and get on my board, and my foot was twisted around behind me. I dropped to the ground and waited for the paramedics. Staying true to my character, I was bummed, but shit happens �” you accept that as a skateboarder very early on. I knew I was hurt, but I’ve been hurt before. I felt worse about the kids who had come there, paid money to see me skate and went out being ripped off from the two hours I was supposed to skate, and only seeing 10 minutes. Before the paramedics got there, I started an autograph line, and people were bending over taking photos with me, while I’m on the ground.”

Damacio
AKA: The Angel of Death
PROFESSION: World Extreme Cagefighting Mixed Martial Artist
INJURY: Broken hand
“I hit the guy and I knocked him out. He was on the floor and I gave him a couple of extra punches. Right after I did it, they pulled me off and brought me to my corner where I felt the pressure in my hand. I thought, ‘Hey, I think I broke it.’ I say to [my manager] Greg, ‘Hey, I think I broke my hand,’ and he says, ‘I think you broke it, too.’

Tony Hawk
AKA: Birdman
PROFESSION: Skateboarder, Businessman, Video game icon in Tony Hawk’s RIDE
INJURY: Broken pelvis, fractured skull, concussion
“I was doing a full, complete loop ramp, and it just didn’t go well that day. I basically fell from the top onto my hip, and I also fractured my skull and got a concussion. When I woke up, they were putting me in the ambulance, and they were kind of shifting me from the stretcher, and I felt this shooting pain through my pelvis and my leg. I said, ‘Oh wow, my hip really hurts.’ It was one of the first things I remembered when I came to. They said, ‘Oh, we’ll x-ray that,’ and we get to the hospital and they x-ray it, and they say, ‘Oh yeah, you fractured [your pelvis] all the way through.’ I really couldn’t walk for about six to eight weeks.”

Rick Thorne
AKA: Biker in Black
PROFESSION: BMX rider, Sports commentator
INJURY: Broken palate, broken eye socket, deviated septum
“I hit a loading dock, the corner of a loading dock, on this gap that went short and I broke my palate. I hit the corner of the loading dock with my face and what happened was that I had a hairline crack below my eye socket, and I broke my eye socket on my left side, then it came down and broke my palate. I had already broken my jaw before that, had it wired shut, and I thought that was a nightmare, but this thing was intense. I deviated my septum and there was this fluid leaking from my brain down through my mouth, so I was spitting out all this fluid from my brain. I deviated my septum, broke my eye socket, broke my palate and you could put your finger in my mouth and move my whole mouth up and down �” it was crazy. They cut my head from ear to ear, pulled my skin down, took some fat from my stomach and clogged this leak up between my brain and my skull, which was the fluid leaking from my nasal. I lost all sense of taste and smell, I had a tracheotomy, and I had a full-on stitch across my head. “

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Photo Credit: Florida Athletic Association

by David Breitman

It was either Vince Lombardi or a cast member of Jersey Shore who once said “following in the footsteps of a hero is the single most daunting task any young man can be asked to endure.” The unrealistic expectations, inevitable failure and lifelong self-doubt is something that very few athletes (and only a handful of Price is Right contestants) ever have to face. These four collegiate prospects may not be household names yet, but if they can successfully navigate through the difficult road ahead, they may end up becoming legends in their own time.

John Brantley
Florida Gators Quarterback
In the history of college football (and quite frankly, since the birth of Christ), no single human being has ever been deified in a greater light than departing Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. He ran with a vengeance, passed with precision and was even compared to Chuck Norris on several different e-mail chains throughout the GAME offices. Tebow broke nearly every single conference record over the course of his championship-filled career and wasn’t afraid to cry like a 7-year-old diabetic transgender she-male while doing it. Tough act to follow for John Brantley, a kid from Ocala, Fla., with less big-game experience than the third-grade class at the Maurice Clarrett School for Gifted Children — or to a lesser extent, the entire Cleveland Browns’ roster. Every single snap Brantley takes will be measured against the Tebow standard, which seems pretty fair, considering that his head coach just left to selfishly “avoid dying from a heart attack” and every major defensive player on the team just bolted to the NFL.

