London’s rainbow stadium Here’s an early glimpse of what the London 2012 Olympic stadium might look like, with its multi-coloured bowl made of steel and industrial fabric. While the stadium itself is designed by Populous, the colour strategy has been developed in collaboration with British artist Sophie Smallhorn (right). The idea is to use the WRAP, which is the BLUEPRINT //
fabric enclosing the bowl, as a canvas, and to print colours onto it in order to, as she explains, “create a colour journey where the palette can evolve as the visitor approaches, enters and uses the building”. Just imagine the overall effect once the sun goes down over the London skyline.
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I wanted to create a colour journey where the palette can evolve as the visitor approaches, enters and uses the building.
Artist Sophie Smallhorn.
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
HELLO Welcome to our second edition of Populous Magazine. Our launch issue, last year, received some wonderful comments. Thank you. It’s always good to feel the love. In this edition we explore a diverse group of subjects from the professional sport of surfing to Polynesian prowess at rugby union, as well as a fascinating analysis of the speed at which a human being is capable of sprinting. We were all captivated by Usain Bolt’s spectacular wins in the 100 and 200 metres in Beijing. How long before another sprinter breaks his new records? The majority of sports and entertainment venues around the world are of course subject to meticulous planning. Some, however – such as Wrigley Field baseball ground in Chicago – invigorate their local neighbourhoods in a totally impromptu manner. Our feature on page 10 describes how the streets around the home of The Chicago Cubs have, over the years, become part of the city’s baseball experience in a wonderfully spontaneous way. In this issue we also enter the world of fantasy sports venue design. On page 28 a top motoring journalist chooses his favourite 10 sections from racetracks all around the world, and integrates them to create the perfect, but imaginary, racetrack. Bookending this issue, inside the front cover and on the back cover, you’ll see work by two young artists: Sophie Smallhorn, who uses colour, and Clare Brew, who uses light. It’s always interesting to work with artists because they have such a different view of the world. The energy and ideas generated by Sophie and Clare are particularly exciting. Thanks again for your support. We all hope you enjoy our second issue. Rod Sheard
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8874 7666 Email: popmag@populous.com Web: www.populous.com Editor-in-Chief: Rod Sheard Editorial Team: Nick Reynolds, Joanna Griffin
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WELCOME //
Populous magazine is published by: Alma Media International London, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0) 20 8944 1155 Email: info@almamedia.co.uk Web: www.almamedia.co.uk Publisher: Tony Richardson tony@almamedia.co.uk Editor: Dominic Bliss dominic@almamedia.co.uk Art Direction and Design: Deep www.deep.co.uk
Images: Getty images; Corbis; Action Images; Populous; Nokia; BMW; Roxy / Quiksilver Illustration p26: David Whittle / Organisart
Printed on Claro Silk, (the first PEFC certified coated paper in the UK market) comprising of fibres sourced from well-managed sustainable forests. Claro is produced from chlorine free pulp, ensuring that no chlorine gas has been used in the bleaching process. The production mill for this paper operates to EMAS, ISO 14001 environmental and ISO 9001 quality standards.
© Alma Media International Ltd 2010 All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of Alma Media International is strictly forbidden. The greatest care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of information in this magazine at the time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of Alma Media International or Populous.
ISSUE TWO
Populous magazine is sent to our clients and friends around the sporting world.
PEFC/16-44-002
STARTING GRID 4
LEFT FIELD Predicting future trends in stadium construction and architecture.
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NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH The streets surrounding Chicago Cubs’ stadium are as much a part of the city’s sporting culture as the team itself. Chris De Luca, baseball writer on Chicago Sun-Times, finds out why.
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GREASED LIGHTNING Usain Bolt has injected fresh interest in the 100 metres. Jason Henderson, editor of Athletics Weekly, investigates whether he can continue breaking the world record.
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SURFED OUT Despite riding the wave of global commercialisation, the sport of surfing still has an über-cool image. How is this possible?
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THE GREATEST SHOWS ON EARTH? Fireworks, dinosaurs, chariot races… today’s stage shows are bigger, bolder and brassier than ever. Have we entered a new golden age of live arena entertainment?
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24
TINY NATION, RUGBY GIANT Samoa may be one of the smallest nations on the planet, but when it comes to rugby they scrum well above their weight.
30
STADIUM ROCKS Musician, singer and friend of Populous, Tyrone Noonan, describes the thrill he gets from performing in Populous-designed concert stadia.
RAGS TO RICHES Once in a blue moon a tiny sports team or individual athlete leaps from obscurity to the very top of their game. Here’s the amazing story of sport’s greatest Cinderellas.
FANTASY RACETRACK If you could combine all the best corners and sections from motor racetracks all around the world, what would the resulting course look – and drive – like?
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34
POP HISTORY The new Yankee Stadium, in New York, couldn’t have witnessed a more successful inaugural season. Just seven months after opening, the home team had triumphed in the 2009 World Series.
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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LEFT FIELD
THE ARCHITECTURE AND TECHNOLOGY OF PUBLIC VENUES IS EVOLVING FASTER THAN EVER. HERE WE BRING YOU SOME OF THE MOST EXCITING IDEAS OF THE NEAR, AND SOMETIMES DISTANT, FUTURE.
Raising the roof Forget bricks and mortar. Many sports stadia in the future will be constructed of industrial fabrics so high-tech that they can generate power, clean themselves and display moving images. It’s possible, for example, that fabric nanotechnology – embedding tiny particles or fibres into the fabric – might allow buildings to harness the power of wind and sunlight that strikes their exteriors. Or that the shell of a building might incorporate cells which naturally repel dirt and water. Or that walls and ceilings may be constructed of huge screens that can change colour or broadcast video images and sound. Similar nanotechnology is already being used on a much smaller scale. Mobile phone manufacturer Nokia, for example, has launched something called The Morph – a mobile device that can be stretched into different shapes, recharge itself under sunlight, avoid showing grubby fingerprints, and sense pollution in the air. Car manufacturer BMW has come up with something even more impressive: a fabric-skinned sports car that can change shape at the flick of a switch. The BMW GINA features a polyurethanecoated Spandex body with scissoropening doors, a bonnet that splits down the middle instead of being hinged, headlights that close like eyelids and the ability to shape a rear spoiler when required. Nanotechnology can be used for clothing fabrics, too. Researchers at a university in South Carolina, USA, have developed a water- and dirt-repellent coating for suit fabrics that may eventually put dry-cleaners out of business. Made 4
LEFT FIELD //
of a polymer film mixed with tiny silver particles, it can be bonded into any common clothing fabric such as silk, cotton or polyester. The ecological benefits of using fabric instead of bricks and mortar are massive. Not only is the material greener and cheaper to produce, but it can often be recycled after the end of the building’s life. Since it’s inevitably much lighter in weight than traditional materials such as concrete, aluminium or glass, it also requires fewer foundations and support structures. How soon, then, before Manchester United’s stadium is powered entirely by sun- and wind-harnessing cells on the roof? Or before concert halls in Las Vegas are wrapped in dome-shaped video screens broadcasting images from the shows within? Nick Reynolds, senior principal at architects Populous, believes we will see these fabrics in widespread use within the next two decades.
Top: The BMW GINA. Above: Nokia’s The Morph phone.
Stadium Light
Stadium and arena designers are always looking for new, creative ways to illuminate their buildings. One novel idea is to use light sculpture. Clare Brew, a New York-based artist who works in this medium, has been experimenting in light sculptures for the Olympic Park that surrounds the new 2012 Olympic Stadium in London. On this page you can see the idea of 12 metre high perspex glass neon tubes cantilevered out of the river that runs through the Olympic site. On the back page of the magazine is a scale model of another proposed installation in the Olympic Stadium.
In the past Clare has had light sculptures and electrical artworks displayed all over the world, and is certainly not short of awards for her work. As well as the Olympic project, she is also currently working on an installation at 7 World Trade Center, in New York City – one of the smaller buildings originally destroyed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Philip Johnson, architect on London’s Olympic Stadium explains ‘Clare’s work is very unusual, we want to create a building that is always entertaining to visit, light and colour are really important in creating a special experience for everyone.
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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SURFING // SURFED OUT
How has the sport of surfing managed to take advantage of global commercialisation while simultaneously retaining its cool image ? Alf Ander author of son, Surfing: A B eginner ’s unravels the Guide, great surfing paradox.
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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Surfing is cool. And that’s why it sells. But when surfing megastar Kelly Slater appears in shampoo adverts, and even your Mum owns a boogie board, how can the sport possibly retain this cool image? A Billabong advert from the 1980s once boasted: ‘Only a surfer knows the feeling’. It’s this exclusivity that is a large part of surfing’s über-cool image – committed surfers are seen as members of what has been called the ‘surfing tribe’, a coterie of suntanned, free-living wave-riders whom Californian surf pioneer Tom Blake has described as worshippers at the “blessed church of the open sky”. Membership of the tribe is restricted to relatively few people. The “legions of the unjazzed” who don’t surf (to quote legendary 1950s surfer Phil Edwards) rarely fail to be thrilled at the sight of an accomplished surfer taking on the raw power of an ocean swell with an apparently effortless grace.
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SURFING // SURFED OUT
The elegance, strength, skill, sexiness and – in big surf at least – sheer balls that are the defining features of wave-riding mean that businesses as far removed from the sport as cosmetics, computing and brewing have all latched onto the image in the hope that some of the cool factor will rub off on them. Yet for centuries, surfing was an arcane water sport known to only very few Pacific islanders, not spreading beyond its native Hawaii until the early 20th Century when it was introduced to California by Irish-Hawaiian surfer George Freeth. It grew slowly. Before O’Neill developed the first surfers’ wetsuits in the 1950s, the sport was confined to warm climates, and until short, light weight fibreglass boards were developed in the early 1970s, you needed the strength of a prop forward just to get your 40-lb balsa wood board down the beach and out into the waves. In the 1960s The Beach Boys and the Gidget movies and TV shows helped to popularise a cheesy, Hollywood-esque image of surfing (even though only one member of The Beach Boys could actually ride a board), but it wasn’t until the following decade that commercial companies began to get their claws
into the sport. Sponsored invitationonly surf contests were organised in the spectacular surf of Hawaii where events like the Smirnoff Pro and Pipeline Masters offered prize money of up to $10,000. The guys who won these contests, such as Hawaiian Gerry Lopez and Aussie Nat Young, were offered professional contracts – mainly from surf companies – to endorse products. The world’s top surfers got together on the back of these events to organise a world tour which attracted sponsors who wanted publicity in return. The sport quickly started marketing itself more proactively. It wasn’t too hard to grab the public’s attention when surfing was presented to them in magazines, adverts, movies and on TV. Exotic beach destinations, handsome young men locking horns with nature, spectacular wipeouts – even the most landlocked or bedroom-bound could appreciate this. By 1984 the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour had expanded to 20 events in 20 different countries. And wetsuits were now more sophisticated than ever, so that the wave-washed shores of countries with cooler climes began to cultivate their own surfing communities. When not riding waves they could watch their heroes in action on another 1980s innovation: video. At the same time skate boarding and snowboarding were also taking off, and ‘boardsports clothes’ became fashionable on the high street. Established brands such as Rip
Curl, Billabong and Quiksilver, all of which began as back yard operations in the 1970s, started selling surfing hardware to local surfers, and saw sales go through the roof. Newer brands such as Animal jumped on the bandwagon and went on to great success thanks to a combination of canny sponsorship and effective advertising. By the 1990s many surfers introduced to the sport 10 or 20 years earlier were looking to make a steady living without losing their valuable surfing time. Teaching the sport or opening a surf shop seemed like the ideal solution. Suddenly almost any stretch of coastline with consistent waves had surf schools, surf shops, surf pubs and surf cafés. The advent of the internet meant fans could watch live feeds from surf contests around the world; or check out the swell conditions on beaches most non-surfers had never heard of. (Sandvik in Iceland, anyone?) Then, in a eureka! moment about 10 years ago, surf businesses realised that 50 per cent of the market – women – remained untapped. Companies such as Quiksilver, through their sister brand Roxy, are currently selling more surf wear to women than men, while some boards, wetsuits, magazines and surf shops are now aimed specifically at the burgeoning female market. Nowadays anyone can look like a surfer, and vast numbers of people all over the world want to. This largely explains why public awareness of the sport had increased so much and why it’s become so commercialised. As for why it has retained its cool image – well, despite the enormous increase in the popularity of surfing, only a minority of participants can do it really well. When you can do what few others can do on a wave, then you’re cool. And you make your sport cool, too.
The female market is a major part of the global surfing business.
The Association of Surfing Professionals World Tour attracts thousands of spectators.
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The elegance, strength, skill, sexiness and sheer balls that are the defining features of wave-riding mean that businesses as diverse as cosmetics, computing and brewing have all latched onto the image.
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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BASEBALL // NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
BASEBAL
L // Neighbourhood
watch
the colourful Wrigleyville, the home that surrounds neighbourhood Cubs, team Chicago baseball of ground of the city’s sports is as much a part ris De Luca, team itself. Ch culture as the Sun-Times, at the Chicago writer baseball for his it’s so important why explains . fellow Chicagoans
