Master Card Center
The MasterCard Center (simplified Chinese: 万事达中心; traditional Chinese: 萬事達中心), formerly Beijing Wukesong Culture & Sports Center (simplified Chinese: 五棵松体育馆; traditional Chinese: 五棵松體育館), is an indoor arena for the 2008 Summer Olympics basketball preliminaries and finals. Ground was broken on 29 March 2005 and construction was completed on 11 January 2008. The stadium has a capacity of 18,000 and covers an area of 63,000 square metres. It was scaled back from its original design due to a 43% budget cut.
The stadium was constructed by "Beijing Wukesong Cultural & Sports Co. Ltd." whose five shareholders are Zhongguancun CENCONS Group, Haidian State-owned Assets Investment Co. Ltd, Beijing Urban Construction Group Co. Ltd, Beijing Urban Construction Co. Ltd and the Tianhong Group. After the Olympic Games, the center become an important part of Beijing's Olympic Games heritage, allowing citizens to enjoy cultural, sports, leisure, recreational and commercial activities. It was a large-scale comprehensive project rare in Beijing in integrating cultural, sporting functions and commercial purposes with large-scale gardens and green space.
On 6 January 2011 MasterCard Worldwide announced the acquisition of the naming rights to the Center, similar to Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Stadium being renamed for Ted Turner, EnergySolutions Arena (the 2002 Winter Olympic figure skating venue), and Rogers Arena (2010 Winter Olympic ice hockey arena). MasterCard is the rival of Olympic sponsor, Visa. It was renamed MasterCard Center effective from 21 January 2011.
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