The Olympics are seen as one of the biggest events put on within the sports world and with its magnitude comes the even larger expenses that cities are willing to spend in order to have their city on the international stage while the world watches the games. The planning that goes into creating a city that is ready for the Olympics takes many years of preparation as well as the creation of multi-million dollar facilities. Often times these facilities are rarely used after the games and sometimes become burdens for the cities and seen as a waste of money instead of an investment. Lisa Neirotti, a sports management professor at George Washington University stated “ the biggest key to setting up success for a city after an Olympic closing is simply having a plan. It actually starts from the bid perspective, you have to think out your facility event before that point” (Stump & Kim, 2014). One city that was able to plan accordingly is that of Sydney Australia, home to the 2000 Summer Olympics. One of the main stages built for the Sydney Olympics was that of the Sydney Super Dome, which after a naming rights deal in 2006 was known as Acer Arena and after another deal in 2011 is today known as Allphones Arena. The largest indoor entertainment arena in Australia, Allphones is a leading global live entertainment venue with a seating capacity for 21,000 people and is consistently one of the worlds’ top 10 concert arenas by ticket sales volume and has hosted an average of over 735,000 attendees each year (Nine Entertainment, 2014, p. 43).
Allphones Arena officially opened by the premier of NSW Mr. Bob Carr in November 1999 in preparation for the 2000 Summer Olympics. It is owned by Nine Entertainment and managed by AEG Ogden, which is a global facilities management company that is responsible for the management, maintenance and marketing of the arena (Nine Entertainment, 2014, p, 43). Construction was started and completed by Abigroup Ltd in conjunction with Obayashi Corporation. Allphones Arena was Australia’s first major building to be designed and constructed to Ecologically Sustainable Development guidelines, “which included energy efficient lighting, a dual water system maximizing the use of recycled water and significant reductions n PVC usage” (Abigroup, 2010) With a total cost of $290 million to build, Allphones arena has been noted by experts to be one of the finest indoor arenas in the world.
While the arena was first constructed for the use of sports, it is now a primary location for various entertainment tenants. Many musical guests have preformed at Allphones such as John Mayer, Justin Timberlake, Keith Urban, Andrea Bocelli, Katy Perry, Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen. Allphones is also home to Disney on Ice as well as the Niro Circus. In addition, they do host sporting events such as international Ice Hockey, The Professional Bull Riding National Finals, WWE and home to the NSW Swifts, who are an Australia’s women’s netball team....