Garrett Gilbert
Texas Longhorns Quarterback
After what feels like a 27-year-long career as the Texas Longhorns starting quarterback, Colt McCoy is finally taking his game to the next level, where he will have the opportunity to show what mediocre arm strength and an uncanny resemblance to Kirk Herbstreit can do for a franchise that couldn’t find anyone better to pick at the end of the first round. For the Longhorns, replacing McCoy won’t be easy — even with a five-star recruit who possesses what Chad Ford would call “very limitless upside.” Garrett Gilbert may be one of the most highly regarded high school stars in Texas state history, but the first-year signal caller will need to win more games than any quarterback to ever play NCAA football if he hopes to surpass his predecessor. It’s sort of like being asked to sub in for Elizabeth Berkeley in the Showgirls sequel or sleeping with Vlade Divac’s ex-girlfriend. The bar is almost too high for anybody to succeed.

Ed Davis
North Carolina Tar Heels Power Forward
Long before Tyler Hansbrough started searching for lost dogs in AT&T commercials, the Missouri native was one of the best collegiate basketball players to ever dawn a baby blue uniform. In his senior season, Hansbrough became the leading scorer in school history en route to a national championship in which he helped shellac a Michigan State team that Craig Nance seemed to think was playing for the dignity of every laid-off autoworker in the greater Detroit area. Hansbrough was a national icon and V.I.P. Supercuts customer that rejuvenated the school’s winning tradition and gave hope to both white kids in next year’s NBA draft. If Ed Davis wants to follow in Hansbrough’s size 16 footsteps, the talented sophomore is going to need to put the Tar Heel nation on his back and drag them into the Final Four — a place where every one of their bandwagon fans seem to think the team belongs. No pressure, kid.

Jimbo Fisher
Head Coach Florida State Seminoles
If you ask the majority of people in Tallahassee to name two different Florida State head football coaches they would probably tell you “Bobby Bowden, and the guy who came before Bobby Bowden.” The recently released bench boss built the Seminoles program from scratch and turned it into a national powerhouse that outplayed Oklahoma, recruited better than Penn State and bribed players just as well as any team associated with Pete Carroll. Hell, he even did it with a sort of southern charm that gave him a Matlock-esque quality that drove the ladies wild! However, despite leading the Seminoles to a pair of national championships and a parade of dominance in the late 1990s that rivals the Undertaker’s Wrestlemania record, the folks at Florida State strong-armed the 80-year-old coach into “early” retirement at the end of 2009. Apparently, the school felt that an NCAA investigation which revealed numerous players reading below a third-grade level sullied their reputation as the Harvard of northern Florida. In his place will step Jimbo Fisher, a man who worked as the LSU quarterback’s coach during the JaMarcus Russell era (you’re welcome, Oakland) and has never technically served in any sort of head coaching role. It’s going to take a lot to make the Seminoles forget about their beloved Bowden, so Fisher may have his work cut out for him in 2010.

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compiled by Front Row Analytics

Title sponsorships, naming rights, endorsements, in the worlds of professional sports and high-level college athletics, these deals can mean the difference between profitability and finishing the year in the red. But what do these Fortune 500 companies get out of forking over thousands, millions, hundreds of millions of dollars? Well, the good folks at Front Row Analytics crunched the numbers on everything from brand integration to the value of on-field signage to evaluate the return on investment for companies that shell out the dollars to become a household name. Here, they let GAME readers see just which company reaped the rewards while making some of the biggest games of the year happen. [Note: The value of these deals depends greatly on which network broadcast the game, i.e., the MLB All-Star Game on Fox and the NHL All-Star Game on Versus.]

Event: 2009 MLS All-Star Game
AT&T received $489,667 worth of broadcast exposure during the 2009 MLS All-Star Game. The company received branding from on-field signage (virtual), LED signage, verbal mentions, commercial billboards and on-screen text.

Event: 2009 MLB All-Star Game
Busch received more than $4.4 million in broadcast exposure during Fox’s telecast of the 2009 MLB All-Star Game. They received on-screen text, verbal mentions and signage, including home-plate backstop signage, outfield wall signage dugout exposure and stadium façade.

Event: 2009 MLB All-Star Game
Taco Bell received the most exposure of all sponsors at the 2009 MLB ASG with $6.4 million in exposure. This included more than eight minutes of exposure on Fox, including rotational signage.

