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CENTURY 21 Access America |
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Industry NewsFeature Continued …back to the 1936 Olympics and recently underwent a four-year, €242 million face-lift. Inside, Adidas used the small-scale soccer field of artificial turf for a youth tournament during downtime between World Cup matches. The German sporting-goods company even built a VIP section with more-spacious seating for about 250 people and “sky boxes” with catering services. The U.S.-based Stadium Managers Association and others in the construction industry, as well as Adidas, say it is the most sophisticated temporary stadium built yet. Cities, worried about getting stuck with expensive white elephants, are turning to the temporary arenas — which use steel and aluminum rather than concrete — to host the actual competitions. Two years ago, Long Beach, Calif., hosted the U.S. Olympic swim trials in an above-ground pool plopped down in a parking lot and surrounded by a 10,000-seat temporary stadium. At the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, Nüssli built a roofless stadium with 10,000 seats for a beach volleyball tournament that was dismantled afterward. London, which is hosting the 2012 Olympic Games, plans to build an 80,000-seat stadium that can be reconfigured into a 25,000-seat track-and-field park afterward. Hotel construction will outpace all other commercial sectors this year, predicts Robert Murray, vice president for economic affairs at McGraw-Hill Construction, a unit of McGraw-Hill Cos. of New York. With the housing boom showing signs of pulling back, hotels keep churning out profits as travelers fill up more rooms, allowing hotels to increase room rates. |
“There will be more,” predicts Nicholas Goldsmith, senior principal in New York at FTL Design Engineering Studio, which proposed a temporary stadium for New York City’s failed 2012 Olympic bid. HNTB Architecture Inc. of Kansas City, Mo., which has helped design and build several permanent stadiums during the past three decades, says it has been approached by a major U.S. city — it won’t say which one — that is weighing a bid for the 2016 Olympics and is interested in building a large temporary arena that would house tens of thousands of fans. Temporary venues are “very, very well suited for events that only happen once in a while,” says Mike Handelman, a senior vice president at HNTB. During the World Cup semifinal game between Germany and Italy last week, a capacity crowd at the Adidas stadium stood up and sang the national anthem as it was broadcast on the TV screens. Spectators in the stands unfurled flags, chanted “Deutschland,” and cheered for more than two hours as they watched the action. When German striker Lukas Podolski raised his arms and urged the crowd at the actual stadium to get louder, fans in the Adidas stadium did, too. They became quiet only at the very end, when Italy scored twice in extra time to win. |
Soccer fan Margaret König didn’t even try to get tickets for games at the actual stadiums because she considered the odds too daunting. But she wanted a stadium experience and ended up watching three games at the Adidas venue. “It’s absolutely terrific,” says Ms. König, 51, who traveled for the games to Berlin from the city of Bielefeld, 2½ hours away by train. After Sunday’s final, workers immediately began taking apart the stadium. As much as 90% of the materials will be redeployed for other temporary venues. Some of the seating and scaffolding is headed to Hamburg for a Robbie Williams concert before going to Switzerland for a Rolling Stones concert. Because the stadium is temporary, Berlin authorities let Adidas build it on a prime piece of public real estate: Platz der Republik, a normally open expanse of grass right in front of the Reichstag, the German parliament. “It really is the equivalent of the White House lawn,” says Thomas van Schaik, an Adidas spokesman, of the location. Adidas also promised to replace the huge patch of asphalt it rolled over Platz der Republik with new grass. And it says proceeds from ticket sales will go to the city to fund sports projects. The company says more than half a million people visited the stadium site during the World Cup, which ran from June 9 to July 9. |
Volume 2; Issue 9
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