Sunshine Coast Olympics 2032: Stoush erupts over CBD venue plans for Olympic, Paralympic Games legacy
A stoush has flared up between two political leaders of the Sunshine Coast over plans for an Olympic legacy venue with a battle over its location unfolding.
Sunshine Coast
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A 6000-seat auditorium capable of hosting opera, ballet basketball and more has emerged as the centrepiece of an Olympic legacy push for the Sunshine Coast.
Fairfax MP Ted O’Brien has launched a community campaign to get a new entertainment centre built in the Maroochydore CBD for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games with $10m worth of philanthropic pledges secured to-date.
But the announcement sparked another flare-up between Mr O’Brien and Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson, who said the federal MP had “regrettably” not engaged with the Sunshine Coast Council about the details of such a facility.
Mr O’Brien had launched a campaign to build a multipurpose entertainment centre venue in the new city centre late last year, as part of his push to secure legacy infrastructure from the 2032 Brisbane Olympics and Paralympics.
Since securing the $10m worth of public backing Mr O’Brien said he would take his campaign to the grassroots.
Pledges to-date had been contingent on several demands, including basketball preliminaries to be played at the new entertainment centre, and the facility be retained as an entertainment centre.
“It would bring the ‘new norms’ of the Olympic movement to life by empowering the local community to define its future and leverage the Games to accelerate its delivery,” Mr O’Brien said.
“It also paves the way for a three-way deal between government, community and the private sector.”
Mr O’Brien said at least $85m was expected to flow from state and federal governments for a new venue to host basketball prelims in the region, which he said would act as a “down payment” to secure a larger deal for the future entertainment centre and strengthen the case for passenger rail being brought in direct to Maroochydore.
Mr Jamieson said the Kawana Sports Precinct had been identified as the preferred site for an indoor sports stadium and an exhibition and convention centre in the CBD was the council’s preference rather than an entertainment centre.
The mayor thanked those who had pledged the $10m but said it was not up to private sector to fund the facility as he called on the state and federal governments to give the region a “fair go” and fund the venue.
Mr Jamieson raised concerns about the challenges that would arise in refurbishing a venue in the new city centre and said the International Basketball Federation had expressed its support for a legacy indoor basketball/sports facility at Kawana.
Mr O’Brien said he first raised the possibility of basketball preliminaries being held in the CBD in a separate venue in a meeting with councillors in April, 2021 and said there had been correspondence between he and the mayor.
“This has been a very high profile, publicly-run campaign that the community has swung in behind,” Mr O’Brien said.
Mr O’Brien said he’d also presented to the International Olympic Committee on the possibility of basketball preliminaries in Maroochydore and the chance to connect the CBD with passenger rail.
He added it was the first he’d heard that the council had made a decision on the preferred site and said the Committee material he’d seen had “made clear there were two options on the table (Maroochydore and Kawana)”.
Early-stage designs for the proposed Maroochydore CBD venue showed a 6000-seat auditorium which could host international-standard performing arts like opera, ballet, musicals and theatre as well as major sporting events.
Several high-profile philanthropists and developers in the region had thrown their weight behind the proposal.
Mr O’Brien said his door remained open to the mayor and he felt it was “too big an opportunity” for the region to miss out on.
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