This story about InstantStadia is really cool:

HAMPDEN Park’s transformation into an ‘instant’ athletics stadium is the key element of the audacious and innovative bid being mounted by Glasgow to win the right to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014. Scotland on Sunday has learned that Hampden will host the main athletics events, but the hallowed turf of one of the most famous football stadia in the world will not be used.

Instead a ‘platform’ will be built several feet above the existing pitch and its surrounds, on top of which will be created a full Olympic-size athletics arena with an eight-lane state-of-the-art running track, long-jump pit, high-jump and pole-vault zones plus a full throwing area for shot put, javelin, discus and hammer.

At a stroke, the instant-stadium plan with a wind and water-tight platform supporting the arena will overcome Glasgow’s biggest drawback as it prepares its bid - the lack of a purpose-built athletics stadium of sufficient size to host the Games.

Since its controversial £65m redevelopment, Hampden Park’s playing area has not been of sufficient size to host a full athletics programme as demanded by the Commonwealth Games. By extending the platform over several rows of seats at the front of each stand, the instant arena will meet all the requirements for Olympic-standard international track and field events.

The technology exists to create such ‘floating’ arenas - Sapporo Dome in Japan was a World Cup venue in 2002 despite the entire pitch being kept outside the stadium and rolled into the venue on a cushion of air only a short while before the matches.

Technology levels the playing field -- literally. As cities and countries jockey for major sporting events, this will help smaller nations and localities step to compete with larger competitors.