Brisbane Olympics 2032: Home Olympics gives our city a whole new identity

Do it right and your city will eternally sparkle like Sydney 2000.Get it wrong – as Atlanta did – and the stench will always be with you, writes Robert Craddock.

From now until eternity Brisbane has a second name … Olympics.

Think Munich, Montreal, Helsinki and Barcelona and what is the next word you think of?

Olympics.

When you are a mid-ranged-sized city and you host the Games, the Olympics brand stays with you for life. It becomes your historical signature.

That’s not quite true of mega-cities such as Paris or London that are famous for so many reasons.

But for Brisbane, this is the ­moment that will define the city.

Bring it on!

The pressure is immense.

Do it right and your city will eternally sparkle in a Sydney 2000 post-Games sort of way.

Get it wrong – as Atlanta did four years before Sydney – and the stench will always be with you.

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Everyone involved in the 2032 Olympic discussion – politicians, former Olympians, leading Brisbane business people and even a hard-marking public – can collectively puff out their chests today.

Brisbane’s bid was all the more robust and succinct for the fact that when the International Olympic Committee dangled a carrot in front of Brisbane as a potential candidate, the city didn’t instantly swallow it whole.

Queenslanders who expressed reservations over big spending at the Games played a crucial role in ensuring financial responsibility.

The numbers had to be right.

Getting the Games was all good and well, but Queensland already has a debt no Olympic pole vaulter could clear and it could not risk going broke in the process.

There has never been a better time to be a Games host because after decades of asking cities “what can you do for us?’’ IOC officials are asking “what can we do for you?’’

Cathy Freeman is one of the most memorable moments from the Games.

Olympic officials have been preaching for three years that they want host cities to break even at the Games. They are haunted by photos of famous Olympic venues being abandoned and over-run by weeds and want legacy projects, not white elephants.

Given the traditional state of bottom lines becoming redder than an overcooked lobster, the “you’ll break even’’ line took some selling.

If there was a seminal point when Brisbane officials knew the world had changed it was when one of them said to Games boss ­Thomas Bach “our problem is that we reckon we will lose $500m on the Olympics and $400m on the Paralympics’’ to which Bach said “no problems … we will underwrite that – anything else?’’

Suddenly Brisbane was not ­simply in the game, but quietly exhilarated at the prospect of renovating key parts of its sporting state on an Olympic budget.

The crowds pictured at South Bank for the announcement of the 2032 Olympic host nation and city, Brisbane 21st of July 2021. (Image/Josh Woning)

Everyone in Queensland had accepted the time-honoured though tired Gabba had been left behind in the renovation stakes by sparkling, spanking new cricket grounds in Adelaide and Perth.

The trouble was Queensland simply did not have the cash to keep pace … until the Games.

Now the Gabba, instead of trailing the field, will be a pacesetter in every way ... a grandiose Olympic stadium and esteemed host of the opening and closing ceremonies, rather than the ageing venue squeezed by a local state school on one side and a police station on the other.

The choice of venues has milked the most out of the state’s natural gifts while making the most of ­existing facilities.

The triathlon should come up a treat on the Gold Coast, while Ballymore is the right size and shape for the Olympic hockey tournament.

And equestrian at the Brisbane ­Exhibition Grounds is also the appropriate fit.

Normally bidding cities have seven years to prepare for the Games. Brisbane has 11.

We can be comforted by the knowledge that 85 per cent of ­venues are in place in some form.

This will be an epic countdown to an event which will redefine a city and a state in the eyes of the world. Well done Brisbane.

Enjoy the ride.