If you don’t back our Olympic dream, get out

To those doomsayers who don't support Queensland’s Olympic Games bid it’s time you either moved interstate or, better still, to New Zealand, says Peter Gleeson.

THE numbers are in and it’s time for Queensland to get fair dinkum. Are we serious about hosting an Olympic Games or not?

If the answer is yes, those cynics, those doomsayers, who don’t support a Games, need to show their hand and frankly, either move interstate or, better still, to New Zealand.

We don’t need you. We don’t want you. If your attitude prevailed in Queensland’s early history, we’d never have built the Story Bridge, the M1 or the rail line between Brisbane and Cairns.

Queensland is a pioneering state, built off the back of enterprise and a “can do’’ attitude. That entrepreneurial spirit is reflected in the way we hosted the 1982 and 2018 Commonwealth Games and World Expo in 1988.

It’s our time for an Olympics in 2032 and the stars have aligned to present Queensland with a golden opportunity to secure the Greatest Show on Earth.

We want to create more scenes like this in Brisbane 2032. Here Aussie swimmer Kyle Chalmers shows off his gold medal after winning the Men’s 100m Freestyle final at the Rio Olympics in 2016. Picture: Alex Coppel.

Other countries, with nowhere near the economic firepower or political stability of Australia, are desperate to knock Queensland off as the number one contender.

Places like Indonesia, South Africa, Russia, India, North and South Korea and possibly China are desperately scrambling to win the 2032 bid.

Are they worried about the cost? Of course not. They realise that the cost of hosting such an event dwarfs the economic stimulus it would create.

They are acutely aware that, under the International Olympic Committee’s new funding model, the cost will be minuscule compared to previous Games bids.

In Queensland, for example, 85 per cent of the Games venues are already established. A 65,000-seat main stadium would have to be built, as well as a Games Village. The IOC’s upfront contribution of $2.5 billion would help ameliorate the cost of the two major projects – and the benefits are untold.

The figures released today in the value proposition are confirmation that this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that Queensland must not squander.