In February the bulldozers moved into Stadium Australia and began pulling up the running track as part of a long devised plan to reduce the capacity of the ground from 110,000 to 80,000 by pushing the stands 30 metres closer together.
The remodelling is intended to make the atmosphere more intimate and help to secure crowd-pulling lucrative sporting fixtures, particularly rugby league, rugby union and soccer. Construction is due to be completed in 18 months at a cost of 65 million Australian dollars (#35.77 million).
But at the beginning of March, just three weeks into the project, Stadium Australia Group which owns the Olympic stadium, admitted it did not have the money to complete the job. Now the company's banker, Australia New Zealand Bank (ANZ), has given it until September 30th to prove it is a viable business or to put the stadium up for sale.
Stadium Australia Group issued its half year financial result last month (the Australian financial year begins on July 1st) and explained, at least in part, why it was in such dire straits just six months after the stadium bid farewell to the greatest show on earth. It made for some interesting reading.
Last year the company posted a loss of Aus$11 million, an improvement on the Aus$24.2 million loss recorded in the previous year. In the first six months of the current financial year, which includes the period of the Olympics, the company lost Aus$5.7 million. During that six-month period the Olympic arena also played host to the New Zealand versus Australia Bledisloe Cup rugby fixture which attracted a rugby union world record crowd of 109,874. It also staged the National Rugby League Grand Final which was witnessed by a crowd of 94,000.
Despite this, the group has liabilities of Aus$196.6 million, of which ANZ is owed Aus$125 million. Its balance sheet shows it has assets of Aus$203.7 million, of which Stadium Australia accounts for Aus$170.8 million.
It had always been envisaged the stadium would face financial hardship up to and immediately after the games. But once the Olympics ended and the stadium had been remodelled it was widely believed domestic events would regularly fill the stands, and - with them - the stadium's coffers. But nothing has gone according to plan for the now embattled stadium.
Amazingly, the Aus$650 million ground has just five events booked for the remainder of the calendar year - three are domestic rugby fixtures, and two are rugby internationals. Australia will take on New Zealand in September, and before that the home side will line out against the British and Irish Lions on July 14th.
Initially it had been envisaged that the ground would play host to a total of 40 rugby and Australian rules games a year with an average crowd of 40,000 at each game.
As part of the remodelling programme the stands were to be easily movable to allow the stadium to be configured in a rectangular shape or oval shape for rugby and Australian rules games respectively.
But because the stadium's remodelling is to cause massive disruption to seating arrangements during the 18-month construction, the National Rugby League (NRL) is refusing to allow its teams play any games there until the work is completed.
There have also been problems with the Australian Football League. The AFL was to stage at least 11 games at the stadium this year even before the revamp was complete. But now it says it is not so sure.
The stadium chief executive Mr Ken Edwards last month tried to play down as temporary the AFL's reluctance to use the arena.
"We are of the view that we have a binding and enforceable agreement with the AFL to play games at stadium Australia," he said.
"They are of the view that `Yes, we want to come but there are some issues that need to be sorted out before we do"'.
But the AFL's concerns are not the kind that will be resolved quickly. The league wants the level of the pitch raised by 1 metre in order to improve fans' view of the action because when the pitch and stand configuration is fixed into the oval setting, huge tracts at the sides of the playing surface are not visible to significant sections of the crowd. The pitch raising measure needed to improve vision lines is likely to cost several million.
Even if that is resolved, there is still the issue of the playing surface being 10 metres narrower than the AFL believed when it signed a contract in 1997 agreeing to play matches there.
Without the higher and wider pitch, the AFL says it will not use the stadium. But without AFL games the stadium's faith looks to be sealed. The AFL season began two weeks ago and talks are ongoing as both parties try to reach some kind of compromise.
The stadium's other main stream of income comes from corporate hospitality and suite rental, but while they have performed strongly the lack of regular major fixtures on the pitch has left a massive void in income which now looks increasingly likely to prove fatal for Stadium Australia Group.
The ANZ September 30th deadline is looming large so between now and then the NRL and AFL must be persuaded to play their games at the stadium.
Otherwise the arena will be sold, the ANZ loan will be settled and 12,000 investors who came up with Aus$10,000 each in 1997 to help fund the stadium's construction will be left to share whatever is left.
Before that though, the issue may become a hot political potato. When the full extent of the arena's financial troubles first came to light last month it was widely speculated that, being an election year, the federal government would be put under enormous pressure to either bail out the stadium or simply buy it outright.
But the New South Wales premier Mr Bob Carr has already ruled out any financial assistance. "Stadium Australia is a public listed company," he said.
"That is, it's a private undertaking. Its financial situation is a matter for Stadium Australia and I won't be taking a dollar from schools or hospitals to shore up any private undertaking".
So the Prime Minister Mr John Howard, facing a slump in support at the polls, looks almost certain to have the final say as he scrambles for votes before the federal election.