Event: 2009 MLB Home Run Derby
By being title sponsor of the State Farm Home Run Derby, State Farm received $22 million worth of exposure. They had more than an hour of total exposure, which included verbal mentions, stadium signage and on-screen graphics. In 2008, State Farm only received $12,252,083 in exposure, so whatever they did differently was incredibly successful.

Event: 2008 BCS Championship
As the title sponsor of college football’s national championship game, Allstate received $69 million worth of exposure through signage, commercials and on-air mentions.

Event: Super Bowl XLIII
Raymond James was the big winner of Super Bowl XLIII, with more than $37.6 million of broadcast exposure value, thanks to the game being held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay, Fla. The company received seven verbal mentions and plenty of in-stadium signage exposure.

Event: 2009 NHL All-Star Game
The Japanese car manufacturer’s sponsorship of the NHL’s All-Star Game garnered the company $193,120 worth of broadcast exposure, thanks to in-ice and on-ice signage, on-screen text and verbal mentions.

Event: 2008 Under Armour Senior Bowl
In its second year of a two-year deal, the athletic apparel company received more than $150,000 worth of exposure, thanks to on-screen text and graphics, field logos and field-level signage.

Event: 2009 MLB All-Star Game
Pepsi also received a large amount of exposure, finishing second among sponsors with $5.7 million in media value.

For more information on Front Row Analytics and their parent company, Front Row Marketing Services, please visit frontrow-marketing.com.

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by Justin Doom

The National Football League may have supplanted Major League Baseball as the nation’s favorite sport, a fact reflected in the NFL’s naming its more recent documentary series on Super Bowl teams America’s Game, but baseball has one thing football still desperately wants: an antitrust exemption.

When the U.S. Supreme Court listened to arguments from NFL lawyers in January about how vital such an arrangement would be (because apparently generating $7.6 billion in 2008, the most recent year for which figures were available, isn’t enough) Justice Sonia Sotomayor didn’t sound convinced. She was quoted in The Washington Post telling Gregg Levy, an NFL lawyer: “You are seeking through this ruling what you haven’t gotten from Congress: an absolute bar to an antitrust claim.” MLB is the only league with such an exemption. Really, the issue comes down to whether the league should be viewed as one corporation with 32 branches, each team representing an arm of the tree, or 32 separate companies colluding together to shut out competitors and generate outrageous profits. Levy, in that same article, argued that teams “are not independent sources of economic power, because none of them can produce the product of the venture on their own.”

How the Supreme Court rules, or whether the case is returned to a lower court, could have lasting implications for the league, far beyond the current merchandise dispute with American Needle, the Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based clothing maker that challenged the NFL’s exclusive deal with Reebok signed in 2001. The league has argued that having a single apparel maker allows the league to better promote itself, but American Needle has alleged that such a deal really just allows the league to fix prices, citing, as an example, how similar fitted caps now cost $30 instead of $20. Both the NBA and NHL, unsurprisingly, are siding with the NFL, against which the NFL players’ union stands firm.

But should the league lose this case, or should it be relegated to another court, perhaps the biggest financial threat to could be if the NFL is forced to rework the four-year, $4 billion deal, which runs through 2014, it signed with DirecTV last March. Many fans, commentators and writers have long argued that such a deal is a monopoly and shouldn’t be allowed. Sunday Ticket, which steadily has increased in price since it was introduced in 1994, the same year DirecTV launched, now costs $299.95 for a residential annual subscription and at least $950 for sports bars, a figure that increases commensurate to a location’s fire-code occupancy. Chief among the critics of the NFL’s DirecTV deal is Gregg Easterbrook, a former Brookings Institution fellow and senior editor at The New Republic. During football season, he writes the “Tuesday Morning Quarterback” column for ESPN.com. In a 2007 column, Easterbrook not only called out the league for hypocritically demanding other cable carriers that are barred from offering Sunday Ticket pick up the NFL Network (which many since have done), but argued that the league could make more money by offering Sunday Ticket to more fans on more platforms. A DirecTV representative, in a recent interview, refused to disclose how many Sunday Ticket subscribers the company served, but Easterbrook, in 2007, when the service cost $250, put the subscriber number at 1.6 million, meaning the league made approximately $400 million. Why not expand the service, Easterbrook wrote, to, say, 25 million fans at $50 a pop and rake in $1.3 billion?

