Province of Manitoba | Centreplace Manitoba

Olympic and Paralympic Games Manitoba Wrap-Up

Manitoba's pavilion in Vancouver - CentrePlace Manitoba - exceeded attendance expectations and received overwhelmingly positive response from visitors, local Vancouver and other media as well as VANOC officials.
120,000 people visited the pavilion during the Olympics (February 13 to 28, 2010) and Paralympics (March 12 to 21, 2010).
Manitoba invested $2.3M to design and construct the sustainable pavilion including interactive multi-media exhibits that showcased Manitoba and its many attributes.
Manitoba companies were involved in the design, construction and exhibit development for the pavilion.
CentrePlace Manitoba was one of the few award-winning, architecturally designed pavilions at the Games.
Manitoba's partnership exhibit with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights raised awareness about the human rights museum being built in Winnipeg. It is estimated that 85% of visitors to the pavilion were unaware of the existence of the museum prior to their visit and most expressed an interest in visiting Manitoba and the museum in the future.
The CentrePlace Manitoba web site, webcam and blog received over 16,000 hits throughout the period of the Games.
Manitoba's goal was to create a moderate presence with high impact that informed visitors about our province. Manitoba chose to move people through an information-based, fun exhibit suitable for the family oriented audience of Live City Downtown (the location of CentrePlace Manitoba).

The Olympic Torch Relay visited Manitoba twice - in November 2009 and then again in January 2010 - and thousands of Manitobans were provided with the opportunity to see the Olympic flame.
In total, the relay went through 33 Manitoba communities with celebration stops in eight locations.
Funds were provided to Sport Manitoba to assist communities with their Torch Relay celebrations.

A total of 30 Manitoba arts groups performed at the 2010 Cultural Olympiad in BC. Funds were provided to the Manitoba Arts Council in 2008/09 to support the artists/groups that were selected to perform.

Funds were provided to assist the establishment of a "French Quarter" in conjunction with the 2010 Olympics. Manitoba francophone art and cultural content were featured at the site as along with a special Manitoba showcase on Manitoba Day.

The province provided funds to Sport Manitoba to host international Olympic team training in Manitoba prior to the Games.
The BDO Men's Curling Classic was held in January and the Swiss men's and women's curling teams trained in Morris in early February.
The Swiss men's and women's hockey teams as well as the men's team from Belarus also trained and played exhibition games in Winnipeg in February prior to leaving for Vancouver.

As a lead up to Manitoba Day at the Games, Homecoming 2010 threw a Manitoba social on February 24th attended by 900 expatriate Manitobans, friends and family at the Commodore Ballroom featuring Streetheart, Doc Walker, Eagle and Hawk, Inward Eye and members of Chic Gamine. Just over $86,000 was raised to support this event through the Homecoming corporate partnership fundraising program.
On February 25th the Manitoba Day Victory Celebration concert at BC Place featured Doc Walker, Grand Analog, Chic Gamine, Tracey Bone and Inward Eye, followed by concert headliner, Burton Cummings.

A total of 31 Aboriginal youth from Manitoba joined over 320 First Nation, Métis and Inuit young people for a two week gathering in Vancouver culminating in their performance in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games on February 12. Funds to assist the youth to attend the gathering were provided by corporate partners.

Manitoba committed $6.4M over three years toward the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Olympic budget details can be found at the link below: