14 January 2009

Beijing’s “Bird’s Nest” Looking for a New Tenant

Since the Olympics are over in Beijing; the stadiums that were built for the event are customized for local use. The Olympic stadium for swimming known as the Water Cube will become a swimming center. Some of its parts will also be converted into a water park. The Tennis Stadium will have some minor changes as it prepares for the China Open. Other venues were also revamped for the same use as they were during the Olympics.

But the famed “Bird’s Nest” stadium, wherein the opening night of the Olympics was held, is in a different situation. The stadium is still looking for a permanent tenant such as a sports club who will use it as their new asset. Unfortunately, the only interested party backed out of the deal as proposed renovations to the stadium were denied. Aside from denying the request of the Guo'an (a popular soccer Club in China) to reduce the number of seats to 80,000, rent was too expensive. As of this writing only one event is confirmed in the stadium – an opera titled “Turandot” set to be performed on the 8th of August.

For now, the “Bird’s Nest” is just a tourist attraction. The tour will cost the visitors around US$7.00 or 50 Yuan. The tour is usually from the stadium, to the box seats and to the souvenir shops. But even with this income generating option, it will almost be impossible to recoup the US$450 million spent by the government to build this remarkable structure.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I was lucky enough to be able to visit the birds nest stadium last month. Looks even more beautiful in real life than on TV.

Nadia

http://beijingwow.com