Sydney's Olympic gamble: big money, bigger risks

By PETER CALDER

SYDNEY- On the day in September 1993 when they found they had won the right to stage the 2000 Olympic Games, the good people of Sydney partied for 24 hours.

Some may have wondered gloomily where all the money was coming from, but they would have been swamped by the jubilation in the streets. The city, the state, the nation were giddy with anticipation at the projected economic benefits.

It was a coup for Australia, too. For only the second time in history, the Olympics were to be held south of the equator. Sydney had beaten Beijing, after Istanbul, Berlin and Manchester had been eliminated in successive ballots. Brasilia, perhaps knowing it had bitten off more than it could chew, had earlier withdrawn.

But five months out from the opening ceremony, some in Sydney are wondering how long and how painful the hangover from this party will be.

Certainly, the city is pumping. You can scarcely walk a block without bumping into the results of a two-year, $400 million facelift. A beautification project here, a building site there (including new motorway links, pedestrian underpasses and overbridges and rail lines). Old tiles gleam with a new lustre. Artworks grace the smallest public spaces.

The main Homebush Bay site, at the demographic centre of Greater Sydney about 10km west of downtown, is complete except for largely cosmetic earthworks and planting.

But it is an expensive business and, even as Sydney gets ready for the biggest event the Southern Hemisphere has seen, some are openly wondering whether it will end in tears.

The last time the Games came Down Under (Melbourne, 1956) it was a simpler - and cheaper - world. Melbourne's remoteness discouraged many competitors, and numbers were down.

Athletes were amateur. Heroes were household names, not billionaire superstars. The track and field events were comfortably accommodated in the sedate environs of the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

This is a different era. In the third millennium, the Games are big business, and the language reflects that. Announcing this week that the Sydney Harbour Bridge would close for two hours on April 30 while thousands of athletes test-run the marathon course, the Games' event organiser, Dave Cundy, described the race as a "premium product."

It was hard to imagine the Olympic motto "Citius, Altius, Fortius" ("Swifter, Higher, Stronger") causing his heart to swell with emotion.

Big business means big money. The New South Wales state government has contributed two-thirds of a $3.75 billion budget to construct a dozen Olympic venues - seven at Homebush Bay.

They include Stadium Australia, the 110,000-seat main arena that will seat 80,000 permanently when detachable uncovered stands are removed after the Games; the 20,000-seat SuperDome, a fully enclosed centre which can be filled with water (for indoor windsurfing!) or dirt (for motocross); a 16-court tennis centre; and the five-pool aquatic centre, finished in 1994, whose 4400 capacity will swell to 15,000 for the Games.

A hockey centre, athletics stadium (the track at Stadium Australia will be rolled up after the Olympics) and a state sports centre are the other venues at Homebush Bay.

Farther southwest, at Horsley Park, is an equestrian centre (it cost almost $40 million and features timber-lined stables, an indoor training hall and accommodation for 30 vets) and at Bankstown, west of Botany Bay where the First Fleet landed, they have built a $40 million, 250m timber-track indoor velodrome for cycling.

Meanwhile, eight indoor sports - including the boxing, weightlifting and volleyball - are being staged in existing buildings at Darling Harbour in the central city.

Building state-of-the-art sports stadiums is always going to be expensive, and Sydney's Olympic building boom has come in ahead of schedule and under budget. But many think the city is now over-endowed with stadiums - and fear the landscape will be littered with white elephants in October.

The major source of concern is the so-called SuperDome - an undeniably majestic entertainment centre that is home to the Sydney Kings basketball team and will host the Olympic basketball finals and gymnastics. It cost $250 million and its adjoining carpark cost a further $75 million. State taxpayers footed three-quarters of the bill. And the signs are that it is in trouble.

Its general manager, Bob Evans, told the Sydney Morning Herald last month that he has only two firm commercial bookings - a concert by a Greek singer in May and a go-kart race in June.

The massive (and magnificent) Stadium Australia looked superb, even through tears on the bleak day that the All Blacks handed the Bledisloe Cup to the Wallabies. But question marks hang over its future, too.

The local league franchise, the Canterbury Bulldogs, signed an agreement to make the stadium its home ground, but with some fixtures attracting gates of less than 10,000 - a crowd swallowed up in the cavernous space - they are looking to transfer to the nearby showground complex to cut costs.

Others wonder about the long-term viability of a 16-court tennis centre in a part of Sydney abounding in courts both public and private.

Or of a $35 million shooting range in a country which has cracked down on gun ownership and whose gun lobby, the local Sporting Shooters Association, is on record as comparing Olympic shooting to watching paint dry.

Even the aquatic centre, heavily used and highly successful, operates at a $3 million annual loss.

On the strength of bookings so far, it is starting to look as if the Olympic site could be a collection of white elephants. City stadiums (the Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney Football Stadium and Sydney Entertainment Centre) seem more than adequate for year-round use, with the added pull of being near restaurants, bars and other entertainment.

For the first time in history all events (except the preliminary soccer matches) will be held in the city which hosts the Games.

From the rowing course on Penrith Lakes in the west to the temporary beach volleyball court being built at Bondi Beach is barely 60km. The atmosphere from one side of Greater Sydney to the other seems certain to be electric.

The most optimistic projections have the Games generating $8 billion in extra activity over the 12 years from 1994 to 2006. It may look like a goldmine, but some of the seams appear to be mined out.

At Darling Harbour - a retail, entertainment and restaurant precinct that makes Auckland's Viaduct Basin look like a dark alley - and all over town, some of the city's best restaurants are competing to the death.

And some are dying; award-winning eateries like Darley Street Thai, Cicada and Ampersand all have For Sale signs up.

One of the city's finest chefs, Paul Merrony, last week declared the Olympic boom a "folly" and closed his acclaimed eponymous harbourside restaurant.

"It's become too crowded," he said.

"And if it's tough now, it's going to get extremely tough. Everybody's geared up for this Olympic folly, but you've got to wonder what's going to happen in a year's time.

"There are too many restaurants in Sydney."

Likewise, the lustre has gone off the $500 million Fox Studios Project at Moore Park, on the site of the old showgrounds and near the Sydney Cricket Ground.

The property development company which is a 50-50 partner with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp in the project - a $550 million retail and entertainment precinct including a film theme park called Backlot - has decided to write down by about 10 per cent its investment in the complex, which opened in November.

The company is reported to be disappointed by the performance of Backlot. The paying public's view seems to be that $125 for a family is poor value for money.

If there is a distinctly hubristic element to some of Sydney's preparations, there is no doubt that it is a city getting ready for a hell of a party in September.

Between mid-September and late October, 720,000 international visitors are expected. Buses and trains will be pulled in from provincial cities to keep Sydney moving.

On some days 500,000 people are expected to arrive and leave Homebush Bay.

Even the virtual certainty of protest by aboriginal land rights activists is not dampening enthusiasm.

Let the Games begin.