“I can’t understand,” Easterbrook told GAME in a recent e-mail interview, “why Congress does not pick up the Sunday Ticket issue as a populist concern. Average people are taxed for the stadia that make NFL profits possible; the NFL markets tax-free bonds and itself operates as a nonprofit, dodging taxes; yet average people are often forbidden to watch telecasts of the games. Is Congress so utterly sold-out that all members consider their trips on NFL owners’ private planes more important than the populist issue here?” DirecTV, which recently introduced its RedZone Channel (allowing fans who subscribe to a variety of cable and satellite carriers to watch vital scoring plays from every game that Sunday), said through a representative that it fairly acquired Sunday Ticket through an open bidding process. They also point out that fans who for whatever reason, often geography, can’t subscribe to DirecTV soon could benefit from watching games over broadband. This new avenue was part of the league’s most recent deal, and the satellite TV coporation says it will begin no later than 2012. DirecTV Public Relations Director Robert Mercer said the broadband Sunday Ticket service was tested last season and hopefully will be rolled out in time for the 2010 season. Exactly how much the broadband out-of-market-games service would cost or what Internet providers could offer it, and whether such a service will avoid some of the proprietary battles that have prevented certain ISPs from allowing access to ESPN360, remain to be seen. “We are always looking at ways to enhance the NFL viewing experience,” Mercer added.

The league also is exploring additional ways fans can watch NFL games on mobile devices, said Dan Masonson of NFL corporate communications, who enthusiastically discussed how the 2009 season was the NFL’s most-watched since 1990. Nielsen figures for 2009 put an average game’s viewership at 16.6 million, approximately 2 million more per game than 2008. Mason was just as adamant that the league’s exclusive deal with DirecTV didn’t prevent further growth. “DirecTV is not limiting the amount of people who could get the games, it’s an added product,” Masonson said. “Prior to the DirecTV Sunday Ticket package, the same games were still on over-the-air TV. In fact, beginning in 2000, we’ve changed one of our broadcast rules: If there was a home team playing in a market, you would get two games. Now if there’s a home team playing in a market that sells out, you would get two games.” Masonson also said the league has no plans to revise its policy on blacking out local games that don’t sell out. “The blackout policy has served us well,” he said. “This year we had 22 blackouts of 256 games, meaning that 91 percent of the games were shown on free, over-the-air television in local markets. The policy has created capacity crowds, which makes games more attractive for the TV audience. As far as the economy, we are sensitive to what our fans and business partners are going through. In 2009, three-quarters of the NFL teams froze ticket prices.” Many teams, he added, also offered installment plans and other incentives for fans seeking season-ticket purchases.

But fans won’t be able to buy tickets to games or watch games in 2011 if, well, there aren’t any games. Peter King of Sports Illustrated wrote in January that he’d be surprised if the season isn’t delayed or cancelled because of player-owner compensation squabbles. Mercer, when asked what would happen to the DirecTV’s deal with the NFL in the case of a labor dispute, would it be extended another year automatically or would DirecTV be refunded at least part of the $4 billion?, said he couldn’t comment on the contract but, “nonetheless, we think the likelihood of a strike/lockout is low.” It would be the league’s first labor hiccup since 1987.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Easterbrook offered up his own opinion. “My feeling,” he said, “is that there is no ceiling to NFL arrogance. The owners and league management eventually will kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. As I warn, there is no law of nature that says the NFL must remain so popular.” Easterbrook also said he’s strongly in favor of NFL games being offered online and that doing so also would drive down costs and thus the price to something reasonably affordable, say, $50. But for now, “I suppose,” he added, “most fans don’t know they are being shafted, or if they do, they think, ‘I wouldn’t pay $300 a year to watch NFL games anyway.’”

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Photo Credit: Paul Kang

Upon a recent visit to my hometown of Vancouver, my mother met me at the airport. I asked if she was excited about the Olympics.“Excited? No I’m not excited! Your father and I are seriously thinking about taking advantage of one of those cheap ‘avoid the Olympics’ deals some of the airlines are advertising and illegally renting out the house to some starry-eyed tourists for some quick cash.” She went on to say that the Olympics have turned the city into a giant high school clique, and for those not part of the popular group led by Premier Gord Campbell and Mayor Gregor Robertson then the only part of the Olympics they’ll get to take part in is the traffic.

