A sports car for the ongoing Race of Champions arrives at the National Stadium, or Bird's Nest, last Wednesday. The three-day event will conclude today in the capital. [China Daily]

More than one year after its debut as one of the world's largest Olympic venues, the Bird's Nest remains a financial albatross.

"It's not an easy time for us either as we are racking our brains almost every day," said Zhou Bin, the venue's director of the research and development department.

"Each time a major event is held at the Bird's Nest, there is pressure to prevent the venue from becoming a white elephant," he told METRO.

The 3.6 billion yuan architectural wonder continued to be a hot public topic after the 2009 Race of Champions opened Monday in the stadium, its fifth major commercial event following the Beijing Olympics.

Seven-time Formula One champion Michael Schumacher ignited the crowd last night as he sped through the racing circuits built inside the giant stadium.

But the individual success from a single commercial event like the 2009 Race of Champions may fall short for the government, because it costs a daily average of 200,000 yuan (US$29,000) to keep the arena running. This is 70 million yuan annually.

Numbers of visitors to the venue have dropped from a peak of 50,000 people daily to only a few thousand daily in 2009, as public enthusiasm for the Olympics fades.

The new managing company for the 80,000-seat showpiece said yesterday they need to come up with new ideas.

The organizers of the event, the Beijing-based and State-owned sports contractor Great Gate Sports and Entertainment, told METRO the event is expected to earn more than 40 million yuan in sponsorship fees from three local companies and an international tire brand.

Less than two weeks after the one-year anniversary of the opening of the 2008 Olympic Games, ownership of the stadium was quietly passed to a State-controlled financial institution from private owners. A transition ceremony was attended by Beijing's vice-mayor and the vice-chairman of the CITIC Investment Holdings, which previously had full rights over how the stadium would operate commercially.

Zhang Hengli, who quit his position as deputy general manager of the stadium after the transition, told reporters in August that many of the company's plans went unfulfilled.

The plans would have included staging commercial activities, running a five-star hotel, as well as a high-end fashion arcade and luxury restaurants with a bird's eye view of the stadium.

"The government believed it would make a greater profit by running the venue itself," Zhang said. "There was no freedom for me so I had to quit."

Earlier reports said Zhang's company made 260 million yuan during post-Games operation, with 70 percent gained from tour ticket sales. Zhang declined to comment on this yesterday.

The venue failed to reach its commercial potential with only two concerts - featuring Hollywood star Jackie Chan and diva Song Zuying - held before the transition in August.

A Chinese company staged the Italian Super Cup between Inter and Lazio on the one-year anniversary of the Beijing Games, earning 77 million yuan in ticket sales and another 40 million yuan in sponsorship. And Turandot, a 120 million yuan restaging of Olympic director Zhang Yimou's favorite operatic work, also achieved 6 million yuan in ticket sales for each day of the eight day National holiday.

"With the government in control, it will be much easier for the stadium to get permits to hold diverse commercial activities," Wei Jizhong, a senior consultant to the Beijing Olympic organizers and the president of the International Volleyball Federation, told METRO.

(China Daily November 4, 2009)