Beijing starts enacting the post-Olympic plans for venues:
quote: The NBA and private developers have been signed up to run stadiums and arenas. The Water Cube swimming centre, due to become a public pool, raised money by licensing its name for a bottled water brand. The Bird's Nest is taking bids from companies for naming rights.
...
The Bird's Nest will be the highest-profile test case for the city's ability to make them financially viable.
It has the advantage that it is the first big, modern stadium in a city where the main venue for rock concerts and sports has been the drab Workers Stadium, a 58,000-seat hulk built in 1959. But the new facility's huge size and potentially high user fees could put it beyond the reach of many events.
...
The Water Cube raised money by licensing its name for use on swimsuits and on bottled water made from Canadian icebergs.
Beijing began charting the venues' future almost as soon as it was awarded the games in 2001.
Athlete housing was designed from the start as luxury apartments, with swimming pools, tennis courts, coffee shops and shopping. Chinese media say units sold out ahead of the games for prices of $2,900-$4,400 per square metre, high even for Beijing's booming real estate market.
In an odd piece of timing Sydney is retrospectively caught doing "lip-syncing" with an *entire orchestra*:
quote: Eight years after Sydney hosted the 2000 Summer Olympics, officials with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra acknowledged their stirring performance at the opening ceremony was entirely prerecorded. And perhaps even more cringe-inducing for Sydney residents: some of the music was recorded by the symphony of rival city Melbourne.
And finally, an opinion poll on the results of the games as conducted in Hong Kong
quote: * (809 persons age 18 or over interviewed by telephone August 24-28, 2008 at response rate of 48.2%)
Q6. The Beijing Olympics are now over. Overall, do you think that the Beijing Olympics was successful? 1.6%: Very unsuccessful 2.1%: Somewhat unsuccessful 25.8%: Somewhat successful 68.7%: Very successful 1.7%: Don't know/hard to say
Q7. Which of the following is the most important standard by which you judge the success of the Beijing Olympics 4.9%: The number of gold medals won by China 57.1%: Beijing was able to complete the Olympics safely and smoothly 2.0%: The number of foreign VIP's attending the Beijing Olympics 31.1%: The media were able to report the Olympics and the situation in China 2.7%: Other 3.5%: Don't know/hard to say
Q8. Are you proud of China hosting the Olympics? 41.2%: Very proud 43.4%: Somewhat proud 12.9%: Not proud 1.6%: Not proud at all 1.0%: Don't know/hard to say
Q9. Do you feel that the Beijing Olympics has changed the image of China? 1.2%: Became worse 7.9%: No change 89.5%: Became better 1.4%: Don't know/hard to say
The highlighted bit is interesting since the gold medal winners will be sent to Hong Kong pretty soon in an alleged effort to influence the upcoming Hong Kong elections toward the pro-Beijing candidates.
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