Since Vancouver won the Olympic bid in 2003, I’ve been back quite a few times, but this was the first time I immediately sensed a deeply polarized attitude towards the Games had developed. And it’s not just about the congestion and lack of available tickets. The issues I’m talking about are specific to the Native communities of British Columbia, many of whom are protesting the games. There is a surprising divide between how First Nations are represented in terms of the symbolism used in the Olympic logos and opening ceremonies, compared with how many First Nations individuals really feel about the Games. This divide can be seen greatly in strongly vocal anti-Games groups such as the Olympics Resistance Network and No2010.

Let’s start with Vancouver’s International Airport, which is filled with aboriginal art. I’ll vouch for Wikipedia on this one: the Native art is something to behold. The blues and greens reflect the colors of the land, sea and sky. Gazing into the big bronze eyes of the travelers on Bill Reid’s famous sculpture “The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, The Jade Canoe,” one almost forgets it’s an emblem of the nomadic life the First Nations were forced from when settlers took over their land and shipped them to barren reserves with terrible education and no voting rights. In many ways, Vancouver’s airport has become a symbol of our national shame rather than our national heritage. Ironically, it’ll be the very first thing Olympic athletes and tourists will be reminded of upon their arrival.

For those who grew up in B.C., like I did, the struggles of the First Nations were not a secret. These tribes have been documented as suffering from the highest rates of unemployment, poverty, homelessness, suicide, violent death, and drug and alcohol addiction in Canada. [Statistics Canada; Health Canada, Healthy Canadians, A Federal Report on Comparable Health Indicators, 2002]

Gord Hill, a Native activist, tells me many of today’s problems can be traced to the Indian Act passed in 1876 which imposed government control over all indigenous people and land. “In this way, B.C. is unique to the rest of Canada in that most of the land remains ‘unceded’ and non-surrendered indigenous territory, over which neither the Canadian or B.C. governments have no legal or moral authority to govern.” According to the movement’s official No Olympics on Stolen Land Web site, the slogan No Olympics on Stolen Land “is a way to raise anti-colonial consciousness about the true history of B.C.”

This point has become especially significant for the St’at’imc & Squamish First Nations, whose traditional territories overlap the B.C. interior’s Callaghan Valley where the 2010 Olympic biathlon (cross-country and shooting), cross-country skiing, Nordic combined (ski jumping and cross-country), and ski jumping will take place.

In spring 2008, the St’at’imc Native Youth Movement released an international statement that argues Olympic tourists “do not depend on fish and deer for long, hard winters … and the more people who disrupt the delicate balance between the environment, animals and humans, the worse off surrounding tribes will be.”

In another circulated leaflet, titled Cancel the 2010 Olympics, The Native Youth Movement writes “although the 2010 Olympics are planned to take place in only St’at’imc & Squamish Territories the negative effects of these Games will carry out onto other Indigenous territories of the area and the aftermath of this will create an invasion not seen since the gold rush.” Gord Hill says in this case an “invasion” comes in the form of gas and oil mining, and ski resorts.

“Since 2000, the main Native struggles in the B.C. interior have been against the construction, or expansion, of mountain ski resorts,” Hill says. He goes on to add that there has been an increase in the number of these properties that have been approved, which will directly impact a number of First Nation communities. B.C.’s resort industry has been strongly promoted since 2004 when the government along with members of that business community established the Ski Resort Task Force, whose stated mission is to “grow tourism throughout the province, maximize opportunities created by hosting 2010 … and attract national and international investment.” For critics, that means ski resorts that require extensive logging as well as the creation of water, sewage and electrical systems along with fake snow that contaminates the land and nearby water.

In an ongoing effort to bring attention to their cause, these anti-Games groups have organized protests surrounding pre-event festivities. Such protests around the Olympic Torch Relay — which set off from Canada’s east coast October 30, 2009 — garnered mainstream media coverage which allowed the ORN and No2010 organizations to push their messages into the national consciousness. Typically, coverage precedes an incident such as an Olympic torch bearer being knocked to the ground and injured by a protester, like what happened in late December in Guelph, Ontario. Another story to hit the major media outlets was a Torch Relay disruption in Victoria, B.C., on October 30, when the Torch was forced to be extinguished and rerouted.