d parking lots all aroun iddle of nowhere, big m the le litt ’s a go e ica u’r izen of Ch innati, where yo Ryan Dempster is a cit it. I played in Cinc where bourhood igh ne t ain you play in Wrigley, qu a en , Th ille v y. Wrigley more in the cit le of dd se, mi sen a the In in b st. da exi this stadium smack that honestly doesn’t ve ha u yo lic akaway repub Wrigleyville is a bre residential areas. the hip, young the lake. You have all of e on , of Lakeview ‘‘I go for runs along ’t buzz and ren we it If e. se restaurants – the rant North Sid these bars and the areas on Chicago’s vib of r the field, o rne int co y wa the ur er yo ov ark towering that it creates on nt me ite exc for the ageing ballp n’t find in a would energy that you don’t streets, Wrigleyville it presents a special Clark and Addison lot of places.’’ n exist, however. le is about more tha and plays in Wrigley Certainly, Wrigleyvil Dempster lives, works ark llp s ba ort sp the g dy din row un the rro eets su be found in just baseball. The str ville. He can often names m ar-old baseball stadiu and restaurants whose -ye rs 96 ba the th d wi un d rro tte su do are most bars that d is hin be ort inder which sp in the major leagues are a constant rem y’s – the second-oldest rph ed Mu ott sp rd, Ya be e ggers, Th rk. Dempster can important locally: Slu ses Boston’s Fenway Pa ou his nh g tow llin da the pe op or At y Bear. of Wrigeyville Bleachers, the Cubb jogging the streets l veland Field – the unofficia lls on Sheffield and Wa ey wa igl ld Wr tfie at ou rk the wo d behin bicycle to ir own the ast ftops that now bo l city. avenues are the roo ique capital of the unofficia un the a th for wi s er fan ch -star pit , providing lucky ers ach ble tal Dempster is an all me e grew up in d an all-day barbecu this Canadian who into the ballpark an e nc gla le vil Chicago Cubs and a ey igl ine imag u know you’re in Wr ing ice hockey can’t party in the sky. Yo British Columbia lov ate is the on ssi ‘‘Pa rk. wo , sounds and smells. d hts an simply by the sig better place to live le, vil ey igl to the baseball. Wr it,’’ he says of it always comes back t Bu best way to describe . g at home t held inside Wrigley the Cubs are playin John-Billy Joel concer on Elt An especially on a day in m diu at this big, huge sta ‘‘I played in Florida
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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ng e the people walki to leave and I se r ca my in ark teeming ads down.’’ had the old ballp vated away with their he the e Field last summer se to le the Cubs have ele tac ec sp But since 2003, was an odd ent em cit ex e ld. Th fie . with music fans. It re es ge in right-cent the major leagu in sta s a tu on sta d y en eir pla t th gh music show that they mi rigley were g the mere idea streets around W e din th d un er, rro ate ov s su cre wa s it ha When ard their parked nship drought all streaming tow historic champio s s, an eir fan go th th ica wi Ch ed at th ere ck pa sports bars rigleyville, wh nsportation. The ally citement around W tu ex en ev ll er wi mm cars or public tra od su ho each e neighbour e into Wrigleyville know someday th normally pump lif dest party. an gr y’s e past host the cit e th as sat oddly quiet. ar ye the players in th st fir o is in his ‘‘That’s thanks to way, it a Tom Ricketts, wh ‘‘In e . th ys stake for ,’’ Dempster sa eciates what’s at ven or eight years se t there Bu . ers his los Cubs’ owner, appr for le ts ab talk of the lov ts improvemen e th plo s he ay as is alw s od wa ho nn neighbour now where wi ing new revenue phere at Wrigley os – and searches for atm ark llp an ba is r pe .’’ -up nt fixer n pubs. ‘‘The ink that’s importa g a few of his ow expected, and I th and Lilly has played streams by addin d me Te ga ll er ba ch se pit ba ar a is there is Cubs all-st just o Blue Jays and beauty of the Cubs experience that’s rk Yankees, Toront Yo ley w rig Ne W e ed is th th for o there’s als teams have enjoy e like it.’’ here’s nothing els Athletics. All three ‘‘T . nd e ys th kla sa Oa an he th ,’’ s nt rie er differe quart the World Se a working-class more success in tch ch ma mu n This used to be ca at ed th em er Irish-th s in a city quart ocery stores than Cubs, but none sit do anything with more local gr when the s 80 19 e th ‘‘I wouldn’t want to in le. ge vil an ley ch rig to W d an to rte up sta all pubs. It ly says. ‘‘I’ve had ue Baseball anywhere else,’’ Lil the Major Leag be to is or e d is th ne els d ur an ret s, e ce Cubs y-offs) for th few other pla end-of-season pla rtunity to play in a po op s ing th postseason (the s. But e 1945 World Serie pt, great here.’’ first time since th ck in a nondescri Cubs were e th en wh ee Stadium is stu 03 nk 20 Ya in a is d ge ium an ad really ch x. Dodger St t was a surepatch of the Bron ary what many fans fel a sc ard s en ev ide tow ov ing pr e rch ma the first tim paradise that a World Series for a hern California is ut t So bu , les ge hip ns An bet season to win s longest champio of downtown Lo e w th vie d en ing d yle nn an -st stu a Disney since 1908 ague sports. and surrounded by American major-le castaway on an isl station. Even at s th ga s drought in North n los ow ic its tor s other his lot so large it ha ing rk pa Fittingly, it was an bay sits in a s. e tu highest sta autiful park on th rigleyville to its San Francisco’s be to duplicate ed ing joy helped elevate W try en is desperately d ballpark at an th n od tow ho of ur rt bo pa The neigh e late summer of Wrigleyville. pularity during th other the well-worn feel e th unprecedented po ard tow mpared to every g ‘‘It’s so unique co Cubs were movin e th esn’t do as it , l 03 nd na 20 ‘‘A . of the Natio Dempster says ey lost Game 6 of m in the league,’’ 10 in tea n wo e n u’v -ru yo playoffs. When th six or ries, blowing a e lost 10 in a row Se u’v yo hip if ns r ink tte pio th ma am I the same. League Ch ries, the game feels exactly from the World Se ch ay ea aw – ts or w ou ro ch e a mu fiv t so lead jus flooded with ng to the park leyville were why I enjoy walki t rig s os W at’ th alm of at th e ts t th ee str d out of e you ge my bike, becaus s. Some had spille ing rid a, are disappointed fan e to th ers had flocked euphoric feeling.’’ ballpark, while oth e. Cubs hoping to celebrat 20 Major League thing changed,’’ s has designed over lou pu Po luding ‘‘That’s when every s wa s says. ‘‘It s North America inc elder Billy William seball stadia acros Ba iole Park Or e us rk, ca Yo Hall of Fame outfi be w thing happen s stadium in Ne e ee th nk e Ya se w to ne e th ing dishearten in San Francisco. llpark. There re and AT&T Park e outside of the ba mo th lti on Ba s in wa dy t bo every lebrate. I ge people ready to ce were about 15,000 12
BASEBALL // NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
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This used to
be a workin ger with mo re lo cal grocery sto res than Ir is h themed pu bs. It all st arted to change in th e 1980s wh en the Cubs return ed to the M a jor League Ba seball post season. class quart
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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STAGE SHOWS //
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STAGE SHOWS // THE GREATEST SHOWS ON EARTH?
Fireworks, dinosaurs, chariot races… today’s stage shows are bigger and bolder than ever. Jeff Wayne, creator of one of the boldest, tells Dominic Bliss how we’ve entered a new golden age of live arena entertainment.
The greatest shows on Earth?
Jeff Wayne certainly knows how to put on a show. The brains behind the famous 1978 album Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds now heads up a worldwide live tour of his production, playing to huge concert halls all over the world. The modern version features effects such as light shows, pyrotechnics, levitation illusions, a hologram of the late actor Richard Burton, and a scary, 35-foot robotic Martian fighting machine. “It’s a real feat of engineering,” explains the 66-year-old musician who conducts the live orchestra and is creative producer of his show. “It weighs three tons. At full extension it’s 35 feet tall. It fires heat rays at the audience, engulfs them in smoke, and with its bug-like eyes it scans the audience with a live video feed so they see themselves up on the main screen as if they’re the next victims.” Other live shows are pushing the envelope just as far. Ben Hur Live, for example, which toured Europe last year, featured gladiator fights, a mock sea battle and a real chariot race with dozens of horses and 500 tons of sand. Production costs were estimated at £5 million.
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Nowadays performers can do almost anything they want, other than what’s limited by their budget or imagination.
