How SFU Business fared in the news for the week ending January 22, 2010.

National and World News

• Marketing prof Lindsay Meredith and business prof Peter Tingling were called by reporters about financial collapse of the owners of the Whistler Blackcomb resort—on the eve of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Neither forecast any impact on the games. In the Globe and Mail, Meredith said he expects the Intrawest resorts (Whistler Blackcomb, Steamboat Springs in Colorado, Mont Tremblant in Quebec) would be sold off in pieces, with Whistler Blackcomb bringing the highest bid. “It’s the jewel asset. . . . Whistler Blackcomb is a big money maker and the Olympics are the perfect time for the banks to sell it, when the whole world is watching.” Tingling agreed: “Whistler Blackcomb isn’t going to go away,” he said on CKNW. “And skiing isn’t going to go away. It’s a great time for the owners to ask for more money.”

• Meredith was also in a national Canadian Press story on how some large companies are running marketing campaigns related to the 2010 Winter Olympics, in defiance of VANOC’s efforts to stop “ambush marketing”. “You’re basically seeing businesses saying, ‘Screw you’”, said Meredith. “VANOC set the stage for this kind of backlash way early on because they were way too aggressive. . . . Now they’re in a case where other (companies) are saying ‘We dare ya, go ahead, take a shot at us in court.”‘ But he told the Toronto Star he could understand VANOC’s concern: “If interlopers attach themselves somehow to the event, it takes away the sanctity of being official. Down the line, these organizers have to go back to sponsors because there is London in 2012 and others they need to sign up.”