Rain cancels 8,000 snowboard cross tickets

More warm, wet weather has forced Olympic organizers to cancel thousands of general admission tickets to Monday and Tuesday's snowboard cross events at Cypress Mountain.

The cancellation means the holders of about 8,000 general admission tickets priced at $50 each will get refunds.It doesn'taffect anyone with $125 grandstand seats or tickets to the freestyle skiing aerial events at Cypress later in the week, or any alpine events at Whistler.

VANOC said heavy rains over the weekend washed away almost a foot of snow, making the standing-room area at the Cypress snowboardvenue unsafe for spectators. With the events starting in less than 24 hours, there is insufficient time and snow to build the standing-room area back up.

The general admission area was built on bales of hay with snow on top, and the warm weather has caused the snow to melt, leaving staff working in the areareportedly sinking uptheir knees and hips in the mushy mess.

Fans disappointed

The news cameas huge disappointmentto hundreds of fans whoshowed upfor Olympic buses at North Vancouver's Lonsdale Quay on Monday morning, only to beturned away.

Marc Cadieux, who travelled from Winnipeg to see the Olympics, blamed poor planning for the cancellation.

"It rains here all the time, and they probably should have expected to get rain. They should have thought ahead," he said.

Todd Wyant travelled from Tennessee to see several of his friends compete, and was not consoled by VANOC's offer to help him buy tickets to speed skating and luge instead.

"That's good, but like I say, they are not your friends, not your family and people that you know, and I think that's what becomes real frustrating," he said. "You just wonder why people don't plan for these things."

Others were more philosophical about their misfortune.

"It's disappointing, but it's weather and you can't really control that," said one visitor fromAustralia after learning the news.

Caley Denton, vice-president of ticketing with VANOC, said he understands people will be disappointed with the news, adding thatall standing-room ticket holders will get refunds.

"We're extremely disappointed as well, and we appreciate their patience and hope they understand that our venue team has worked as hard as they possibly could to make it possible, but we really felt in the end there is too much safety risk there," said Denton.

More cancellations possible

Despite conditions, VANOC saidit has enough snow to continue to stage the actual events at the rain-plagued Cypress Mountain Resort, located just northwest of Vancouver. Before the Games had even started, organizers were forced to usetrucks and helicopters to bring in hay bales and snow to build up the course after unseasonably warm wet weather washed snowfrom the slopes.

It is not yet clear if VANOC will be forced to cancel tickets for other upcoming events at Cypress, including general admission tickets for the snowboard half-pipe on Feb. 17 and 18, ski cross on Feb. 21 and 23, and snowboard parallel giant slalom on Feb. 26 and 27.

VANOC said it will advise the public about those tickets as soon as information is available.

On Sunday evening, freestyle skier Alexandre Bilodeau won Canada's first-ever gold medal on Canadian soil at Cypress in the men's moguls before a screaming crowd of thousands. On Saturday, Jennifer Heil won Canada's first medal at the Vancouver Olympics when she took silver in the women's event.