Olympics supremo Andrew Liveris makes stunning call for new Victoria Park stadium

The powerful Brisbane 2032 boss has sensationally thrown his weight behind the proposed Victoria Park precinct, just days into a 100-day review into the best option for the main stadium. LISTEN NOW

• Editor’s view: What clinched it

Brisbane’s powerful 2032 Olympic Games boss Andrew Liveris says a new stadium should be built at Victoria Park.

The stunning revelation adds significant firepower to the growing campaign for Brisbane to create a world-leading sport and entertainment park that can be used for AFL and cricket after 2032.

It comes a day after global consultancy group Arcadis – which has developed business cases for other Brisbane Games venues – released a 22-page report on the “hard to beat” benefits of Victoria Park.

In his most candid interview, the president of the Brisbane Organising Committee for the Olympic Games revealed personal anxieties about the city’s “chopping and changing” venue plans, but remains optimistic the government’s 100-day review will finally deliver a positive outcome.

Mr Liveris, speaking on The Courier-Mail and Nova 106.9’s Toward the Games podcast, declared a new stadium at Victoria Park “seems to make the most sense” due to its public transport connections and open space.

“I would love it, to be perfectly frank,” he said.

“If a stadium like that appears at Victoria Park that fits the future of cricket and football perfectly and has private sector funding that gives it a return like Optus Stadium out in Perth of course Andrew Liveris would say wow, what a great answer for the Olympics.

“There’s been other sites proposed but Victoria Park seems to make the most sense.”

Smaller stadiums would deliver a major problem, Mr Liveris said, in raising enough ticket revenue to cover the cost of the Games.

He said being among 80,000 patriotic fans at Paris’ Stade de France reinforced the opportunity Brisbane had to use the Games to transform the city.

“To have something like that to put us the world scene, what a great gift that would be,” he said.

Mr Liveris labelled the seven experts tasked by the state government of recommending the best venue plan for the 2032 Games as very impressive.

With about seven-and-a-half-years to go before Brisbane’s opening ceremony, Mr Liveris insisted this review should be the last.

“I’m losing any ability to relax about it … I have some of my own anxieties,” he said.

“IOC has been visionary in giving us all 10 years because we are new norms and fundamentally what they have allowed us to do is the chopping and changing that has come with these reviews.

Artist impressions of the Victoria Park proposal. Pictured Supplied by Archpelago

“I won’t call it the kiss of death, but I’d like to use the word last for a reason.

“Seven years to go, any pad or room we had to move around on venues and infrastructure … that wiggle room starts to go away.”

“Maybe the chopping and changing will lead to the outcome now we think that is the best outcome.

“Is it noisy and messy? Yeah, but if we land on the right spot … the legacy aspect of this is for Queensland.”

Sport Minister Tim Mander declined to comment on the mounting support for Victoria Park, but hinted the government could accept the outcome of the 100-day review.

“Let’s let the experts make the decisions and make the recommendations, that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

“You don’t appoint experts in an area if you’re not going to listen to them.”

Mr Liveris, an adviser to three US presidents and former chairman of Dow Chemical Company, hoped reviewers would investigate using the private sector to help build two major Games venues – a new stadium and Brisbane Arena – to keep costs down.

“There are people interested in doing it,” he said.

“If that gets into the review which I believe it will, I hope it does … you may end up then with an affordable, very taxpayer-friendly answer on both the arena and the stadium.”

Brisbane 2032 president Andrew Liveris. Picture: Richard Walker

Mr Liveris refused to attribute blame for Brisbane’s shambolic Games planning to any single person, but noted there were “a lot of politicians involved”.

“Do I like having a 24 person board, of which 14 are political appointments? That’s pretty tough,” he said.

“I’ve got a lot of skills. I’m definitely trying to use them all to make sure it’s inclusive and multi stakeholder.”

He insisted the International Olympic Committee were satisfied with Brisbane’s progress and said the city was “setting the benchmark” for its new norms process.

Next year and 2026 have been labelled “pivotal years” for organisers as Brisbane 2032 finalises the sports included in the Games and a venue plan before ramping-up sponsorship advocacy.

Then, Mr Liveris will lead a force of Queensland political and business leaders into the offices of Fortune 200 company CEOs to sell Brisbane’s story.

“I will take the Queensland Tourist Bureau with me, the premier with me, if he wants to come … and say come to Queensland, come here to visit, come here to live, come here to invest and make it part of the economic legacy of having these Games,” he said.

Swimming Australia is in favour of creating a 17,000-seat aquatics centre at Victoria Park that would be downsized to 8000 seats after the Games.

Its preferred option is to host Olympic swimming, diving, water polo and artistic swimming at the centre.

The Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan