Toowoomba council to vote on support for positive submission for stadium upgrade to Graham Quirk-led Olympics review
A planned $80m upgrade of Toowoomba’s stadium ahead of the 2032 Olympics could be on the chopping block if councillors do not support its own officers’ submissions to a snap venue review led by former Brisbane mayor Graham Quirk.
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A mooted upgrade of the Toowoomba Sports Ground to 15,000 seats could inject more than $28m into the local economy annually both during and after the 2032 Olympic Games and unlock commercial, tourism and public transport opportunities.
That’s according to a proposed submission by Toowoomba Regional Council officers to former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk’s snap 60-day review of Olympic venues, which will potentially decide if the Garden City hosts events in eight years.
It comes as opponents to the upgrade have stepped up their pressure on authorities, with two sporting clubs that lease land next to the stadium penning their own submissions to the 60-day review (see below).
The independent review panel, chaired by Mr Quirk and featuring high-level Australian figures in events and infrastructure delivery Ken Kanofski and Michelle Morris, was ordered by Premier Steven Miles on January 18 to look at all 33 proposed Olympic venues and report their findings back to Infrastructure Minister Grace Grace by March 18.
It will assess the upgrade of venues for their value for money, fitness-for-purpose, deliverability and community legacy.
It is understood both the TSG and the Toowoomba Showgrounds would be featured in the review, with councillors having met with the panel as recently as last week.
The three-page submission by council’s parks and recreation manager Sally Egan will be voted on at Tuesday’s ordinary meeting, with councillors to be told a lack of support for it could jeopardise Toowoomba’s involvement in the Olympics.
Toowoomba’s lack of modern sporting facilities with appropriate lighting and broadcast capabilities were noticeable in 2021 when the city was trying to secure an NRL game, with any potential night fixtures unviable as a result.
In the submission, Ms Egan wrote an upgrade to the Queensland government-owned TSG (also known as Clive Berghofer Stadium), rumoured to cost up to $80m in state and federal money, would create a “premier sports and entertainment venue” for Toowoomba and southwest Queensland.
“The proposal to upgrade TSG represents a large investment into community infrastructure in the region and will be a major catalyst for further investment into regional Queensland across multiple sectors,” she wrote.
“Apart from ensuring that Toowoomba benefits from the economic surge created by The Games, the proposal will also provide a lasting impact by improving the TSG’s capacity to attract and hold other high value sporting and entertainment events.
“The redevelopment of TSG will provide significantly improved spectator services and experiences and ensure improved accessibility, both external to the venue and internally.
“It is also expected that improved lighting and production facilities will secure events with increased broadcast demands, significantly increasing opportunities for significant sporting and other entertainment events to be held at the venue.
“The redevelopment will result in a community sport and recreation hub where health and fitness programs, gymnasium, training, competition and recovery facilities are all co-located to attract a broad range of users from grassroots through to high performance programs.”
While TSG is currently slated for an upgrade to just 5000 permanent seats, the proposed submission will argue for this to be increased to 15,000 to maximise the economic returns to the community.
“The venue master plan states that Games time capacity will be 15,000 seats with 5000 permanent seats and a venue capacity of approximately 8000 spectators outside of The Games’ delivery time,” Ms Egan wrote.
“To achieve maximum legacy, the region would be best serviced by having a 15,000 seat stadium permanently, (which) would deliver approximately $28.26m to the regions’ economy per year.”
In her report to council, Ms Egan pointed out that while endorsing the proposed submission might indicate “tacit support” for the upgrade, failure to provide a submission could cause council to lose all funding towards games infrastructure.
“There will be an opportunity to address these concerns (of residents and sporting clubs) during the project validation process and during project management if the upgrades proceed — they are not matters within the scope of the 60 day review,” the report said.
“Council should be aware that not providing a positive submission could potentially be perceived as being unsupportive of the opportunity to be part of Brisbane Olympics 2032 which could result in the opportunity being lost altogether.”
‘The end of the club’: Sporting groups urge Quirk to reject stadium upgrade
Two longstanding city sports clubs have urged former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk to recommend rejecting the proposed upgrade of the Toowoomba Sports Ground in his snap 60-day review of planned 2032 Olympic Games venues.
The Range Tennis Club, the oldest club of its kind in Queensland, and the Toowoomba Bowls Club have both made submissions to Mr Quirk’s panel, which will deliver its findings to the state government on March 18 as to which upgrades should proceed.
It is understood the planned revamp of the stadium, believed to cost as much as $80m, will envelope the land currently leased by the tennis, bowls and croquet clubs from the state government.
In his submission, tennis club secretary Tony Brown say its 500 members “vigorously oppose” the redevelopment as it would signal the end of the organisation.
“We feel that we are custodians of our club, and should its 131-year history end, this would be a devastating shame for generations past and those to come,” he wrote.
“This should also weigh heavily in your decision-making, as it should all political leaders if this proposed redevelopment is allowed to proceed.
“Our opposition to the destruction of our club is self-evident; destruction would be disastrous and demonstrate comprehensive contempt of our club’s legacy, our members, and our valuable contribution to the Toowoomba community.”
Mr Brown said the relocation would also mark the “death-knell” of the club in its current form.
“Members will not travel to the University of Southern Queensland or a (yet-to-be-built) Charlton Sports Ground, for instance – especially considering our feeder schools are Toowoomba East State School and Toowoomba State High School, Mt Lofty,” he said.
“Were our tennis courts to be removed, these children would not have access to the sporting facilities.
“The proposed redevelopment of the Toowoomba Sports Ground spectacularly fails criteria that it must demonstrate value for money; is fit-for-purpose and contributes to community legacy.”
For its part, the submission from the Toowoomba Bowls Club also opposed the redevelopment on the grounds it did not meet the criteria.
“Our membership is comprised of a number of groups including self-retirees, age pensioners, workers, local residents and the broader community,” the submission said.
“Our local community continue to express their dissatisfaction with the entire process around the proposed Stadium redevelopment with concerns raised about, the impact of the historic sporting clubs on the site, the noise, traffic, congestion, parking, lack of infrastructure and complete lack of consultation about the proposal.
“To be clear, any impact on the site of the Toowoomba Bowls Club would be a fatal blow, as greens would be destroyed, our green keeper would be unemployed, many of our members will be unable to pay the higher prices of other commercial bowls clubs, local school students would not be able to access our facilities for sport and community groups will lose an affordable and accessible venue.”
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