’We need to get our sh*t together’: Still time to fix Games debacle

Whether it’s Steven Miles or David Crisafulli, whoever wins in October, we need a big-picture thinking premier with a working calculator, writes Kylie Lang.

Remember when Queen Anna said the Olympics would be cost-neutral?

Actually, John Coates said it first, back in 2019 when he was president of the Australian Olympic Committee and the Games idea was being floated, but the former Premier enjoyed repeating it. One time, in December 2021 – after anointing herself Minister for the Olympics (the addition of Paralympics to her title was still 10 months away) – Annastacia Palaszczuk said the 2032 Brisbane Games would come at “no cost to the taxpayer”.

“The International Olympic Committee and private commercial revenue, including domestic sponsorship, ticket sales and merchandise will ensure all activities associated with the organising committee are delivered on a cost-neutral basis,” she said.

How are those ticket sales looking now? Pitiful. We’ve gone from cost neutral under one premier to cut price under the next.

This week Brisbane 2032 chief Andrew Liveris revealed Steven Miles’ proposed 40,000-seat no-frills Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre stadium would leave a hole in the $1.29bn ticket revenue target.

Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre.

Mr Miles’s genius decision to deliver the smallest main stadium since Amsterdam in 1928 would force organisers to introduce other “sports” to try to recoup the loss.

Mr Liveris said Los Angeles, host of the 2028 Games, would be throwing T20 cricket into the mix, and we know Paris now has skateboarding and break dancing. What might Brisbane add – e-scooter riding and XXXX beer pong?

I cringe every time there is another inference that Brisbane isn’t going to cut it. Like when Mr Liveris also told journalists in Paris that our city was “not a hillbilly town”.

Perhaps the Sydneysider was trying to boost confidence in lil’ ol’ Brisvegas being the host city but we shook off the “backwater” tag years ago.

Today, our restaurants and tourism offerings – to name but a few drawcards – equal or better anything else in the country.

Today, we stand proud but we need our politicians to get with the program and stop selling these Games – and our amazing city – short.

No matter who wins the October election, we need a Premier who is big-picture thinking.

Imagine how good it would be for Queensland to have a capital city that is not lagging behind Sydney and Melbourne when it comes to sporting and event facilities, to be able to offer more than a tarted-up mini-stadium whose 1982 Commonwealth Games heyday is long gone. When we talk about Olympic legacy, first-rate facilities and infrastructure are key.

But hey, there’s a cost-of-living crisis and a looming election, so let’s settle for second rate. Could it be any more embarrassing?

Yes, actually.

This week we also learned the state government has no clue how much the QSAC plan will cost outside the early estimate of $1.6bn.

Oh, and the original $1bn price tag to demolish and rebuild the Gabba? That might as well have been written on a beer coaster when people were drunk because that’s way off the mark. There was a time when Mr Miles appeared to be taking the Games seriously, appointing an independent review panel to look at venue possibilities, but that $425,000 spend of taxpayer dollars was wasted because he spectacularly ignored its findings.

The review, led by former lord mayor Graham Quirk, recommended a new $3bn stadium at Victoria Park.

Brisbane needs such a place – independent of the Games.

Easy to get to and not located in a cultural wasteland, it would be a centrepiece of the city, a drawcard for local, national and international visitors for years to come.

Yet now, the Miles government’s piecemeal package of renovated venues will actually end up costing more than the Victoria Park option widely endorsed by industry leaders who’ve made their money in the real world.

Whether it is Mr Miles or David Crisafulli who wins in October, we need a premier with big-picture thinking and a working calculator.

On Thursday, fellow Queenslander Karl Stefanovic put it this way: “This is our time to show the world we’ve come of age; if you’re going to do some s– t stadium then you may as well just give it up; it makes me so angry when you look at the opportunity.”

The Today Show host, currently in Paris, told Brisbane’s B105’s Stav, Abby & Matt show: “You do not want to mess this up … we need to get our s– t together and absolutely do it right.”

Kylie Lang is associate editor of The Courier-Mail.

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