Key points
- Stadium Australia – which seats 110,000 spectators, is eight levels inside and about 14 storeys high – is the largest stadium ever built for an Olympic Games.
- The graceful centrepiece of Sydney Olympic Park had its unofficial opening on March 6, 1999, almost 18 months ahead of the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
- The stadium – described by International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch as the best he has ever seen – has since been tested by a series of major public and sporting events for its transport links and facilities and has won praise.
Stadium Australia – located 16 kilometres west of central Sydney at Sydney Olympic Park, Homebush Bay –
will be home to the opening and closing ceremonies, track and field events and soccer finals for the 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
It is the world’s largest Olympic stadium, able to seat 110,000 people. After the Games, it will be converted to seat 80,000. To admit these numbers of people, there are 92 turnstiles – each enabling 1,400 people an hour to enter the venue.
The two video screens at Stadium Australia are the largest in the southern hemisphere, standing four storeys high and worth $6 million each.
Stadium Australia is the largest single site utilising green energy in Australia today. It is estimated this initiative will prevent more than 13 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions being released into the atmosphere every year. This investment is part of a long-term commitment to the environment and the public who support the spectacles and events hosted at Stadium Australia.
The media facilities are first-class, incorporating broadcasting and production centres for television and radio, a ‘moat’ around the track for photographers to operate from, and a press centre. Working space has been created for 600 journalists.
For the first time in modern Olympic history, all Olympic athletes will be living in the Olympic village surrounding the stadium.
The versatility of Stadium Australia will ensure its ongoing success, with contracts to stage World Cup Rugby Union, regular Aussie Rules football and Rugby League matches, international soccer, one-day cricket and international concerts.
Conference facilities for business meetings, product launches and other events are also available at Stadium Australia. A vast range of fully equipped and catered conference and function rooms can accommodate as many as 2,000 delegates.
Hosting the Paralympic Games
Stadium Australia will also host the 2000 Paralympic Games, with athletes from 125 countries participating.
Facilities for people with disabilities exceed those at any other venue in Australia, including access to all viewing areas and lifts to all levels. One thousand special seats have been reserved for people using wheelchairs. These have good sightlines that cannot be blocked by standing spectators.
Passing the test
Stadium Australia passed one of its toughest tests on Saturday, August 28, 1999, when it handled a world-record rugby crowd of 107,042 people who turned out to watch the Wallabies, Australia’s representative Rugby Union team, overrun New Zealand’s All Blacks 28-7 to retain the Bledisloe Cup.
The massive turnout tested Stadium Australia’s transport links and facilities to the limit. Another 4,000 people watching the Pan Pacific swimming championships at the Aquatic Centre next door left at about the same time as the rugby fans. Organisers warned fans of the possibility of long queues after the match, because 85 per cent of the Bledisloe Cup fans were heading back to the eastern suburbs. However, most were able to catch a train within 10 or 15 minutes of reaching Sydney Olympic station.
Some 80,000 people used bus and train links to arrive at and leave the station. When the Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games are held, crowd dispersal after events will be more ‘multi-directional’, which should make the going even smoother.
The Bledisloe Cup crowd began clicking through the stadium turnstiles at 5.30pm. By 7.30pm there was scarcely an empty seat in the stadium. An estimated 30,000 New Zealanders watched the match, including about 10,000 who had flown across the Tasman to be there.
In the second half (by which time the Wallabies had established a commanding lead), the stadium’s electronic scoreboard announced that the crowd had broken the world record for Rugby Union attendance. The previous record was 104,000 at Murrayfield in Scotland in 1974.
Facilities praised
People were full of praise for the way Stadium Australia and the transport system handled the crowds. Even the stadium’s toilets were commended. The Sun-Herald newspaper quoted one fan, Karen Curtain, of the Sydney suburb of Strathfield, as saying the women’s toilets were clean and there was no wait.
‘The facilities for women and mothers were sensational,’ Mrs Curtain enthused.
Stadium Australia has come a long way since its unofficial opening on March 6, 1999 – almost 18 months ahead of the opening ceremony of the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
On that occasion, a Rugby League double-header, played before a world-record Rugby League crowd of 104,583, inaugurated the giant stadium. The crown was even bigger than the 100,000 or so Sydneysiders who eagerly walked, ran, skated and strolled through the stadium when it first opened its doors to the public in February 1999.