At double that price tag is Walking With Dinosaurs: The Arena Spectacular, a behemoth show that has seen 15 life-size animatronic beasts scaring audiences across Europe and North America. Even scarier – at least in terms of production and cost – is rock band U2’s 360° Tour. A total of 120 lorries are needed to transport from stadium to stadium the massive, four-legged stage – known as “The Claw” – the lighting rigs and the cylindrical LED screen. So mind-blowing are many of these new mega-shows, that some promoters are calling it “monutainment”. Jeff Wayne believes every type of live show now needs to up the ante. “If you’re performing in arenas, whether you’re a solo artist, a band or a big-scale show like ours, then you owe it to your audience to give them good value,” he says. “Nowadays performers really can do almost anything they want, other than what’s limited by their budget or imagination.” Wayne thinks the likes of U2 and Cirque de Soleil have set the bar so high that smaller acts are now obliged to aim for bigger and better. “There’s this situation where you have a band who might not want to invest in a big production, but other major bands in their genre are doing just that,” he explains. “The small band will pale in comparison if they don’t keep up. It’s a necessity to be aware of what’s out there today.” Keeping up with U2 will be quite a mission. The Irish band’s tour visited 31 venues in 12 countries last year, with another 30 venues in 15 countries due for this year. Over three million tickets have so far been sold, and already it’s the sixth highest grossing concert tour of all time. Once this year’s ticket sales are factored in, it looks highly likely Bono and his friends will overtake the current highest grossing tour ever – The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang Tour. Although these world-famous rock bands tend to play sports stadia, their success is good news for stage musicals, too. “I hope so,” says Wayne when asked if he thinks a new golden age of live musicals is upon us. “We’re going to get much better value in the entertainment we choose to see. A lot of the most ambitious stuff we’re doing today, my Dad and I were trying to develop in an era when the technology wasn’t there.” [Wayne’s father Jerry collaborated on the 1978 record]. “Even if, back then, we’d had the vision and the capital to get it up and running, we could never have done it. But now you can pretty much do anything you can either imagine or afford.” Wayne’s only concern is that the live aspect of stage shows should remain true to its roots. “While modern technology allows you to interpret almost anything, it’s crucial that the singing, acting and musicianship remain live. Without that, you lose the whole experience.” Populous are the architects of London’s The O2 Arena. Last year this venue sold 2.3 million tickets for its music, theatre and sporting events, making it the world’s top entertainment venue. POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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// S C
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L H AT
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ATHLETICS // GREASED LIGHTNING
0
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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Such is Usain Bolt’s speed over the 100 metre sprint, some sports scientists and statisticians have seriously suggested the Jamaican athlete should start searching for opponents within the animal kingdom. A cheetah, even, has been touted as the ultimate competitor. Bolt’s current world record has, after all, knocked spots off the rest of the human race, and left everyone wondering just how much faster he can go in the Olympics’ blue riband event. At the IAAF World Championships in Berlin last year, the 23-year-old clocked an astounding 9.58 seconds for the distance. It was 11 hundredths of a second quicker than the world record he ran at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and almost three-quarters of a second faster than Jesse Owens ran in the same German city to win the Olympic title 73 years earlier. Bolt’s nearest rival, Tyson Gay of the United States, ran an American record of 9.71 in Berlin but was not even in the same postcode at the finish line. So why has the world record been broken so many times since officials started recording it back in 1912? There are many reasons, ranging from technique and training to diet and doping. Perhaps most importantly, the surface an athlete races on has improved hugely since the Chariots of Fire era. Back then, athletes would use trowels to dig makeshift starting blocks in the cinder track. Once up and running, the sprinter’s feet would sink into the material. Worse still, when it rained puddles would form and the surface would get chewed up – a huge contrast to the all-weather tracks of today. Footwear has also improved over the decades, with ultra-light spikes replacing the heavy, leather shoes of yesteryear. When it comes to physical preparation, a professional approach has replaced the part-time attitude that prevailed for most of the last century. Modern elite athletes endure a Spartan lifestyle, training for several hours every day and undergoing intensive and often painful physical therapy, flexibility sessions and ice baths in order to prevent injuries. Linked to this, advances in sports science have also helped.
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One factor that has not altered much is the actual technique. From the crouched start to the dip finish, the 100 metre sprint has changed very little.
Top athletes are monitored in laboratories – with blood tests and bone scans revealing if they are close to breaking down – and their coaches know all the best training tricks. In effect, the sprinters of the past have acted as guinea pigs for the sprinters of the present. Diet has also improved throughout history. At the beginning of the 20th century, athletes thought raw eggs washed down with sherry would make them run faster. Nowadays athletes eat quality calories, boosted with supplements. “It’s like a Formula 1 car,” says British Olympic sprinter Marlon Devonish. “The lighter it is, the quicker it will be.” Surprisingly, one factor that has not altered much over time is the actual technique. In fact, athletes in all track and field events – not just sprinting – run, jump and throw with styles similar to those employed decades ago. From the crouched start to the dip finish, the 100 metre sprint has changed very little. Finally, an inevitable footnote to every article on sprinting involves the dark side of the sport: doping. An alarming number of 100 metre world record-breakers, such as Ben Johnson, Tim Montgomery and Justin Gatlin, have tested positive for drugs. What affect this has had on the progression of the world record is a mystery. But it is a fact that when a doped athlete makes a quantum leap in performance, it is often followed by a (hopefully) clean sprinter achieving the same time. Given this, can Bolt’s record be improved much further? “No one knows how fast a man can run,” says Bolt’s predecessor as world 100 metre record-holder, Asafa Powell, who, like most athletes, has a ‘no limits’ mentality. Statisticians believe a time of around 9.45 is a limit that could be reached as soon as 2030. But what does Bolt himself think? “Maybe 9.4,” he says. “You never know. I’ll just keep on working.” Populous designed the main stadium for the 2000 Olympic Games and is currently working on the London 2012 Olympic stadium and the 2014 Winter Olympic stadium for Sochi, Russia.
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One factor that has not altered much is the actual technique. From the crouched start to the dip finish, the 100 metre sprint has changed very little.
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ATHLETICS // GREASED LIGHTNING
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Statisticians believe a time of around 9.45 is a limit that could be reached as soon as 2030. But what does Bolt himself think? “Maybe 9.4,” he says. “You never know. I’ll just keep on working.”
Don Lippincott
Charlie Paddock
Jesse Owens
10.6 seconds 1912 This American was the first world record-holder for 100 metres recognised by the IAAF during an era when performances were hand-timed.
10.4 seconds 1921 Olympic champion in 1920, this American was famous for his flying leap at the finish line.
10.2 seconds 1936 This black American took four golds at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, much to the disgust of a spectating Adolf Hitler.
90 metres 91 metres 92 metres 93 metres 94 metres 95 metres
100 years of records IF ALL THESE TOP SPRINTERS FROM THE LAST 100 YEARS WERE TO RUN THEIR RECORD TIMES IN THE SAME RACE, THIS IS WHAT THE FINISH LINE MIGHT LOOK LIKE.
Willie Williams
Armin Hary
Jim Hines
10.1 seconds 1956 Twenty years after Owens’ heroics in Berlin, the American ran a world record in the very same stadium.
10.0 seconds 1960 A famously fast starter, the German became the first non-American since 1928 to win the Olympic title.
9.95 seconds 1968 The first to break the 10-second barrier, this American set his best mark when winning the Olympic title at altitude in Mexico City.
96 metres 97 metres 98 metres 99 metres
Calvin Smith
Carl Lewis
9.93 seconds 1983 A world champion at 200 metres, the American went to altitude in Colorado to set a world 100 metre record.
9.86 seconds 1991 Winner of nine Olympic golds, Lewis is regarded by some as the greatest athlete in history.
RECORD BREAKERS When it comes to attacking sprint records, there are three rules: wind speeds are all-important, altitude is frowned upon and the quickest tracks are usually the newest. ALTITUDE Running through thin air well above sea level is a certain way to achieve peak performance. But for the world’s top athletes, it is a soft option that would lead to a devalued record. So most major races are at sea level and modern all-weather surfaces such as Mondo are improving from year to year.
Maurice Greene 9.79 seconds 1999 Olympic champion in 2000 and five-time world gold medallist, ‘the Greene machine’ was the most dominant sprinter at the turn of the millennium.
Usain Bolt 9.58 seconds 2009 A 6ft 5in “freak”, as his closest rival Tyson Gay calls him, the ‘Lightning Bolt’ has rewritten the record books at both 100 metres and 200 metres.
