Beijing sets aside funds for sporting legacy

BEIJING, Apr 3 (Reuters) Beijing wants to capitalise on hosting the 2008 Olympics by turning the city into one of the world's top sporting centres, setting aside 500 million yuan to fund the project.

While Olympic chief Jacques Rogge spoke earlier this week of his hopes of a Games legacy in China's ''social evolution'', city officials are focusing on the legacy provided by the 12 new and 11 refurbished sporting venues around the city.

''How to make use of the venues in the post-Olympic period, how to meet the sports needs of the people and how to develop Beijing's sports industries, these are all on our schedule,'' Beijing sports chief Sun Kanglin said yesterday.

Sun was speaking at a news conference to celebrate securing one of the ''crown jewel'' events in women's tennis from 2009, a nine-day tournament for the world's top players with a million prize pot.

''One important resolution is to host international events,'' Sun said.

''Besides the China Open tennis we will produce more influential events of a similar level. The government is set to support the plans with policy and money.'' Athens, host city of the 2004 Summer Games, is a prime example of what can happen when there is insufficient planning of what to do with the venue legacy.

The Greek capital spent more that 3.5 billion euros (.68 billion) to build state-of-the-art venues for the Games but two years later most were still unused.

AUTHORITIES CONFIDENT Beijing has generally lost out to financial centre Shanghai in the battle for top international sporting events.

This year, Shanghai hosts Formula One and A1 grands prix, a round of the motorcycling world championship, three of the four European Tour co-sanctioned golf events, the tennis Masters Cup and the final of the women's soccer World Cup.

Olympic test events aside, Beijing will host just the China Open WTA and ATP tennis tournaments, the China Open snooker and a sprinkling of top class badminton and table tennis events.

Sun said winning the new women's tennis event had given city authorities confidence they would be able to secure top events despite competition from other Asian cities.

''The Beijing municipal government reckons that upgrading the China Open will help develop it into a influential international brand, promote Beijing as a international sports centre... and utilise the venues after the Olympics,'' he said.

''We got great support from the city as well as the sports ministry and our efforts were recognised and approved by WTA members -- which help us beat cities like Dubai, Tokyo and Bangkok.'' REUTERS SSC KP1244