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Melbourne 2006 - Commonwealth Games Index

melbourne sports and aquatic centre

The swimming events are being held in a new purpose built facility at the existing Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre. The new pool will also be the host for the World Championships the following year and complements the existing 10 lane facility which has hosted the FINA World Cup for the past few years and which will act as warm up and swim down facilities for the 2006 Games.

The 10 lane competition pool will not be fully enclosed, but will be permanently covered to provide sun shading. After the games and world championships are complete, the final seating capacity for the stadium will be reduced to 3000, located in the main stand along the length of the pool. Short term capacity for the games will be boosted by around 7000 by the inclusion of temporary stands to the north and east edges of the pool tank, which will also close off the open edges of the facility.

The construction of the new facility has been dogged controversy as a result of perceived environmental impacts, but the Victorian State government has been at pains to ensure that there is no net loss of parkland form Albert Park, in which the venue is situated. Most recently the main temporary stand was redesigned to avoid removing a seventy year old gum tree while additional tree planting is being undertaken to more than replace those trees lost as a result of construction works.