WIND SPEED Most crucial of all, though, is the wind speed. A headwind is the bane of a sprinter’s life, making a good performance almost impossible. Too strong a tailwind (more than two metres per second) and the time will be judged ‘wind-assisted’ and disallowed for record purposes. So tailwind speeds of just under two metres per second are ideal. WARMTH Warm weather is also vital so that muscles can operate at their optimum. As is hot competition – and it’s no coincidence that many records are broken in the heat of a major championship. Luck As for lucky venues, well the Italian town of Rieti (below) has featured a freakily large number of top times over the years, including a world 100 metre record by Asafa Powell in 2007.
TEMPORARY TRACKS But the future of the sport might be on temporary running tracks in city-centre areas. In May last year, for example, Usain Bolt won a 150 metre race in the British city of Manchester (below), covering the 100 metre section from 50 metres to 150 metres in 8.70 seconds. The track featured no bend, was laid in 24 hours, dismantled in 12, and passed all the regulations needed for record purposes.
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RUGBY UNION // TINY NATION, RUGBY GIANT
RUGBY UNION // Despite a population of under 180,000 and a total area a quarter the size of Jamaica, when it comes to rugby, the Polynesian island of Samoa still manages to scrum with the big boys. Paul Morgan, editor of Rugby World magazine, discovers how.Â
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When Samoa knocked Wales out of the Rugby World Cup in 1991, it caused shockwaves around the rugby world. How could an island twice the size of New York City beat a nation like Wales, the birthplace of some of the greatest players ever to grace the sport of rugby union? But that win wasn’t a fluke, and it certainly wasn’t undeserved. Eight years later the Samoans repeated the trick at the new Millennium Stadium, in Cardiff, beating the Welsh a second time. When you look back at the side that won in 1991 – with star players like Frank Bunce, Brian Lima, Stephen Bachop, Peter Fatialofa, Mat Keenan, Apollo Perelini and Pat Lam in the team – you understand how they did it. The key, 19 years ago, was the ignorance of other teams. The rugby world had totally under-estimated the Samoans. But when you look at the impact the game has on their small Pacific island of around 180,000 people – far smaller than the Welsh cities of Cardiff or Swansea – it is little surprise they have been causing shocks ever since. Wins like the one in 1991 made a huge impression on the new generation of Samoan players, ensuring that rugby continued as the country’s national sport. One youngster glued to the coverage at that second World Cup was Seilala Mapusua, who was later part of his national team, and is now one of a large Samoan contingent at the English team London Irish. “That game had a huge effect on me,” says the 30-year-old who was just 11 when the Samoans won in Cardiff. “Many of that team went on to play all over the world, but even the local boys who played in the 1991 World Cup were legends back home. They are still held in high regard, and they still talk about that game to this day.” 22
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“There is a rugby field in every village. While they may not all be regulation size, with lines painted perfectly, it shows how much we love the game.” Top Samoan rugby international Seilala Mapusua.
The Samoan team perform their traditional haka.
Rugby has pretty much been the national sport in Samoa – just as it is in nearby New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga – ever since it was introduced to the island in the 1920s. Once the game turned professional in 1995, scores of Samoans started plying their trade in some of the biggest northern hemisphere clubs, economic realities driving them into the arms of welcoming clubs in Europe’s Guinness Premiership, Magners League and Top 14. Mapusua is one of the current crop, playing with fellow Samoans George Stowers, Elvis Seveali’i and Sailosi Tagicakibau at London Irish. He explains how his homeland is steeped in the rugby culture. “There is a [rugby] field in every village. While they may not all be the regulation size, with lines painted perfectly like they are in Europe, it shows how much we love the game. Whenever you go through those villages, you will always see boys or young men playing either touch or contact rugby. There is a rugby season, like in Europe, so we don’t play the whole year round. But it seems that the Samoan people are simply in love with the sport.” Sometimes you’ll even see locals playing on a makeshift rugby field with a concrete cricket pitch in the middle of it. Hardly the most suitable of facilities. “It’s usually about 25 players against 25,” Mapusua adds. “They do it for the love of the sport. That love begins in school, of course, with almost everyone getting the chance to sample the game from an early age.” Body size is also crucial to the Samoans’ success in a sport which has physical confrontation at its core. When New Zealand second row Paul Tito was once asked what superpower he would like, he answered: “The body of a Polynesian”. And Mapasua agrees. “There are a lot of big guys, and
they like a lot of contact,” he says. “I would probably be a little more worried playing in Samoa than I would be in England. The hits do seem to be harder, and they love it when guys who normally play overseas come back, so they get the chance to knock a big name over.” Players like Mapasua competing at top international level help keep the game in the forefront of local people’s minds. “They have a lot of role models, a lot of players in the leagues in Europe and New Zealand,” he adds. “I’m sure that helps keep the game growing.” A good cultural parallel would be the way the West Indians have taken to cricket. But it is clear that in Caribbean islands such as Jamaica and St Lucia, other sports are starting to take over – basketball and soccer, for example. Could that ever happen in Samoa? “Fifa are dong a great job of spreading the word of soccer in Samoa, but rugby is still dominant,” says Mapasua. “It was the number one sport when I was growing up. In the last five or ten years, if anything, it has grown even more. An impressive generation with guys like Trevor Leota and Junior Paramore followed the 1991 side, and now it is becoming more and more common for the best Samoans to play in New Zealand or Europe.” The reality is that wherever those players land, they are much loved – sometimes feared – by the rugby community, because of the way they play the game. “It appeals to their warrior mentality,” explains London Irish coach Toby Booth. “They love a confrontation, and they love a one-on-one battle. Rugby is often about me or you, and the Samoans love that side of things. They believe that the more they can construct a me-on-you confrontation, the more they will win. It is about winning that physical battle.” Samoa’s close proximity to New Zealand, where rugby is also the national sport, has been a big influence through the decades. “Many Samoans head to New Zealand for their schooling,” explains Mapasua. “They get scholarships and move on from there. Because of the rugby, the move to New Zealand is seen as an avenue to a better lifestyle.” Over the years, many Samoans have gone on to play for the New Zealand national team – the All Blacks –something that is frowned upon in the rest of the rugby world. Many now wonder how the Samoan team would have fared if great players like Michael Jones, Mils Muliaina, Jerry Collins and Tana Umaga had opted for the blue shirts of their native team instead of the allblack kit of New Zealand. The reality, however, is that if Samoans make their home in New Zealand, their first big target is a contract with one of the country’s top teams, which then obliges them to pledge allegiance to the All Blacks. But the bond between New Zealand and Samoa means that Samoans who turn All Black are treated as heroes back home. “Someone like Jerry (Collins), when he goes back home, everyone knows who he is,” Mapasua explains. “They are just as proud to see a Samoan pull on the All Blacks jersey, as their own national jersey. When you are Samoan and you go off to play for one of the best countries in the world, it speaks volumes. The Samoan people see it as: ‘Wow! One of us is good enough to be there’. Whilst they would rather see them play for their own country, they are still proud of their achievements, and continue to support them. The Samoans who play for the All Blacks are proud Samoans, and they still consider themselves Samoans.”
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Rugby appeals to their warrior mentality. They love a confrontation, and they love a one-on-one battle.” London Irish rugby coach Toby Booth.
ISLAND LIFE Fatu Tauafiafi is a Samoan sports journalist. Here he explains why his tiny nation has become a rugby giant.
Samoa is steeped in Rugby culture.
“So rugby-mad is this island that you’ll often see sports scouts from all over the world searching for talent in the back streets of our towns and villages. Talent that elsewhere might require thousands of dollars to cultivate, and only under the strictest of conditions. “Ask Samoans why they’re so richly endowed and, 99 per cent of the time, they’ll point you to the Bible. ‘We are naturally blessed,’ comes the translated answer. “Rugby has become such an important part of our culture that records of the country’s history are nearly always told through a rugby lens. You might say that after Samoan and English, rugby has become the country’s unofficial third language. Peter Horne, the International Rugby Board’s high performance manager for Oceania, has described Samoa as ‘the only place in the world I know of where the culture of the nation’s rugby team and the country’s culture is one and the same’.”
