Snowboarder Featured on Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service commemorates the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games with the issuance of a stamp featuring an illustration of a snowboarder. The stamp goes on sale today in Park City, UT, and in Post Offices across the United States. The XXI Olympic Winter Games will be held Feb. 12-28, 2010, in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

First-day-of-issue ceremonies for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Stamp immediately follow the Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix at Park City Mountain Resort, Park City, UT. Alan C. Kessler, member, Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service, and Dick Coe, Executive Vice President and chief operating officer, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, are the dedicating officials.

“We are proud to support the Olympics and are pleased to be able to continue the tradition of honoring the Games by issuing postage stamps celebrating different Olympic sports,” says Gov. Kessler.

Illustrator Steve McCracken captures the thrill of Olympic sports in his portrayal of an airborne snowboarder against the backdrop of a snow-capped mountain.

Stamps featuring Olympic themes have been popular since the first modern Olympiad in 1896, when Greece issued 12 Olympic-themed commemorative stamps. Beginning in 1932, when the Olympic Games were held in Los Angeles, CA, numerous U.S. stamps have honored the Games.

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games

This will be the second Olympic Winter Games, after the 1988 Games in Calgary, to be held in Canada, but the country’s historic ties to the event go back much further. Canada helped usher in the first Olympic Winter Games — at the Alpine resort of Chamonix, France, in 1924 — by joining with Central Europe to persuade the International Olympic Committee to add an “International Winter Sports Week” to the Games planned for that year.

For the Games in Vancouver, the Olympic torch relay is expected to be the longest to take place in a single country. Thousands of Canadians will participate in carrying the torch from Victoria, BC, through every province and territory of the country. After reaching St. John’s, NL, in the east, the torch will then make its journey back to British Columbia.

More than 80 countries will participate and some 5,000 athletes and officials will be involved in the XXI Olympic Winter Games. At least a million people are expected to travel to Vancouver, a beautiful city surrounded by water on three sides with a view of nearby mountains. The main venue for skiing will be the resort village of Whistler, north of Vancouver.

The number of sports designated for Olympic Winter Games has grown over the years. In addition to those included since 1924 — figure skating, ice hockey, cross-country skiing, bobsled, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating — athletes today compete in Alpine skiing, biathlon, luge, and curling, as well as in the newer disciplines of snowboarding, freestyle skiing, and short-track speed skating. After making their Olympic debut in Torino, Italy, in 2006, snowboardcross and the team pursuit speed skating will be officially added to the 2010 program, which will also include the debut of ski cross, a race down a technically challenging course resembling a motocross track.

First-Day-of-Issue Postmark

Customers have 60 days to obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. New stamps may be purchased at a local Post Office(TM), at The Postal Store® website at www.usps.com/shop, or by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes (to themselves or others), and place them in a larger envelope addressed to:

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games Stamp
Main Post Office
2100 Park Avenue
Park City, UT 84068-9998

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark. All orders must be postmarked by March 23, 2010.

First-Day Covers

Stamp Fulfillment Services also offers first day covers for new stamp issues and Postal Service stationery items postmarked with the official first-day-of-issue cancellation. Each item has an individual catalog number and is offered in the quarterly USA Philatelic catalog. Customers may request a free catalog by calling 800-STAMP-24 or writing to:

Information Fulfillment
Dept. 6270
U.S. Postal Service
PO Box 219014
Kansas City, MO 64121-9014

Philatelic Products
Three philatelic products available for this stamp issue:
– 440061, First-Day Cover, 0.82.
– 440091, Ceremony Program, $6.95.
– 440093, First-Day Cover Keepsake, $9.95.

Source: U.S. Postal Service

Tickets.com, a leading global provider of integrated ticketing solutions, is the Official Supplier of ticketing services for the upcoming Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. In association with the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC), Tickets.com has activated the ProVenue(R) Ticket Management System (PV-TMS), which supports all aspects of the ticket sales process, including the Olympic ticket request and lottery programs, ticket sales for Olympic and Paralympic events, the ticket management and auction programs, ticket printing and fulfillment, and staffing and management of all Games-time ticket offices.

The Phase 1 Request Period was open to Canadian residents from October 3 through November 7 at http://www.vancouver2010.com/. With the goal of ensuring efficient and fair ticket distribution under large request volumes, Tickets.com incorporated the PV-TMS technologies and first-class customer service, giving Canadians nationwide the only opportunity to obtain tickets for all competitions and ceremonies, including the most popular events.

“The unique needs, massive volume and security concerns that factor into Olympic ticketing are challenges we’ve had the privilege of addressing with best-in-class solutions since Atlanta over a decade ago,” said Larry Witherspoon, chief executive officer, Tickets.com. “In terms of volume, Vancouver presented a unique challenge; compared to the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games, in phase one alone Vancouver has already had two times the total tickets requested.”

Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games ticket requests by the numbers:

• Total value of tickets requested by Canadian residents from October 3 to November 7: $345 million
• An estimated 120 of 170 sessions will be allocated by lottery
• Dollar value of requests submitted on November 7 alone was 182 percent of the total dollar value of tickets allocated during phase one of the Salt Lake 2002 Olympic Winter Games
• 18.4 million page views from October 3 to November 7
• More than 3.5 million page views on November 7 alone

In total, approximately 1.6 million tickets will be sold for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and 250,000 for the Paralympic Games (which go on sale May 6, 2009). Ticket prices for Olympic sports events range from $25 to $775, with over 50% of them priced at $100 or less. Admission for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies ranges from $175 to $1,100.

“Our first phase was a tremendous success,” said Caley Denton, vice president, ticketing and consumer marketing for the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (VANOC). “The website developed by Tickets.com was easy to use and held up under incredible volume including $135 million in requests on the final day.”

The management of ticketing solutions and customer relations for VANOC — which includes Official Supplier sponsorship rights — is part of a five-year partnership between Tickets.com and VANOC. As part of the agreement, Tickets.com is also an official supplier to the 2008, 2010, and 2012 Canadian Olympic teams. The company’s partnership with VANOC builds on Tickets.com’s long history and proven track record in Olympic ticketing, which includes the Atlanta 1996 Summer Games, the Sydney 2000 Summer Games and the Salt Lake 2002 Winter Games. Tickets.com is also providing ticketing services to select Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad performances and Sport events in 2009 and 2010.