Many Olympic venues fall overnight from the zenith of grandeur into the abyss of oblivion once the Games end and remain sitting idol.

Huge investments go into their construction, which seem to be for nothing but the Games' half-month glory alone. Moreover, large sums of money are required for their maintenance following the Games.

This is a universal problem faced by all host cities. Moscow, Los Angeles, Seoul, Barcelona, Atlanta, Sydney and Athens have all had the same headache. The only difference lies in the degrees of intensity.

Beijing, the next host city, is bound to find the same problem once the 2008 Olympics conclude.

How can this be avoided? What can Beijing learn from its predecessors' experiences and lessons? Athens, the immediate predecessor, is doing something about it and may offer some useful ideas for the Chinese capital in this regard.

A company, the Greek Olympic Property SA, was founded in 2002 to handle venue affairs after the Athens Games. It began operating in 2004 and has been involved in the post-Olympic development and management of facilities, said Christos Hadjiemmanuil, president of the company, in an interview with a group of Chinese journalists last week in Athens.

The operation of the company is governed by market forces much like privately owned firms, although the Greek Olympic Properties SA and all the venues are owned by the state, according to Hadjiemmanuil.

The company oversees the management of 15 Olympic complexes (or 22 individual Olympic facilities) while the other two firms are in charge of the rest.

All 15 complexes have been put forward for international bids for their post-Olympic use. The first-phase bidding has been completed but the outcome has yet to be announced. The second phase will be conducted at the end of February and the third phase at the end of March, according to Hadjiemmanuil.

Fortunately, the venue construction contractors are currently responsible for the maintenance and management of the venues because the signed contracts stated that the contractors should bear the maintenance costs of the venues in a given period of time after the Games, he said.

Besides these international bids, the government is considering leasing some facilities to private firms, allowing them to convert the venues for other purposes during a certain period of time.

The maximum period for lease is 50 years and state ownership is not supposed to be changed, he said.

Those venues, which are advantageously located such as along the seashore or near the city centre, are expected to make money. But those disadvantageously located ones are not expected to be very profitable, Hadjiemmanuil said.

In addition, some temporary facilities were constructed for the Games and a solution for them is yet to be decided, according to the president of the company.

The income of profitable venues is expected to stand at somewhere between 150 million euros and 350 million euros (US$124 million to US$289 million), which would be used to help the unemployed, according to Hadjiemmanuil.

He cited the boxing venue as a good example in this regard. The venue appeals to the viewer with its unique architectural style although it has attracted few boxing fans since the Games because boxing is not a major sport in Greece. Here a dilemma arises: On the one hand, it would have been a pity to have torn it down because of its nice architectural style but on the other hand it seemed useless.

It was therefore converted into a convention centre, which makes full use of the venue's advantageous location and nice architectural style. Many activities have been staged since its conversion and the money made from the project has been used to fund maintenance costs, the Olympic Property SA president said.

The functions of some facilities should never be changed such as the media and telecommunications centres no matter who they are leased to, he said.

"We're most interested in reducing the costs and increasing the income because Greek taxpayers have already paid a lot. We simply cannot bear to see them continue to dig money out of their purses anymore," Hadjiemmanuil said.

But there is more to it than that. Helping bring about local economic progress in the long run is the ultimate target of the Greek Olympic Property SA, the president said.

Dora Bakoyianni, mayor of Athens, confirmed that the flats of the Athens Olympic Village have been granted to underprivileged people, she said at a meeting with Chinese journalists.

"Though they have not yet moved in, they now know where their new homes are," she said.

Source: China Daily