[Seilala Mapusua is raising funds for the victims of the 2009 tsunami that struck Samoa. For details visit the British Red Cross website.] Populous has designed rugby venues across the globe including the new Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Eden Park in Auckland and Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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RAGSTO RICHES Castel di Sangro Calcio and 1899 Hoffenheim are two amateur soccer teams that emerged from nowhere to achieve greatness at the highest European level. Joe Boyle discovers how they – and other sporting Cinderellas – rose from rags to riches.
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Two players died in a car crash. A veteran player and his wife were arrested on suspicion of drugdealing. A troupe of actors was hired to stage the fake unveiling of a Nigerian forward.
Take a hackneyed Hollywood film, a gutter-to-the-stars cliché. Rocky, perhaps. Replace the gloves with a soccer ball. Then add Mafia undertones, cocaine and match-fixing. Now you’re close to the story of Italian football club Castel di Sangro Calcio. In 1982, this village team from the mountainous Abruzzo region were playing in the lowest rank of Italian amateur soccer. By 1996, they were in Serie B, the country’s second division. Meanwhile, 600 miles north, a similarly nondescript German side were slicing their way through the leagues, en route for their country’s top division in soccer, the Bundesliga. One of these teams has declined, the other continues to astound. Castel di Sangro’s tale is easy to explain. It was a fluke. Their tragicomic season is Serie B is documented in Joe McGinniss’ book The Miracle of Castel di Sangro. A miracle is what it was, defying rational explanation. Success came despite repeated attempts at self-sabotage. The club was owned by Pietro Rezza, a property developer who lived up to that loaded Italian job title. Inconvenienced by success he never anticipated, Rezza delayed upgrading the stadium for as long as possible, with his team playing its first three months in Serie B at Chieti, 60 miles away. Midway through the season, two players then died in a car crash, while veteran Gigi Prete and his smouldering Chilean wife were arrested on suspicion of drug-dealing. A troupe of actors was then hired to stage the fake unveiling of a Nigerian forward. Despite all this, coach Osvaldo Jaconi and his collection of scrappers and rejects managed to survive that first campaign in Serie B… all before the inevitable descent back to the regional amateur leagues. 12 26
Music // // SOCCER LIVE! RAGS TO RICHES
600 miles north of Castel di Sangro is a German village called Hoffenheim, just outside the city of Sinsheim, in the south-west of the country. Sinsheim had never had a professional soccer team and yet, during the 1990s and Noughties, local side 1899 Hoffenheim rose from the amateur ranks to the Bundesliga. Their ascent was inspired by their owner, Dietmar Hopp, a former Hoffenheim player who later made a fortune through his software firm SAP. Establishing a professional side in Sinsheim was a serious venture, no escapist piece of fantasy football. He threw money at the club, spending good, though not ridiculous, money on players. Unlike an Abramovich, he built from scratch, concentrating in the early years on getting the infrastructure right, with an emphasis on youth. In the two years ahead of their promotion to the Bundesliga, Hoffenheim didn’t buy a player older than 24. The investment paid off. In 2009, with Castel di Sangro back whence they came, Hopp saw his side finish seventh in their first Bundesliga season and play in the new 30,000capacity Rhein-Neckar Arena. Tempting as it is to link these tales, similarities are superficial. “A random event,” is how economics professor Stefan Szymanski describes Castel di Sangro. “From a probability point of view,” he says, with his statistician’s hat on, “there’s bound to be a Castel di Sangro come along every so often. If you spin a coin in the air often enough, once in a while it will keep turning up heads.” Admittedly, most rags-to-riches tales tend to come in knock-out competitions, with their greater likelihood of a string of random events: French fourth division soccer side Calais reaching the 1990 French Cup final, for example; or Denmark winning the 1992 European Championships after qualifying by default when war-torn Yugoslavia were ejected; or a Kapel Dev-inspired India winning the 1983 cricket World Cup, despite years in the doldrums. Individual sports have their examples too, be it the unseeded 17-year-old Boris Becker taking the 1985 Wimbledon title or golfer Ben Curtis winning the 2003 British Open, having never previously triumphed in a professional tournament. Individual sports, Szymanski suggests, face fewer impediments when it comes to producing surprise success. “With team sports there are a fixed number of locations at which people can play and generate a commercial return,” he says. “It’s easier to open up new venues in individual sports. There’s less of a closed shop. It’s more mobile.” Soccer’s embedded club structure makes it harder for new sides to emerge. Golf, tennis and motor sport are more flexible and less dependent on an established infrastructure. Unheralded talent can rise more easily here, as Brawn GP proved in last year’s F1 championship. All of which makes Hoffenheim’s success exceptional. While Hopp’s money has been key, sociologist Albrecht Sonntag talks of a “conceptual change” in how to run a club. German soccer has undergone a spell of introspection, trying to understand why it is struggling in European club and international competitions. When he was German national coach, Jurgen Klinsmann hoped to change the culture by trying to appoint Olympic hockey gold-medallist, Bernhard Peters, as sport director at the German Football Association. The
traditionalists were having none of it so Peters headed instead for Hoffenheim to implement Hopp’s youth development plans, and the under-17 title soon followed. Money for players and wages, innovation in staff recruitment, an investment in youth as well as bricks and mortar – they all help explain Hoffenheim’s success. Sonntag also sees deeper socio-cultural reasons. “The club comes from a region that has a historical and cultural selfawareness,” he says. “But it never had a huge soccer club. This region is rich, one of Europe’s best industrial areas. It has an interesting mixture of working class and super-intellectuals. It is a soccer no-man’s land but should not be. It’s a place that has produced world-class players for the international side, a place that has a soccer tradition but had no team.” Into this fertile ground, Hopp has sown his financial seed. Not that everyone is happy. “There is jealousy,” says Sonntag, “because the concept of
Hoffenheim shows the shortcomings of the others.” Upstarts are welcome, it seems, until they expose the failings of established clubs with their decades of tradition and their millions of debt. Unlike Hoffenheim, Castel di Sangro knew their place, as revealed by their final game in that first Serie B season. Safe from relegation, they travelled to face a Bari side that needed a win to secure promotion. McGinnis records how the Castel team agreed to lose the match. Appalled, he confronted the players only to be told they had no choice: “il sistema” dictated they would play their assigned role, perhaps to settle old debts, perhaps to secure future privileges. At Hoffenheim, the system is being challenged. At Castel, quiet, comforting amateurism has returned. Populous soccer stadia include the home of football, Wembley Stadium in London, as well as this year’s FIFA World Cup final venue, Soccer City in Johannesburg.
For every rags-to-riches tale in sport, there’s always a riches-to-rags one as well.
Uruguay national soccer team Winners of the first soccer World Cup in 1930, they won again in 1950. Since then they’ve done little – other than a semi-final in 1970 – failing to qualify as often as not. Definite outsiders for this year’s World Cup. Team Lotus Between 1963 and 1978 they won seven F1 constructors’ and six drivers’ championships, under the direction of founder Colin Chapman, with Jim Clark and Graham Hill behind the wheel for much of this golden age. After Chapman’s death in 1982, the team lost direction and money. Altogether between 1960 and 1978 they won 71 races, but just eight more thereafter and none after 1987. Team Lotus raced for the last time in 1994. Stade Reims A dominant force in European soccer in the 1950s and 1960s, this team were French champions six times between 1949 and 1962. They also appeared twice in the European Cup final during that era. Since then, nothing. They now languish in France’s third division with little prospect of reliving past glories.
