by Xinhua writer Yang Jianxiang

    BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- After the captains and the kings depart, how to make main Olympic and Paralympic venue - the National Sports Stadium - pay for itself?

    It's colloquially named "the Bird's Nest", but could it instead end up as a white elephant?

    For Bird's Nest investors, memories and mementoes left over by the Beijing Olympic events staged there were golden eggs laid in the nest. Largely intangible, the precious Olympic legacy needs to prove its economic value in the times to come. The Games are over, and the Nest has begun to look for more birds and eggs, to recover investment and make a profit in a period of three decades.

    The task is a tough one, said Yang Weiying, a deputy general manager of Beijing CITIC Consortium Sports Stadium Operating Company Limited, in charge of Bird's Nest's operations.

    NOBODY DARES SAY AT THIS STAGE

    The first sports event that took place in the Bird's Nest after the glamorous Olympics was a school sports games. The date was Oct. 19. The pupils and faculty of Beijing No.2 Experimental Primary School added up to about 2,000 in number. Together with parents and relatives as spectators, the attendance was around 10,000. It was understood that the arrangement involved a rent fee. Yang declined to elaborate on the issue.

    Given its status and size, the Stadium would be an ideal venue for big events such as football. However, the much-talked-about plan for the city's leading club team -- Guoan Football Team, sponsored by a subsidiary of CITIC Group -- to settle down failed to materialize. Guoan contracted with the Workers' Stadium, instead. The venue, it said, had proved a lucky place for the team. Concerns over cost and the comparatively small size of the WS were reportedly also factors in Guoan's decision.

    As the country had few big spectator sports that were high-level and popular, the sales of the Bird's Nest for sports games seemed indeed a worry, at least for the time being. Yang Weiying said negotiations were going on with a number of clients. She would not go into details.

    The stadium didn't have to stage sports events, though. On October 14 the 9th Beijing CBD International Business Festival began on the same turf where Olympic athletes had trod. According to Yang, children might have a chance to perform and play in the world's biggest "bird's nest" on June 1 this year. And on August 8,the first anniversary of the opening of Beijing Olympics, Zhang Yimou, director general of the Olympic performance shows and a world-renowned movie director, would probably return with 'Turandot', Puccini's most famous opera, which he had successfully staged some years ago in the Forbidden City.

    The rental fee of the Bird's Nest would be flexible and reasonable, Yang Weiying said, "We attach great importance to quality. That's why we chose director Zhang's 'Turandot' for our big cultural show debut." She admitted that the 80,000-seat stadium was a challenge for many clients. "But they should have considered it before submitting applications," she said.

    Tourism was a secure and promising source of income. Given China's huge population, a very small proportion of people had the chance of viewing the Olympic ceremonies and games in the Bird's Nest. The venue was now a must for many visitors to Beijing.

    Shortly after the Olympics, during the week-long national holiday in October, the Bird's Nest recorded a daily average of 80,000 visits, each paying 50 yuan for admission. "We had planned to shut down for maintenance after that. But people peeped through the bars. It was not easy for many of them to have a chance to come to Beijing. And it would be a big regret if they couldn't see with their own eyes what it was like inside the Bird's Nest," Yang said.

    The ensuing two New Year's national holidays reported similar tourist enthusiasm. And in ordinary weekends and work days, the number of visits to the Bird's Nest averaged around 20,000 a day. Many people were from other parts of the country or foreign countries. And many came for meetings or commercial gatherings, a rapidly growing industry in capital Beijing.

    The Bird's Nest had a plan for renovation and operation in the coming three or five years. By removing 11,000 temporary seats, the facility would have 35 percent of its 258,000 square meters of floor space available for commercial use. A ring-shaped restaurant with Olympic theme decorations or galleries would be built on the third floor. A total of 146 private rooms would be furnished and rented to companies or individuals to comfortably watch games. And the Nest would accommodate classy stores selling Olympic souvenirs, chinaware and fashion garments.

    The three-party CITIC consortium had put about 1.5 billion yuan in the National Sports Stadium project and gained the right of independent operation for 30 years. During the Olympic Games, the operating team had more than 6000 people. Now the staff members total about 700. The yearly expenses -- salaries, maintenance fees and bank loan interest payments -- stand at 150 million yuan. "There should be no problem in covering the cost now," Yang said, "As to the recovery of investment over the long period of 30 years, no one dares say at this stage, especially faced with the current economic situation," Yang Weiying said.

    "It's not enough for us to maintain the achievements of our predecessors. It's a path-blazing mission," Yang said.

    Apart from the sources of income mentioned above, the Bird's Nest had struck deals with 15 corporations for sponsorship. The income combined to about 10 million yuan. It had also made a small fortune by turning the steel bars leftover from construction into Olympic souvenirs. It was considering auctioning off the stadium's naming right at an appropriate time, Yang said.

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