Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»city hall hired a Yaletown event production company to manage the Stanley Cup fan zone only two days before the June 1 face-off of the seven-game series, the Courier has learned.
We were brought in at the last minute to do some coordination of the installation and removal of the screens and overall site coordination, Paul Runnals, Brand Live Groups senior vice-president of production, told the Courier. Basically we were called in on the Monday afternoon [May 30] for a game that happened on a Wednesday. It was just a question of the city handing us a planhere's what we want to do, please coordinate it.
Runnals declined to say how much Brand Live was paid. As of Monday morning, no information about the contract had been posted to the citys procurement website. Last week, city hall responded to a June 17-filed Freedom of Information request by postponing disclosure of various records about the June 15 riotincluding the list of fan zone contracts and valuesuntil mid-September.
City engineer Peter Judd said before the June 15 riot that the fan zone would cost taxpayers $680,000. Damage from the riot could be as much as $5 million.
The Courier received no response to repeated Monday phone calls and emails to Mayor Gregor Robertsons assistant Kevin Quinlan, city manager Penny Ballem and acting chief purchasing officer Terry Levins. Spokeswoman Wendy Stewart said, via email: We will be in a position to consider release of the information once the contract documents are assembled and the third-party notification process is complete.
According to a Brand Live blog entry before the Canucks failed seven-game quest against the Boston Bruins: The City of Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»has asked brand.LIVE to help in ensuring that this is a fun and safe place to watch the game. These LED screens will bring fans together to experience the Olympic craze all over again.
Crowds grew larger, angrier and drunker until the violent post-Game 7 riot. Bottles were thrown at the big screens, which Runnals said were sourced for the city by Fresh Air Cinema from U.S.-based Impact Video. Rioters used Super Save fences as projectiles and overturned Pit Stop porta-potties at the fan zone.
Runnals declined to comment on both how the event was planned and its ugly outcome.
There's a number of internal reviews and audits that are ongoing right now and I think that it's best left for them to speak to those kinds of questions, he said. There's a lot of different opinions, but hindsight is 20/20.
As of Monday, Runnals said he had yet to be interviewed by the chairmen of the joint provincial/civic riot review, ex-Nova Scotia deputy attorney general Doug Keefe and VANOC CEO John Furlong. Aug. 31 is the deadline for their report. No publication date has been announced.
Brand Live credits include producing the 2005 Grey Cup Festival, Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»House and Alberta House, Train and Station during the 2010 Winter Olympics, Steve Nash Foundation charity basketball and soccer events, B.C. Festival 150 and the Live at Squamish Music Festival. Runnals to produced nightly Olympic medals ceremonies in B.C. Place Stadium for VANOC.
The citys 2010 financial report shows Brand Live was paid $854,013 last year. The company is backed by investors Jim Treliving and George Melville of Boston Pizza fame.
