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:: Homerun at Homebush
July 9, 2000
Homerun at Homebush
Sydney, Australia
Deliver me from football season, wake me up at the very bottom of the ninth and somebody, please, explain golf. But offer me a sneak peek of the Olympic Park at Sydney's Homebush Bay and I can get excited.
My timing was perfect: Public tours ended June 30 as the park ramped up toward the opening ceremonies in September.
Olympics officials hope event-goers will find the twelve-minute train ride from downtown Sydney the most convenient and cost-effective way to get to the park. They expect a three dollar-per-hour parking fee to curb vehicular traffic to Homebush, which is fitting given the environmental friendliness of the event, locally nicknamed "The Green Games."
Ninety percent of the park lights are solar-powered and the arches above the train station create a breeze to cool naturally without air conditioning. When the park uses air conditioning, it will cool only occupied areas. Stadium chairs are twenty-five percent recycled plastic and all water is recycled nine times for hydrating the track field and for flushing toilets.
Lamp towers that are monuments to the world's Olympic cities line elegant Olympic Boulevard, the main pedestrian thoroughfare. The Munich tower is a poignant memorial to the 11 Israeli athletes and officials killed during the 1972 games.
The $200 million Super Dome, with a capacity of 21,000, will host gymnastics, gold medal men's and women's basketball and the bronze medal basketball playoffs. But the jewel of the tour was the $650 million Stadium Australia, the largest Olympic stadium in the world. It will host the opening and closing ceremonies where the cheap seats cost $1,500. It is also the location for track and field events, including the soccer final and the marathon finish.
Four 747 jumbo jets can easily fit into this venue, which is designed to hold 100,000 spectators. Six football fields of grass have been grown to replace the stadium's field at a moment's notice.
After a panoramic view of Stadium Australia from the nosebleed section on level 6, our guides treated us to a stroll on the stadium grounds. We were careful not to walk on the track and confined our steps to the green vulcanized rubber surface on which the athletes, coaches and officials will regularly tread.
Before we left Homebush Bay we drove slowly through the Olympic Village, where for the first time in Olympic history, athletes will be housed in one community.
Olympic Village is a condominium complex in suburban Sydney that has been converted into housing for athletes and coaches for the two-week event. Many of the 3- and 4-bedroom condos were renovated to accommodate the games, including turning garage space into apartments. Condominium owners will vacate in August and return in January 2001 after their condos have been restored to their original condition.
There were many impressive features at the Olympic Park. But there was only one feature that elicited a cheer from the women on our tour: Of the 1,500 toilets at Homebush Bay, 900 are for women and 600 are for men.
It's about time.
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