The Stadium Australia site (37k) at Homebush Bay early 1997. 

e live in a constantly changing world. An internationally respected motivational speaker of the seventies used to lead with the line "If you always do what you've always done you will always have what you always had." Maybe this is still so for individuals, but it is definitely not an accurate observation for business approaching the turn of the century. For many corporates, always doing what they always have done would be a recipe to diminish business at a rate akin to the reciprocal of the expansion rate of a population of rabbits on performance enhancing drugs. I have a feeling that stadia, particularly not as yet established stadia, fit into this category.  

Aware of the amazing rate of change in today's world, Stadium Australia Group has insisted upon two key factors in the design and construction of Stadium Australia. Firstly, where appropriate and where budgets permit, the latest in technology is being included in the design. Secondly, the design includes 'future proofing' (building-in of flexibility) to allow ease of retrofitting of the advanced 'experience-enhancing' technologies that will undoubtedly develop from developments such as the personal video/ games/telephone packages available in every seat on the new Boeing 777 jets.  

Examples of this 'future proofing' include the installation of a fibre optic spine throughout the facility, and construction of the seating to allow future installation of personal video screens and perhaps communications technology. The fibre optics system has a capacity far in excess of current demands, and is distributed via a loop in the basement service level and four major risers to four points on each level of the stadium. 

Miniaturisation   
New Zealand speaker and business man, Bruce Cotterill, sums the situation up beautifully when he says that "technology really is creating history in more ways than one. What else has ever been able to get men arguing with commitment about who has the smallest!" It is this miniaturisation he refers to that will be the key to technological enhancement of stadia at the customer interface in the future. The good news for stadia developers is that, with miniaturisation, generally comes cheaper costs.  

Stadium Australia includes the essential facilities within the initial budget and will in the future consider technology enhancements and the commercial options these create in order to continue to provide the optimum customer experience. Methods of funding the installation will also have to be considered - the options here might extend from our own capital expenditure to outsourcing this installation to a specialist provider of services on negotiated commercial terms. It is certain that considering the demands of future technological development during initial design stages will be mandatory for all future world class stadia design.  

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BOOT Scheme  
The decision to 'futureproof' has been driven by a clear customer focus. While Stadium Australia is a response to Sydney's winning of the 2000 Olympics and Paralympics, the project is fundamentally driven by the requirements of the BOOT scheme (Build, Own, Operate, and Transfer-back to the Government) - the current owners have a thirty year tenure prior to the facility being handed back to the Government of New South Wales, free of charge, for the continuing benefit of the community for a further twenty years.  

THIM realises that survival and success for thirty years demands a business based approach to the design. Part and parcel of this commercial review has been a conscious effort to define the customer for Stadium Australia. Not just today's customer, but any possible customer likely to emerge in our thirty year ownership of the facility and beyond.  

Essentially, Stadium Australia takes the attitude that any person or organisation likely to utilise the facility as a hirer, performer (or player/contestant), spectator, diner, club member, or corporate facilities visitor - even the international television viewing public of a major event - is a customer, and that the building should be designed to service each of their needs to an exceptional level. Intelligent and flexible design has been the key to solving numerous specific problems arising from this need to provide a world class facility for all categories of customer.  

Innovative Funding    
A fully underwritten financial proposal based on the sale of Gold and Platinum memberships raised $350m to fund the project. The proposal was based upon the provision of 110,000 seats in the Stadium until after the Games. This will make it the largest ever Olympic crowd, easily breaking the standard of 101,000 set by Los Angeles in 1984. After the Games, Stadium Australia will be converted to '80,000' mode. This will be achieved by demolishing the end stands, which will be constructed as two level seating facilities with no roof for the period until after the Games, and rebuilt as single level stands with a roof in 2001.  

This spirit of innovation is continued in true 'fourth generation' manner with the variety and style of food service (from traditional pie and chips through to 'shashlik and chardonnay', from concessions and bistro, to fine dining in restaurants), and the proposed range of sporting, cultural and general entertainment being planned to set standards by which future stadia, globally, will be judged. An amazing 5,000 patrons can be catered for in sit down dining facilities.  

Club and Corporate   
Platinum and Gold members will receive a wide range of benefits and facilities. The corporate suites are uniquely located below the mid bowl rather than the usual position above and to the rear of the mid bowl. The suites are cantilevered some 17 metres from the main concourse structure, a challenge for MPX but necessary to give a better view of the arena than most similar stadia, and the opportunity to be literally surrounded by the atmosphere in a way not possible in any other stadia in the 100,000 seat league anywhere in the world, to the best of my knowledge.  

A sign in the players change room in the Ericsson Stadium in Charlotte, USA says "The fan is the most important member of our team." Like Ericsson Stadium, Stadium Australia has paid great attention to the design impact on fans and modern gladiator alike.  

Change rooms have been designed as multi use facilities. They are designated in pairs on either side of a large warm up space, which itself could be used as temporary change rooms or as a conference room for training camps.   

The structural steel framework reaches skyward above a members' and corporate hirers' entrance.

 Configuration   
The original intention was to reconfigure the facility specifically for rectangular field sports such as rugby and soccer on completion of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Stadium Australia Group has just announced that the Australian Football League is to play in the facility post Olympics, a possibility not considered by the original design. AFL is played on an oval arena much larger than the rugby field. To cater for both sports, the lower bowl east and west is being redesigned to move on a system of motorised wheels and railway-like tracks. Moved forward, the seating bowl configuration for rectangular field sports is achieved. In the retracted position, the bowl is configured for optimum patron/arena intimacy at AFL matches.  

Moving seats in stadia is not a new phenomenum. What is innovative about the Stadium Australia concept is that some 20,000 seats positioned on post tensioned concrete (as opposed to the more usual steel) plats will be reconfigured at the press of a button, within a time period of approximately eight hours!  

A major feature of the Stadium Australia design is its spectacular roof. Supported on arches that weigh 650 tonnes each and span 296 metres, the polycarbonate sandwich roof sheeting filters harmful sun rays and yet is up to 48% translucent. This minimises the strong lighting contrasts so common with opaque roofed stadia and enhances the television viewers' picture of the arena. Great flexibility of camera positions and a seating policy that will maximise the number of patrons within the camera sweep on non capacity days contribute further to Stadium Australia's quest to set world standards as a 'broadcast friendly' facility.  

The 30,000 metre roof area captures water for field irrigation and toilet flushing. In addition to the recycling of water, Stadium Australia's environmentally sensitive design includes passive heating and cooling wherever practical, maximum use of natural light, composting of waste, and gas co-generation for heating water.  

Setting Standards   
British Olympic and world record holder, Sebastian Coe was so impressed with the facility that his planned twenty minute visit extended for several hours. Recent visits by Carl Lewis and 400m World Champion, Cathy Freeman drew similar expressions of praise for this outstanding facility.  

There is no doubt that Stadium Australia will be the environment in which many exceptional human beings will attain goals which are now considered unimaginable, just as the four minute mile used to be considered an impossibility. But Roger Bannister did not only break the four minute barrier for the mile, he also shattered the mental limitations of years. In the year following Bannister's achievement some 37 runners broke those 'impossible' mental and physical barriers, and in the next year over 300 followed in his footsteps. Nowadays it is almost the norm.  

Just as the achievement of Roger Bannister challenged the preconceptions of the day, Stadium Australia sets the standards for customer-focused design and construction, which challenge all those who seek to be world class to match!
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