Stadium fit for sporting spectacle

By EUGENE BINGHAM

A sight and sound bonanza hits you on the approach to Stadium Australia. Everyone knows this beast is huge, but what's with the weird noises?

Fans entering the stadium are distracted by a symphony of sounds of Australia and their sporting endeavours played through speakers on poles around the ground.

Soundbites of various sports and wildlife can be heard, from action on the basketball court to flocks of Australia's loudest birds.

It is just one small finishing touch to this hulk of a building. This is the biggest stadium to ever host the Olympics and, as any Australian will tell you, size IS important.

Talk to anyone about the ground and the daunting facts will be thrown at you: it is made of 10,000 tonnes of reinforcing, 12,000 tonnes of structural steel and 90,000cu m of concrete. The roof is suspended from an arch structure 3ha in area. Four Boeing 747s would fit side by side under the span of the main arch.

Come Friday, 110,000 people will cram inside for the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony, some climbing 14 storeys to the top of two imposing stands.

A private syndicate developed the stadium though it will revert to public ownership after 2003. In the next three years, the owners will seek to recoup the cost of construction.

Post-Games plans include peeling back the track that will carry the world's fastest athletes, replacing it with more seats and grass for football codes.

Australian track and field competitors have already dubbed the stadium Windy City because of the way wind tends to swirl around inside.

Stadium Australia is but one of the Olympic venues laid out at Homebush in western Sydney.

Within a kilometre are the Sydney International Aquatic Centre, the Sydney Superdome, the Baseball Stadium, Hockey Centre, Tennis Centre and Bicentennial Park.

The Olympians will be staying at 1000 new houses drawn together in the fifth biggest city in New South Wales, virtually over the back fence from the sporting venues.

The Olympic Village has everything: accommodation, meals and entertainment with movies, music and a dance club. Here, they will want for nothing but gold, of course.