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Miyagi Stadium...not such a close encounter

Jeremy Walker
 TOKYO (June 13)--As the bus meanders between the neat rice fields and heads up the hill towards the new housing estate, passengers not knowing quite what to expect could be forgiven for blinking hard and thinking that Steven Spielberg was filming a re-make of "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
 But the gleaming silver spaceship hovering on top of the hill is, in fact, Miyagi Stadium, one of Japan's 10 venues for the 2002 World Cup.
 It looks, well, out of this world, and probably should do at a cost of $260 million.
But all is not well, according to Peter Velappan, general secretary of the Kuala Lumpur-based Asian Football Confederation.

 For a start, the roads are a nightmare. This pleasant 10-minute bus journey from the nearest train station at Rifu, near Sendai, becomes a one-hour crawl for Sunday's opening game between Japan and Slovakia in the Kirin Cup.
 The organisers of the three-nation competition, the Japanese Football Association, urged fans to arrive at the ground when the gates opened at 10:30 am, three hours before the kick-off, to avoid traffic chaos.
 But long before this, thousands of Japan's "Ultra Nippon" supporters formed orderly lines which snaked down the hillside, like a queue of sci-fi fans waiting to be introduced to "ET". A helicopter circled the scene above, adding to the effect.

 After the game, a brisk walk was a more sensible option than a bus or taxi to one of the stations, as a few yards of progress back down the hill through the forests was followed by minutes of waiting.
 Plans are in hand to build a new junction from the main highway, which will bring traffic closer to the stadium, and Velappan thinks it can't come quickly enough.
"The only concern is the access to the stadium," said the Malaysian, who is also FIFA's coordinator for the 2002 World Cup organising committee.
 "On the morning of the match we looked at three different routes and they were all country roads.
 "We will inform this prefecture that they should hurry up with the highway link."

 Referring to Japan's well-behaved fans, who made headlines during the World Cup in France by putting all their ticker-tape into plastic rubbish bags after the game, Velappan commented: "People were sitting here from 8 o'clock in the morning and spectators should not be harassed like this.
 "It could only happen in Japan because they are very disciplined, but it's criminal to be keeping them here for seven or eight hours for one match."
 Another problem was the rain, and there'll be plenty of that in June 2002 because the World Cup will be played in the middle of the rainy season.
 Despite the sweeping, spectacular boomerang-shaped roof, the only thing that came back was the drizzle into the faces of the fans.
 "It's a really good stadium--the pitch is excellent as they all are in Japan and the organisation of the match was first-class--but, as in Yokohama (which will stage the final), they forgot the influence of the rain on some spectators.
 "With a heavy downpour and a strong wind, half the stadium gets wet," added Velappan.

 Ko Yamaguchi, media chief of Japan's organising committee, said they had learned a lot of lessons from Sunday's game and had two years to iron out the flaws.
 "We are aware of the traffic jams and also that there were a lot of early birds at the stadium," said Yamaguchi.
 "But the new exit from the highway will offer a more direct route to the stadium. We will look at the traffic conditions very carefully."