 Construction was heavily delayed; while it was intended to be completed on 8 October 1998, it was finished only days before the opening of the World Championships in May 1999.Being located on the site of an old brickyard, the architecture took advantage of the hillside and dug the venue deep into the hill.This also resulted in the venue having a highly asymmetric shape, with tall spectator stands on the one side and nearly none on the other.