Looking to keep their efforts going, throughout November the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) held weekend workshops where activists learned how to stay on message when dealing with the media as well as picking up counter-insurgency and surveillance methods. They also learned about their citizen rights when interacting with police and street protest tactics. The workshops were held to train ORN and No2010 members and sympathizers, as those two groups have called for a convergence of anti-poverty, citizen rights and anti-capitalist forces in Vancouver, February 10-15, to confront and disrupt the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Olympic Games. Whatever happens, though, it likely won’t be something BC’s $900 million-plus security budget can’t handle.

To their credit, the B.C. government and The Vancouver Olympic Committee have made great efforts to include First Nation participation in the Games, including sponsorships of many Native events and seminars. On the official Vancouver 2010 Web site there’s also an entire section dedicated to “Aboriginal participation.” This states, “We’re working closely with our partners, including the Four Host First Nations, to encourage Aboriginal people across Canada to participate in as many areas of the 2010 Winter Games as possible, be it as athletes, volunteers, employees, entrepreneurs, artists and performers, spectators or cultural ambassadors.”

The Four Hosts Nations the IOC refers to is a group established in 2004 by Native leaders along with the B.C. government and the Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC). Its purpose, according to a press release, is to “take advantage of all opportunities, including economic, and establish a clear First Nations presence in the Games while protecting aboriginal rights and title.”

However, as far as the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) and No2010 are concerned, the idea that the FHFN is protecting aboriginal interests couldn’t be further from the truth. They feel these Native leaders have sold out and are in fact contributing to the erosion and eventual extinguishment of Aboriginal rights and title. In fact, many ORN and No2010 members interviewed during the course of this story feel that the Native cultural performance groups who have been hired by VANOC to perform during the opening and closing ceremonies are taking part in a shameful exploitation.

Dr. Christine O’Bonsawin, a teacher of Indigenous policy at the University of Victoria argues that the inclusion of Indigenous symbolism with the Canadian Olympics is emblematic of the ongoing disrespect and mistreatment for First Nations peoples. In a recent article published in The Dominion, an independent Canadian newspaper, she writes, “What they need is honorable treaties, not Olympic circuses that continue to trivialize the political, social, and economic injustices faced by Indigenous peoples in Canada.”

But those same Olympic cynics would be hard-pressed to blame these First Nations leaders from trying to do what everyone in B.C. is trying to do right now — cash in on the tens of thousands of tourists drunk off Olympic fever, willing to pay more than $2,000 a night to rent out a Vancouver apartment as well as shell out a pretty penny for a handmade Inukshuk (a traditional Native landmark and also the official symbol of the 2010 Olympics). It would be difficult to imagine any similar economic opportunities arising in the foreseeable future.

There’s no doubt the FHFN is taking advantage of economic opportunities . In addition to using Native territory for Olympic venues, more than 100 aboriginal businesses received $54 million (Canadian) worth of contracts from Olympic organizers — roughly 10 percent of the $580 million total construction contracts awarded. It’s estimated these businesses will earn more than $57 million (Canadian) in games-related activities. Additionally, about 1,000 jobs for Aboriginal youth have been created so far with more hiring expected by opening day. In central Vancouver, visitors will be able to experience the new C$3.5 million 2010 Aboriginal Pavilion featuring different (and marketable) aspects of authentic aboriginal culture, including art, sculpture and general merchandise.

Given this financials, the question then becomes: what’s the long term cost? And would that $54 million given to Aboriginal businesses be better spent on affordable housing and addiction programs? Some would argue that social programs don’t generate the same amount of revenue as commercial endeavors, which could give a tangible boost to struggling Aboriginal entrepreneurs. After all, a boost in socio-economic conditions, such as higher employment and income levels, for these communities is the reason why Native leaders have decided to enter into treaty negotiations with the BC government in the first place. It’s doubtful they do so because they want to liquidate their resources of rich, beautiful land and be seen as sell-outs in their communities. But what are their choices? And is the fight worth it in the end?

