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Construction starts on Beijing 2008 Olympics basketball
stadium
IOC PRESS RELEASE
30 March 2005: The start of building work on the Wukesong Indoor Stadium has officially commenced, with the groundbreaking ceremony held on 29 March 2005. The Wukesong Indoor Stadium will host basketball during the Olympic Games in 2008, and it joins the National Stadium, the National Swimming Centre, Laoshan Velodrome and the Beijing shooting range as venues already under construction.
The Stadium will cover an area of 63,000 square metres and will seat 18,000 spectators during the Games. The venue will be part of the Wukesong Culture and Sports Centre, covering a total of 350,000 square metres, which will also host the Wukesong Baseball fields, another Olympic site, as well as other sports and commercial facilities. The indoor stadium is scheduled to be finished by the end of 2007.
Once the Games are over, the centre is expected to be converted into a sports, leisure and commercial facility for the residents of western Beijing. This confirms Beijing 2008’s commitment to finding legacy opportunities for Games venues, with several universities already slated to benefit from Olympic Games-related construction.
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