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Welcome to press nirvana
SYDNEY -- Greetings from the MPC. The 5,500 of us -- Olympic journalists whose main tongue is anything from Mandarin to Swahili to Farsi -- who will get lost in the hallways of the Main Press Center over the next month know it simply by its common English acronym. The MPC in Sydney consists of a main lobby and eight separate buildings, each of which dwarfs the press area for any Super Bowl, World Series or NBA Finals. Another 4,000 of our television and radio colleagues are up the road in the IBC, the International Broadcast Center, site of more makeup than an Estée Lauder factory. Broadcasts to over 200 countries originate from IBC studios. Because of logistical and security concerns, the Sydney Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) had the MPC and 14 of 28 sports venues built within this huge, fenced-in area that resembles a town and is called Sydney Olympic Park. But lest you think this is excessive pampering, consider that the MPC is normally a series of cattle and horse pavilions. One of the buildings -- we hope it isn't the cafeteria -- is used as a slaughterhouse. When Michael Knight, head of SOCOG, came to the Sports Illustrated offices in New York earlier this year, he tried to reassure us: "No worries, mate. SOCOG are making certain that the area will be properly disinfected, scrubbed and fumigated in time for the animals' return." We know our place. And throw me some hay while you're at it. Walk with me. First, hold up your barcoded credential (which never leaves your neck) so the security chap at the door can beep you in. Then, hand over your bag or briefcase to two other security chaps, who will dig through it for explosives or free pins. A columnist who shall remain nameless was detained in Albertville eight years ago when a humorless Frenchman asked if he had anything ticking in his briefcase. The man, who had an alarm clock inside, responded that the next day's column was a bomb. Sacré bleu. Once inside we pass the main help desk, where unpaid volunteers can show you to your office, help you catch your shuttle bus or explain why the American phrase you just threw at the Australian policeman insulted his grandmother. We pass a technology store, a newspaper stand, an IOC museum, a bank, a travel agency, an express-mail center and a hairdresser, who must have gotten lost on her way to the IBC. The lobby opens into the Australia room, the only building with no private offices. Its main area is one cavernous mass of tables, telephones and TV monitors, each of which can be tuned to a different Olympic venue for live coverage you won't see on a commercial broadcast feed. If you must, you can watch doubles badminton and preliminary water polo at the flip of a switch. You can even watch practices that are being held in the actual Olympic venues. Most of the MPC's 509 television screens are on the walls of this one large room. Below the walls are computer screens with access to the Olympic information system, from which you can get up-to-the-minute results, bios, historical records and even schedules for the press shuttle buses. In Atlanta, the IBM system went horribly wrong. But then again, so did the buses. The cafeteria is like a food court in a mall with offerings from McDonald's to pizza to cold cuts to sushi. Don't get me started on Vegemite. There is a coffeehouse, a beer garden and a Scribblers' Bar, which, I suppose, is intended to make the scribbling livelier. It is strategically located near the first-aid station. I'm told the MPC expects to serve 300,000 meals and 320,000 liters of beer. There is also a prayer room where many an alm is offered for a good lead. Actually, religious services of many denominations have been offered for years in athlete villages, but I think this is a first for a press center. Five other buildings contain press-conference rooms and private offices for media outlets, including Sports Illustrated. Additionally, 12 national Olympic committees, including the USOC, have private offices, as do organizing committees for the upcoming Salt Lake City and Athens Games. The largest of conference rooms is actually a theater with 784 seats plus a few loose chairs and eight translation booths. Journalists trade in their press badges at the door for a set of headphones that operate only in that room and receive stations in English, French, German, Russian, the native tongue of the speaker and up to three other tongues the organizing committee deems appropriate for that press conference. If the interview is with a Brazilian athlete, for example, two of the stations are likely to be in Portuguese and Spanish. It's sort of like the United Nations, only with more Gatorade. The smaller rooms may be for press conferences involving specific teams from countries with smaller delegations, such as the Indonesian badminton team or the Hungarian fencing team. Reporters who do not speak the native tongue of these athletes can request a translator who will simply sit at the head table with the athletes or coaches. SOCOG estimates that more than 200 press conferences will take place in the main room. Anyone who can guess the total number of reporters and athletes mentioning the phrases "suck it up," "110 percent," and the European catchphrase "make a good result" wins a free case of Foster's. In all, the MPC has a workforce of 3,000 people, 3,600 chairs, 1,500 tables, 2,000 phones and 1,500 pigeon holes for results, in case you missed that preliminary water polo match on monitor 247. The Photographic Services Center located in a building called the Outback Pavilion will process 250,000 rolls of film, or nearly 10 million exposures, during the Games. If I had brought my Instamatic, some of them would even include my thumb. Tomorrow I'll take you on a similar tour of the Athletes Village. G'day for now.
SI writer-reporter Brian Cazeneuve, the magazine's Olympics expert, is already in Australia gearing up for the Games. Check back daily to follow his behind-the-scenes reports.
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