OLYMPICS /
Olympic Legacy
Beijing prepares for Olympic venues' future
Agencies
Updated: 2008-08-26 16:55
Some venues were built as additions to universities. The wrestling venue is to become a 6,000-seat gymnasium for China Agricultural University, while Beijing University of Technology gets the 6,900-seat venue for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics.
The coastal city of Qingdao plans to convert its yachting venue into a public marina and government school for China's future Olympic sailors.
At the Olympic green, the Main Press Center where thousands of reporters worked over the past two weeks is to become a convention center. The International Broadcasting Center will be one of its exhibition halls.
Beijing is fighting an Olympic history that has seen even past hosts such as Sydney that were lauded for well-run games struggle afterward with debt and underused facilities.
After the 2000 games, Sydney's 80,000-seat Stadium Australia lost money, failing to attract enough rock concerts and football matches, according to Glen Searle, an urban planner at University of Technology Sydney. Its owner required a government loan to avoid bankruptcy and sold the stadium at a loss.
But Beijing, with 15 million people, still has few athletic sites at a time when rising incomes are driving a boom in spending on recreation and spectator sports.