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There’s bound to be a Castel di Sangro come along every so often. If you spin a coin often enough, once in a while it will keep turning up heads.
HOW THE MIGHTY FALL
Castel di Sangro Calcio home ground of Teofilo Patini.
Ian Baker-Finch This Australian golfer emerged from nowhere to win the 1991 British Open. He then promptly returned to anonymity as his mental game disintegrated. In 1995 and 1996 he failed to make it as far as the weekend in all 29 tournaments in which he appeared. Six years after his Open triumph, he packed in the sport, aged just 36. Mike Tyson In 1987 he became the youngest man to unite the three heavyweight boxing titles. For two years a glove was barely laid on him. Personal mayhem then took its toll. In 1990 he was dumped by no-hoper Buster Douglas. He dragged himself back but controversial defeats to Evander Holyfield began a pantomimestyle descent, culminating in embarrassing final losses to Danny Williams and Kevin McBride.
TSG Hoffenheim’s sponsor Dietmar Hopp celebrates with the supporters.
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STADIUM ROCKS! Australian singer, rock musician and friend of Populous, Tyrone Noonan, remembers his time performing in Populous-designed stadia with his band george.
CONVENTIONS LIVE MUSIC // // 12 28 20
Music LIVE MUSIC // LIVE! // STADIUM ROCKS!
1.8 billion. That’s the figure that kept running through my head as I headed to Sydney’s ANZ Stadium with my musical compadres from my band george, back in 2003. This was how many TV viewers would be watching the Rugby World Cup opening ceremony at the stadium, in which we were all participating as performers. Talk about ratcheting up the nerves. And that’s without mentioning the other more immediate rush of adrenalin we had from knowing we were about to play live to a packed house of 80,000 people. When, back in 1967, The Beatles (my favourite band) performed All You Need Is Love to a global TV audience, they had 400 million people watching. We were about to have well over four times that number focused on us. “Best not to think of such figures,” I said to myself as our
Tyrone Noonan’s band george playing the Sydney Opera House forecourt in 2005. It was the band’s last ever public performance.
car snaked its way through Sydney towards the huge stadium. Entering through the back felt like being invited into the bowels of a giant spaceship. Normally, at this stage of a gig we’d be looking around for a trolley to transport all our gear back stage. But no, this was the Rugby World Cup. Our car charged straight through and began traversing the stadium’s internal freeway, which reminded me a little of an aircraft carrier. Suddenly, as huge groups of school kids and volunteers started scurrying around us, the enormity of the concert struck me fully. Finally we arrived at our destination where we were led into an enormous green room. It was time for our pep talk from the technical crew. This was one gig where we would have to rely on what’s known as ‘in-ear monitoring’, and I remember being told strictly not to look at ourselves on the giant video screens throughout the stadium, for fear we’d appear out of
sync. To ensure clarity for every listener, all the video and audio was to be somehow time-delayed to cope with the huge logistics of amplification in such a large space. Our eventual performance was, I guess, the closest feeling to what it must be like for a soccer or rugby player to run onto the field of a packed stadium at the start of a game. Except we were being wheeled into the middle of the field on an oval-shaped stage by a team of burly lads. It was totally surreal, and quickly followed by one of the most exciting gigs of my life. I thought: “This isn’t rock and roll, this is something else altogether.” Four years later, in 2007, I then had the opportunity to sing the Australian national anthem at Melbourne’s Etihad Stadium for the A League Grand Final (Australia’s season-ending soccer final). I did the sound check to an empty stadium on the day, and the foldback speakers on
the floor in front of me seemed perfectly loud enough, so I opted not to have in-ear monitors. I had, after all, heard the horror story of a former anthem-singer who’d used them at a similar event while other music was being pumped into her ears. But once the stadium was filled, and it came to performance time, the speakers were useless; way too quiet. Yet I had to continue, and so I began to listen around for anything as a guide. Suddenly the memories of the pep talk from the technical crew four years earlier came into my mind, so I knew that anything I focused on was potentially out of sync. It was terrifying, but somehow I got through it. The band george formed in Brisbane, Australia, in 1996. They released several EPs and two albums, enjoying most success with the double platinum-selling Polyserena in 2002.
Populous’ very own Chris Lee (senior principal) played drums in several bands with Tyrone Noonan and Angus McDonald (aka Black Angus of ARIA award-winning band Sneaky Sound System) before he discovered the rhythmic possibilities of architecture. Better to design venues than play in them. In 1996 Chris joined Populous to work on the Sydney Olympic Stadium before moving to London in 1999 to lead the design on projects such as Arsenal Football Club’s Emirates Stadium and Dublin’s Lansdowne Road stadium. In 2006 Chris established Populous’ New York City design studio where he has been leading the design of award-winning stadia in the United States, Mexico and Brazil.
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Back in 1967, The Beatles performed All You Need Is Love to a global TV audience of 400 million. We were about to have well over four times that number focused on us.”
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MOTOR SPORT//
FANTASY RACETRACK If one could WEAVE together the most dynamic and infamous racetrack sections from motor sport venues all over the world, what would the resulting COURSE look like? Henry Hope-Frost, from motor racing magazine Autosport, selects his ultimate fantasy racetrack.
What is it that makes a great corner or section of a racetrack or rally stage? Something, surely, that offers both driver and car a serious workout? Gradient, run-off (or lack of it) and speed up to or though the section all add variables that give intrepid racers and their steeds cause for concern. The one key ingredient, however, is reputation. Any part of a track or stage that strikes a little fear, or earns a little respect, is on the list. Here, then, are 10 sections from motor sport venues around the world that do both.
Section: Flugplatz Racetrack: Nurburgring Nordschleife Town: Nurburg, Germany Sport: Formula 1 Undeniably the most terrifying racetrack on the planet, the 14-mile Nurburgring Nordschleife has wound its way unforgivingly through Germany’s Eifel mountains since 1926. It took motor racing’s greats years to learn properly, and, even then, they reckoned it could bite you. Perhaps the most infamous section is the blind and curved summit of the Flugplatz. Named after a nearby airfield, the ‘flying place’ was a point on the circuit at which the cars also flew. Evocative images of 1970s grand prix cars off the ground, the whites of drivers’ eyes often visible, are ingrained in fans’ memories. They are images that real purists cherish, for F1 never returned to the Nordschleife after Niki Lauda’s near-fatal shunt in his Ferrari in the 1976 German Grand Prix.
Section: Becketts Racetrack: Silverstone Circuit Town: Silverstone, UK Sport: Formula 1 The legendary Silverstone Circuit, which hosted the inaugural world championship grand prix back in 1950, has undergone some dramatic developments since then. None more so than in 1991, when the original layout was changed beyond recognition. With drastic alterations to famous corners Becketts, Stowe, Club, Abbey and Woodcote, one of the fastest Formula 1 circuits on the calendar was given a new and exciting look. It was the Becketts complex, however, that created the biggest storm. As soon as the F1 circus first sampled the high-g-force, left-right-left-right S-bends in 1991, they became a favourite amongst drivers and fans. 18 years later, Becketts remains one the best places in the world to watch a grand prix car in its most raw, visceral environment. (Populous is once again upgrading the circuit ready for this years Grand Prix).
