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Scandal Hits 2002 World Cup Final Venue
Asian Cup – Lebanon 2000
Embarrassed officials of Japan’s 2002 World Cup Organising Committee (JAWOC) were left reeling in November
when news emerged of an environmental scandal at the
venue for the Final in June 2002.
It has been revealed that the three-year-old Yokohama
International Stadium – winner of several architectural
awards – has been built right next to a site that campaigners say suffers from some of the worst toxic pollution in
Japan.
The Finals of the Asian Cup – the Asian Confederation’s answer to Euro 2000 – were held in
Lebanon in October. Despite being played
against the background of the Israeli-Palestine
troubles, and a last-minute rush to complete the
venues, the tournament progressed smoothly to a
Final in Beirut which saw Japan beat Saudi Arabia
to claim the Cup.
Just three venues were used for the 12-team,
26-match tournament. Seven games were played
in Saida, whose new Municipal Stadium holds
22,000 seats in a mostly sunken bowl. Only the
Main Grandstand is covered, a situation repeated
at Tripoli’s Olympic Stadium (host for 6
matches), which has a capacity of 25,000. However, the stand here has three tiers and a fabric
roof material.
The other 13 games, including the Opening
Ceremony and Final, were staged at the Cité
Sportif (‘Sports City’) in Beirut, a historic venue
that originally opened in 1957 but was rebuilt from
scratch for the 1997 Pan-Arab Games following
destruction by bombing in 1982. The new stadium
is essentially a bowl for 50,000 with a rather
elegant curved cantilever roof over the rear of the
West Side seats, whilst the tubular steel floodlight
pylons are another feature. For an excellent account of the stadium’s construction and setting in
such a turbulent place, Simon Inglis’ new book
“Sightlines” is recommended.
China has been confirmed as the host of the
next Finals in 2004 after beating off the Thailand
bid. Iran, hosts in 1968 and 1976, earlier withdrew
its bid in order to concentrate on landing the 2008
Finals. 2004 will see 16 teams in the Finals but
China proposes only four venues, with the Final to
be staged at Beijing’s Workers Stadium. Beijing is also bidding for the 2008 Olympics.
The site was for many years used for the unregulated
incineration of industrial waste, but much of the ash was
never cleared. Access roads to the new stadium will be
built through the contaminated area, which was recently
found to have levels of dioxins and PCB organic poisons
more than twice the permitted level for Japan.
Yokohama Stadium (pictured above) seats 70,000 spectators on two tiers surrounding an athletics track. The
stands follow a slightly more rectangular shape than the
usual oval to bring spectators nearer to the action, whilst
the metal roof is gently arched with pleasing effect.
A record 20 venues will be used for
the 2002 Finals, which will be co-hosted HOK Event Launched
by South Korea. The tournament opens Buoyed by the organisational success of the Sydney Olympics, the
on May 31, 2002 at the Olympic Staleading sports architecture practice HOK has launched an event management subsidiary called HOK Event. The firm specialises in “Overlay
dium in Seoul and climaxes in Yokoand Operational Planning”, the art of managing the logistics of people
hama on June 30.
movement and behaviour around large scale events like the Olympics,
Next Issue - An early look at the 2001
Copa America in Colombia
Groundtastic
Superbowl and Commonwealth Games. Meanwhile, HOK is working on
the design of Arsenal’s new stadium whilst continuing to bask in the
Sydney afterglow.
page 67
Issue 23