For those in the Olympic Resistance Network and No2010, the fight is worth it. They say the prototypes of the treaty process are deeply flawed and unless revisions are made, communities will not support any attempts by their leaders to agree to any land settlement. So in the absence of land settlements, the land remains unceded and non-surrendered and they will keep resisting — no matter how many dream catchers and Inukshuks are sold during the Games.

In the end, my mother made the executive decision to stick around during the Olympics (this after e-mails with a few potential shady renters). I think it was a good choice. Just because you don’t run with the popular crowd (or in this case city officials and business elites) doesn’t mean you can’t crash their parties. And judging by what the city’s anti-Olympic organizations have planned, there’s definitely going to be a party crashing- worthy event. And why not? If the Olympics are about human achievement, then pushing and striving to get a voice heard despite all odds should be included. It might not be as popular as say curling, however the games themselves would be much more interesting to watch.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION: A Background On The Land Disputes That Spawned An Anti-Olympic Movement

The root of this fight and the birth of the No Olympics On Stolen Land movement can be traced back to the difficult history of First Nations in Canada stemming from their struggle to maintain a nomatic existence after European settlers arrived in the late 1800s.

Today in British Columbia, Canada, where the 2010 Olympics are set to take place in February, the struggle is about fighting for fair land treaties.

To put it simply, there’s big money to be made in the mining and ski resort industry. That’s why opposition groups say the B.C. government is pushing for Treaty Land Settlements, because turning reservation land into government land means it can be bought and sold freely — and because a settlement could mean preventing another Melvin Creek. Melvin Creek refers to when protesters from the B.C. St’at’imc First Nation set up camp in May of 2000 to stop a planned $530-million ski resort in the area. Ten years later, the camp still exists, while the ski resort that could have meant millions of dollars for B.C. does not.

It’s these small First Nation actions that the B.C. government would like bring to a halt. First Nation communities would benefit from settlements financially, too, at least in the short term, depending on how much land they hand over. “It’s all part of the B.C. government’s legal and economic and assimilation plan,” activist Gord Hill says. He also states that signing land treaties means removing the special status for First Nations.

According to the latest B.C. Treaty Commission report, the tribes’ current tax exemptions would stay in place for another 10 years and then they’d be subject to the same federal and provincial taxes as other Canadian residents. As far as getting a piece of the pie from the resources extracted from the land and surrounding waters, First Nations would receive a certain amount for 25 years. Interest-free loans would also continue for 10 years, while government funding for First Nations self-government and social programs would continue for 12 years. After that, communities would be considered no different than other B.C. residents in terms of their claim to the land.

Jerry Lampert, a commissioner with the B.C. Treaty Commission and past president and CEO of the Business Council of B.C. writes in a recent BCBusiness magazine article, “These treaties, if done, will pump billions of dollars into the B.C. economy. There’s an estimate that up to $7 billion will be turned over to First Nations once we get all of these done. That money will be used in communities to raise the socio-economic standard.”

However, Lampert fails to take into consideration that land settlement treaties are also incredibly expensive for the First Nations groups participating, according to the protest groups. Zoe Blunt, No 2010 Victoria activist and spokesperson, says, “If First Nation leaders walk away because they’re dissatisfied with the proposed treaty deal, it means they have to pay millions of dollars in legal fees. It’s like getting people to pay for the ropes they hang them with.”

It’s a difficult situation. First Nation communities lay claim to land they’ve been living on since what’s called time immemorial (because we don’t even know how long it has actually been). To support this point, the British Columbia Archives says there’s archaeological evidence that indicates the ancestors of today’s First Nations people occupied British Columbia at least as early as the end of the last ice age, 10,000 to 12,000 years ago — long before the idea of ski resorts.

As the activist Hill explains, resisting and defending First Nations’ rightful territories is the only way to stop, say, a mining company from coming in and turning their home into a toxic waste site which can make hunting and fishing impossible, as well as endangers the water supply. In these situations, he tells me, cancer rates skyrocket — especially among First Nations peoples. Additionally, the land becomes uninhabitable as hunting and fishing becomes scarce, making these communities’ current ways of existence impossible. “Companies and government know the negative effects of these projects.” Hill says. “But it doesn’t stop them. That’s why we have to keep resisting and keep building on victories like what happened in Melvin Creek.”

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