Stadium Australia attracted 88,336 Rugby League fans to watch New South Wales play Queensland last year, in the State of Origin match – a record crowd for a State of Origin duel.
Crowds on such a scale give Sydney 2000 Olympic and Paralympic Games organisers valuable insights into the sorts of challenges they will face.
‘As everyone knows, Stadium Australia will be a key anchor point for the 2000 Sydney Olympics and Paralympics, but what this venue will be used for after 2000 will be just as special for sports fans and the community at large,’ the New South Wales Minister for the Olympic Games and president of SOCOG, Michael Knight, pointed out. ‘More Australians will have the opportunity to see the greatest athletes in an array of sports.’
A big hit
Stadium Australia has been a hit since its completion. An estimated 20,000 people walked through it in the first 75 minutes of its unofficial opening in February 1999. Its first sporting fixture, the Rugby League double-header, took place about a year after International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch visited the venue during construction and described it as ‘the best stadium I have seen in my life’.
The stadium is the largest built for an Olympic Games, some 14 storeys high and with eight levels inside. Some 10,000 tonnes of reinforcing, 12,000 tonnes of structural steel and 90,000 cubic metres of concrete were used to build it. Its imaginative design will seat 110,000 spectators during the Games, more than any previous Olympic facility. After the Olympics, the stadium will be reconfigured to seat 80,000 spectators.
Building the best
Construction on Stadium Australia began in September 1996 and finished in March 1999, three months ahead of schedule. A massive cut-and-fill earthworks operation levelled the site, moving a total of 55,000m cubic metres of soil with 55,000 trucks. An extraordinary amount of material was, including:
– Five drilling rigs to make 1,800 foundation piles.
– Eighteen thousand trucks to deliver concrete.
– One-hundred-and-eighty kilometres of electrical cabling.
– A million masonry blocks. Laid end to end, the blocks would stretch for 400 kilometres.
– Nine hundred construction workers were on-site when work was at its peak.
Did you know?
At its highest point, the Stadium’s arch reaches 14 storeys, and the span from north to south is the length of Sydney’s Gladesville Bridge – enough to fit four Boeing 747s side by side. The roof size is equivalent to 115 tennis courts.
The foundation stone, donated by the Greek Ministry of Culture, was quarried just 10 kilometres from the original, ancient Olympic site at Olympia.
Facts and figures
– Concrete used – 90,000 square metres.
– Structural steel -12,000 tonnes.
– Reinforcing – 10,000 tonnes.
– Precast seating plates -55,000 metres.
– Number of piles – 2,600.
– Total roof weight – 4,100 tonnes.
– Roof size – 30,000 square metres.
– Combined main arch span – 295.6 metres.
– Roof span at centre -70 metres.
– Biggest single crane lift – 250 tonnes.
– Height of stadium – front, 43 metres; back, 58 metres.
Stadium catering
There are 86 food and beverage outlets and a kitchen able to produce 15,000 meals and serve up to 7,000 plated meals at any one time. Some 2,400 catering staff work on major event days.
Overall, there are 192 catering facilities, including a central production kitchen of 1,200 square metres and 16 satellite kitchens. In addition, there are 64 pantries attached to the private suites, eight ‘deli’ kitchens, 19 lounge bars, 64 concessions (or kiosks), six vending (or hawking depots), 10 beverage cellars, four staff amenity rooms and a central warehouse receiving area of 1,100 square metres.
Tours
Since its opening in March 1999, Stadium Australia has become a must-see for tourists from around the world visiting Sydney. This is in addition to the hundreds of thousands of Australians who have toured the stadium and marvelled at the beauty of the building and its functionality.
Stadium Australia conducts regular public and special group tours. Visitors need to be with a Stadium Australia guide, and should contact the stadium beforehand (phone Sydney 8765 2300) to make arrangements.
Tours will operate until the last week in August 2000, although scheduled Olympic trial events may affect tours on certain days.
For further information, visit the ATC media site at http://www.media.australia.com and the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) site at http://www.sydney.olympic.org