Renovation of the Olympic Volleyball Venue completed

Beijing, China, December 10, 2007 - The Capital Indoor Stadium (CAS), which is the official competition venue for the Volleyball tournament of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, is showing a fresh face after the renovation was completed days ago. The Stadium with some 15,000 seats is located in the Baishi Bridge of Haidian District in western Beijing. On April 16, 2008, it will host a double gender trial run - the Good Luck Beijing 2008 China Club Volleyball Tournament. From August 9^th to 24^th, 2008, the stadium will stage the Volleyball competitions of the Beijing Olympic Games. Last week it was checked, together with all Volleyball facilities, by the FIVB during an inspection visit led by the FIVB Vice-President, Cristóbal Marte Hoffiz.

Built in 1968, the 17,500 seat stadium has been a comprehensive sport facility for table tennis, badminton, volleyball, basketball and gymnastics competitions, in addition to skating and ice hockey sports. In 2001, it was renovated to become a venue for the World University Games, while the latest expansion to an area of 54,707 square meters follows international standards, giving it many more functions to meet Olympic requirements.

The competition court, training courts and Games-time functional rooms were all renovated, with the ticket counter and registration center built from scratch.

The renovation project extended the CAS's life by 30 years. Now, the structure is capable of enduring an earthquake measuring eight on the Richter scale, and has saved the country a lot of money.

The CIS is friendly to people with disabilities, thanks to its newly-built handicap-accessible facilities, such as two lifts on its western side, an easy to use entrance and enlarged toilets. Six boxes on its third floor, seating a total of 48 wheelchair users, are reserved for people with disabilities.

"All the floor planks here were imported and manufactured according to the FIVB requirements," project manager Yang Chunlin told the press.

Furthermore, there is a skating ground underneath the movable planks, chief engineer Han Fushi said.

The temperature of the CAS is required to remain between 18 and 28 grade Celsius to cater for winter and summer competitions. To solve the question of air conditioning, water coolants were used to replace ammonia and freon for the sake of ozone layer protection.