Beijing prepares for Olympic venues’ future

Some venues were built as additions to universities. The wrestling venue is to become a 6,000-seat gymnasium for China Agricultural University, while Beijing University of Technology gets the 6,900-seat venue for badminton and rhythmic gymnastics.

The coastal city of Qingdao plans to convert its yachting venue into a public marina and government school for China’s future Olympic sailors.

At the Olympic green, the Main Press Center where thousands of reporters worked over the past two weeks is to become a convention center. The International Broadcasting Center will be one of its exhibition halls.

Beijing is fighting an Olympic history that has seen even past hosts such as Sydney that were lauded for well-run games struggle afterward with debt and underused facilities.

After the 2000 games, Sydney’s 80,000-seat Stadium Australia lost money, failing to attract enough rock concerts and soccer matches, according to Glen Searle, an urban planner at University of Technology Sydney. Its owner required a government loan to avoid bankruptcy and sold the stadium at a loss.

But Beijing, with 15 million people, still has few athletic sites at a time when rising incomes are driving a boom in spending on recreation and spectator sports.

The state company that owns the Olympic basketball venue announced a partnership in January with the NBA and AEG, a U.S. sports promoter, to develop the 18,700-seat arena for concerts and sporting events.

The arena “will become a premiere destination for fans after the Olympic Games,” the company chairman, Zhao Yan, told reporters.

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