Capacity: 110,000.
Concrete used: 90,000 cubic metres.
Roof span: 295.6 metres.
Look out for elderly scalpers: The platinum members' level on the fifth level is plush as can be, with a long bar affording a view out through the smoked glass to the arena beyond. The 600 platinum members picked up some good value with this deal. Having parted with $34,000, they are in exchange entitled to two tickets for every Olympic event in the stadium and two tickets for every event in the stadium for the next 31 years. Sydney is agog with the story of the elderly woman who bought the package, extracted the Olympic tickets, and sold it on for $65,000.
Good to the last drop: Ergonomically sound, the air conditioning is minimal, allowing natural air movement through the stadium. The rainwater collection system is another wonder. Under the huge triangular slabs which moor the roof are four tanks, each of which hold 800 cubic metres of water that irrigate the arena and flush the toilets.
Big news: Seats form a two-tone, computer-generated wave pattern that rolls around the arena. After the Olympics, spacing between the seats will be re-configured. Instead of 480 millimetre gaps between seats there will be 500 millimetre gaps.
Bernard, Bertie, half of second-hand stadium now available: The two great uncovered upper-deck banks at either end of the stadium will be removed after the Games and roofs similar in design to those flanking the stadium will be installed. Final capacity will be approximately 80,000.
Office Christmas party? Barmitzvah? The stadium can cater for 5,500 sit-down diners at any one time.
Sour cream and onion: Architects jokingly refer to the roof-top design of Stadium Australia as having being heavily influenced by the principles of Pringleon geometry. And indeed the segments are shaped and curved in the manner of the popular crisps. The company broadcast a TV ad stating how proud they were to have inspired the design.
Progress: As the French never stop telling us, the high-tech roof in the Stade de France weighs 200 kilos per square metre. In Stadium Australia it weighs 60 kilos per square metre, covers 65 per cent of the seating at present, and will cover 80 per cent when the configuration is changed and the capacity comes down to 80,000.
No Income Park? 40 major events every year, plus several hundred business conferences, dinners etc, will be required to keep the stadium viable after the Games.
Pioneers: 50 kilometres of piping for soft drinks has been fitted.
From the Oval Office: For the conversion to Aussie rules and its large oval pitch, the first 47 rows of seats will be placed on railway tracks and pushed back 15 metres. The tracks will be where the running track is now. This process will take six to eight hours in all. The existing 8,500 square metres of turf in the stadium will be expanded to 9,000 square metres to allow Aussie Rules football to be played after the Games.
Watertight guarantees: Maximum load testing of the toilets, flushing each of the 1,125 loos and 300 urinals simultaneously at one minute intervals, was accomplished late in 1999. Many of the participants chewed gum at the same time.
Lingering question: Why not Australia Stadium?
One F in Fact: The roof arches which give the place its personality are each 296 metres long and to hoist them into place builders used a crane normally used for lifting rockets into position at Cape Canaveral. This instrument became known as the FBC, the last two letters standing for Big Crane.
Mafia news: 20,000 truckloads of concrete went into Stadium Australia.
Gay Mitchell Please Note: Athletes will warm up in the adjacent track at the Sydney International athletics centre. A tunnel has been constructed to link the two venues. In the basement level of the stadium, there is also a four-lane, 70-metre long strip of Mondo track for warm-ups. The track inside Stadium Australia cost $20 million to lay.