Section: Porsche Curves Racetrack: Circuit de la Sarthe Town: Le Mans, France Sport: sports car racing A relentless series of downhill lefts and rights, the Porsche Curves at Le Mans – home of the world-famous 24-hour sports car marathon – are named after the celebrated German marque that has won a record 16 times in the French endurance classic since 1970. Originally conceived to bypass the dangerous public-road section of Maison Blanche in time for the 1972 event, the new, closed-to-the-public sweepers quickly became the drivers’ favourite section of the 8.5-mile circuit. With 50-plus cars in four different classes doing battle around the clock each June, the narrow, off-camber Porsche Curves offer one of sports car racing’s biggest buzzes – especially at 3am when it’s raining. 30
MOTOR SPORT // FANTASY RACETRACK
Section: Eau Rouge Racetrack: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Town: Spa, Belgium Sport: Formula 1 Since the early days of grand prix racing in the 1920s, the daunting Eau Rouge switchback on Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps circuit remains one of the sport’s biggest challenges. Named after the stream over which it crosses, Eau Rouge presents drivers with a plunging downhill-uphill section and blind summit at Raidillon. And it’s a crucial part of the 4.3-mile Ardennes Forest road circuit because it leads onto a long straight on which top speed is vital to lap time. However, the notoriety of racing’s only real rollercoaster is measured in the number of huge accidents that have befallen many of the top names. The death of young German Stefan Bellof – the Michael Schumacher of the 1980s – added further infamy to this terrifying spectacle.
Section: Fafe jump Race: Rally of Portugal Town: Fafe, Portugal Sport: world rally World championship rally fans recall with a mixed sense of fascination and horror the images of Group B-spec monsters from Audi, Lancia and Peugeot leaping through the air between thick walls of Portuguese spectators. Those mid-1980s images of daredevil rally aces threading their 600bhp, turbo-charged, four-wheel– drive specials between suicidal fans came to define an era in which manufacturer budgets and car speeds escalated out of control. High-profile fatalities – among drivers and fans – soon signalled the end, however. When local driver Joaquim Santos ploughed into the crowd during the 1986 Rally of Portugal, killing six fans, the governing body put their own foot down. For 1987, cars were neutered and spectators forced to stand back.
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Section: The Corkscrew Racetrack: Laguna Seca Raceway Town: Monterey, California, USA Sport: Indycar and MotoGP Built in 1957 in the hills of California’s Monterey peninsula, Laguna Seca remains one of the last bastions of driver challenges in North America. The 2.2-mile circuit features a variety of corners and, significantly, massive elevation change. The highpoint on the lap, for drivers and spectators, is the aptly-named Corkscrew, a stomach-churning drop into a left-right S-bend, approached uphill with a blind entry-point. Although Formula 1 has never visited, The Corkscrew has given American Indycar aces and world championship motorcycle stars plenty to think about over the years. Sadly, the death of Penske Indycar top name Gonzalo Rodriguez during practice in 1999 only added to The Corkscrew’s reputation.
Section: Bunnings Forest Complex Race: Rally Australia Town: Bannister, Australia Sport: world rally When Rally Australia joined the world championship schedule in 1989, the event soon became popular among competing crews. The flat-out gravel roads, lined by enormous, and merciless, eucalyptus trees, offered a massive challenge to drivers. The familiar clay-orange dust plumes thrown up by cars added to the appeal, especially for photographers. Add in a series of enormous cliff-edge jumps – like those found in the Bunnings Forest complex series of stages – and a driver’s bravery, not to mention his car’s strength, is measured by the amount of visible daylight between road and car. British heroes Colin McRae and Richard Burns, world champions in 1995 and 2001 respectively, never disappointed in the their quest to fly the furthest.
Section: Turn 1 Racetrack: Indianapolis Motor Speedway Town: Indianapolis, Indiana, USA Sport: Indycar Enshrined in motorsport’s hall of fame for 100 years, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has been a four-turn assault on the senses for the best American and European drivers since Carl Fisher commissioned its construction from 3.2 million bricks back in 1909. The Brickyard, as it’s known, was paved soon after, but a yard of bricks still exists on the starting line. What remain fully intact, however, are the banked curves of the 2.5-mile oval circuit. Angled at nine degrees, the four corners have ensured huge speeds and a heart-in-the-mouth experience for the generations of hardy souls who have tried – not always successfully – to tame them.
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MOTOR SPORT // FANTASY RACETRACK
Section: The Dipper Racetrack: Mount Panorama Circuit Town: Bathurst, Australia Sport: V8 touring cars The historic Mount Panorama Circuit can justifiably claim to be one the world’s most picturesque and demanding road courses. Constructed in 1938, the track climbs and plummets for almost four miles on the hillside outside the university town of Bathurst in New South Wales. The circuit really hit the headlines in 1963 when Australia’s biggest saloon car race, the Armstrong 500, moved there from Phillip Island. Quickly establishing itself, the event soon became known as the Bathurst 1000, with the country’s top racers battling it out for Holden or deadly rival Ford. At the top of the course is The Dipper, a wheel-lifting, left-hand plunge at which even the best can come unstuck. Nine-time race-winner and Australian folk hero Peter Brock often drove beyond the limit through The Dipper, just to remind himself where it was.
Section: Loews Tunnel Racetrack: Monaco Town: Monte-Carlo, Monaco Sport: Formula 1 The most famous of all the grand prix circuits, the round-thehouses layout of Monaco was inspired by local cigarette manufacturer Antony Nogues in 1929. 80 years later, this narrow ribbon of asphalt remains largely unchanged, save for the addition of a harbour-front chicane in 1986 to slow the cars and a repositioning of the cramped pit lane. Perhaps the most daunting part of this sinuous two-mile track is the tunnel that feeds traffic back onto the seafront from the heart of the principality. With a flat-out, right-hand corner to contend with – in darkness! – drivers keep their throttles nailed and their fingers crossed as they plunge downhill back into the Mediterranean sunlight. Amazingly, in 56 Monaco grands prix since 1950 there has only been one fatality – Lorenzo Bandini – perishing in 1967 at the wheel of a Ferrari.
POPULOUS MAGAZINE //
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PopUlous in
history Where? YANKEE STADIUM, NEW YORK CITY When? 4TH NOVEMBER 2009
What better way to baptize your new stadium? Last year, at the end of their first season in their new home ground, the New York Yankees celebrated in true style by winning baseball’s World Series for the 27th time. They triumphed 4-2 over the Philadelphia Phillies, taking the title after the sixth game of the series. Nicknamed the ‘Turnpike Series’ – New York and Philadelphia are connected by a motorway called the New Jersey Turnpike – the final game in the Populous-designed Yankee Stadium, in the Bronx, saw over 50,000 fans turn out. “There is a 27th jewel in the Yankees’ crown and a peaceful, easy feeling across their empire,” concluded The New York Times.
Derek Jeter celebrates as he holds the World Series trophy with teammates A.J. Burnett, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Robinson Cano.
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HISTORY // BASEBALL’s 2009 WORLD SERIES
18 million We don’t keep an exact count, but that’s about how many seats we’ve designed into venues of all types around the world during our 30 years of practice.
POPULOUS // THE TEAM We are true individuals – innovative, fun and highly creative architects and designers who enjoy working together to give our clients unique design services. Whether it’s bespoke design, sports stadia, entertainment venues or convention centres, we are passionate about everything we do.
London 14 Blades Court Deodar Rd London SW15 2NU United Kingdom
Kansas City 300 Wyandotte Kansas City MO 64105 USA
Brisbane Ground Floor 418 Adelaide Street Brisbane QLD 4000 Australia
Tel: +44 208 874 7666 Fax: +44 208 874 7470 Email: info@populous.com www.populous.com
Tel: +1 816 221 1500 Fax: +1 816 221 1578 Email: info@populous.com www.populous.com
Tel: +61 7 3839 9155 Fax: +61 7 3839 9188 Email: info@populous.com www.populous.com THE TEAM //
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LET THERE BE LIGHT