How hockey can help football share the Brisbane Olympic spoils

News that the Gabba would be completely transformed for the 2032 Olympics was great news for Brisbane sports fans, but for some, the announcement came with a significant feeling of deja vu.

Should Brisbane’s bid for the Games be successful — and there is every indication that it will be — the Gabba will feature as an Olympic venue for the second time. And it will be the second time AFL and cricket will be the long-term beneficiaries of new infrastructure ostensibly built for other sports.

Queensland’s home of football, Perry Park, has not had improvements to its spectator facilities in decades.Credit: Cameron Atfield

In the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Gabba was redeveloped largely for the purpose of hosting Olympic football (Cameroon’s extra-time quarter-final win over Brazil is still a thing of local legend).

Football (yes, football — no further correspondence will be entered into) was the catalyst for that redevelopment, yet there was no legacy for the game.

Meanwhile, Queensland’s spiritual home of football, Perry Park in Bowen Hills, has not had any consequential improvements to spectator amenities since the 1970s. And it shows.

Fast-forward to venue planning for the 2032 Brisbane Games and there was some hope in football circles that the need for a boutique rectangular stadium might finally be met.

The proposed new Olympic stadium at Albion, it was thought, could have been built to allow for a post-Games retrofit into a boutique stadium. That hope disappeared with this week’s Gabba announcement.

A redeveloped Gabba would be the main stadium at the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.Credit: Queensland Government

Still, there is an opportunity for legacy. And that opportunity comes armed with a hockey stick.

As the Games’ biggest-drawing event, Olympic football will be played at the 52,000-capacity Suncorp Stadium, a venue at which football has a long history of playing second-fiddle to the rugby codes.

But the need for an Olympic-sized hockey venue for 2032 presents the perfect opportunity for Perry Park to be redeveloped into a boutique stadium, with a capacity of between 15,000 and 20,000, just a short Cross River Rail ride from the Gabba.

With hockey’s field dimensions similar to football’s, a new stadium at Perry Park would be a perfect-sized venue for Olympic hockey, but otherwise far too large for the sport. The field would simply need to be returfed after the Games.

The Brisbane Strikers planned a 15,000-seat stadium at Perry Park when the club was preparing its failed A-League bid.

Unlike Ballymore, situated in the midst of residential suburbia, it has the transport links, with every CityTrain line stopping right across the road at Bowen Hills station.

Football Queensland is certainly pushing for a football-fit-to-purpose stadium at Perry Park as a means to unlock both the legacy of the Women’s World Cup, of which Brisbane is a host city, and to support the needs of a game that has suffered from decades of underfunded infrastructure.

Hockey should not be overlooked and must also benefit, so the existing State Hockey Centre at Colmslie can and should get a legacy upgrade. Football Queensland needs to work with Hockey Queensland to lobby for a mutually beneficial outcome.

The IOC demands legacy for Olympic sports. For Brisbane fans of the World Game, that legacy can not come soon enough.

Cameron Atfield is PM editor of the Brisbane Times and a football fanatic.