Bombshell Olympics review: Gabba scrapped for $3.4bn ‘world class’ stadium

The man responsible for a review of 2032 Olympics and Paralympic Games venues says it’s time to start building, with a Victoria Park stadium at the centre of plans and possible green space where the Gabba now stands.

A “world-class” $3.4bn stadium should be built in inner-Brisbane’s Victoria Park as the centrepiece of the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics in place of the controversial proposed Gabba rebuild, the government has been told.

Former Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk’s bombshell Games venues review also recommends a new $2.5bn 15,000-plus seat indoor arena be constructed at Roma Street Parkland, adjacent to the Normanby fiveways.

A 2032 Olympics and Paralympics Games venues review says Brisbane’s Victoria Park should become the centrepiece of the event. Picture: ARCHIPELAGO

It rejects the proposal from International Olympics Committee vice-president John Coates for the athletics to be run at Nathan, the site of the 1982 Commonwealth Games as not representing value for money or legacy.

And it reveals the real cost of the Gabba redevelopment – with the displacement costs for AFL and cricket – would have been up to $3.4bn, $700m more than had been claimed by the State Government.

In a media conference on Monday morning, Mr Quirk highlighted the opportunity for Brisbane to develop a world-class stadium at Victoria Park, and said QSAC would be a waste of money.

“As far as the QSAC site is concerned, again, we just don’t see, after spending around $1.5bn, any significant legacy benefit to the people of Queensland,” he said.

“There is great opportunity for additional events with a higher level of stadium which has got great facilities, top level facilities for people that would go there and enjoy it.”

Mr Quirk said the green space lost at Victoria Park could easily be replaced on the site of a demolished Gabba when it reaches end-of-life near 2030.

He said money would need to be spent on the Gabba anyway to bring it up to modern standards.

“Even if you keep it going beyond that date with some upgrades, at some stage, the Gabba was going to need to be replaced and it is never going to be a tier one stadium because of the limitations of space,” he said.

“There is no recommendation in this report that is about an Olympic or Paralympic Games, they are about what we need as a community.”

Victoria Park was also lucrative, he said, due to the public transport connections through Brisbane Metro stations and Cross River Rail.

Mr Quirk said people should not believe Olympic infrastructure was being built for a two-week Games.

“People have got to stop talking about this being a $7bn Olympics. It is not,” he said.

“It is a $7bn spend on facilities that are needed by the Queensland community.”

Mr Quirk first lobbied for the Games in 2015 and has been left frustrated with the lack of progress in the two years since it was awarded to Queensland.

“Time is ticking and time is of the essence,” he said.

“Every day that goes by the construction industry is getting hotter so we need to start building. We’re going to be ready for the Games – we need to start.”

The 60-day review was ordered by Premier Steven Miles over Christmas as a result of community unrest over the proposal for the Gabba championed by his predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk.

It was finalised on Friday and handed to State Development Minister Grace Grace. It will be considered by State Cabinet on Monday.

The review – that considered more than 900 public submissions, inspected 28 proposed venue sites, and met with 130 stakeholders – concluded a new 55,000-seat oval stadium at Victoria Park would deliver the “best outcome” for the Games and the city.

It would tick all the boxes of an international-standard stadium to replace the end-of-life Gabba, the review team found – and it would be deliverable within the $7bn cost envelope already committed to by the state and federal governments.

“The cost of a stadium in Victoria Park is likely to be marginally more expensive than the full Gabba rebuild, with better operational efficiencies and outcomes that would deliver a true international standard venue enabling Brisbane to compete with other top stadiums in Australia,” the review says.

Former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk during a press conference in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Tertius Pickard

It also backs in the development of an entertainment arena in the inner-city to replace the “ageing Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall”.

The review said the “superior site” for the Brisbane Arena would be over the new Cross River Rail station at Roma Street, but that option was both cost-prohibitive – at $4bn – and would mean 40 per cent of all train services would have to be replaced by buses for more than two years during construction.

Instead, the review recommends Brisbane Arena be built 500m north to the corner of the Roma Street Parkland bounded by College Road and Countess Street that is currently a carpark and council maintenance depot.

Mr Quirk, who in 2015 led the charge in bidding for a 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games in Brisbane, reveals that even keeping the ageing Gabba stadium operational until 2032 will cost government $500m.

Mr Quirk today told the ABC the review panel had looked closely at a rebuild of the Gabba, but thought the space could be better used.

“It could become green space, it could become a mix of green space and housing, it could become a repurpose site in some form,” he said.

“Even for a full rebuild it still does not become a tier one stadium because of the limitation of space and that’s where the Victoria Park option is very attractive, we’re talking about 12 per cent of the Victoria Park site in terms of a stadium facility.”

Beyond that, just upgrading the venue to meet modern building codes would cost $1bn and not increase capacity or improve functionality, but simply be “maintenance”.

The review considered upgrading the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan to create a 40,000-seat stadium for the Olympics and 14,000 seats in legacy mode – an idea first flagged by Mr Coates.

But Mr Quirk said that plan would cost about $1.6bn and would “not represent value for money” – with the combined cost of upgrading QSAC and keeping the Gabba compliant beyond 2032 “comparable to building a new stadium … however, it delivers significantly less legacy and commercial benefit”.

The review was handed to the state government on Friday.

Transport, topographic and disruption challenges would also make upgrading QSAC to host Olympic and Paralympic athletics events difficult.

High-performance athletes preparing for world championships, Olympic, Paralympic or Winter Olympic Games would be displaced from training facilities at QSAC “and alternative facilities of the same level would need to be made available”, he noted.

The review also endorses the plan and build five indoor sport centres to address “chronic facility shortages” in community sport, but calls for the proposed Albion centre to be relocated to another site in the northern suburbs of Brisbane “due to the site constraints at Albion”.

Mr Quirk said the proposal to build a whitewater centre in the Redlands, rowing facility at Wyaralong Flatwater Centre and upgraded regional stadiums were “supported”, with the exception of the Toowoomba Sports Ground upgrade, which would offer limited legacy benefits.

The venue infrastructure review – finalised one year and eight months after Brisbane won the 2032 Olympic Games – is unlikely to end community debate.

“It is expected that not everyone will agree with the findings of this review,” Mr Quirk said. “However, it is imperative that projects that have been recommended by the review panel can go ahead with confidence and that all focus is on delivering much-needed legacy sporting venues for the Queensland community.”

Mr Quirk said the Queensland Government should, “as a matter of urgency”, clarify and confirm funding arrangements with the Australian Government to ensure cash was available to build the revised portfolio of Olympic venue works.

He has praised Mr Miles’s plan to establish a dedicated and independent Olympic delivery authority – a departure from his predecessor Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Projects already planned with a business case finalised should be pushed immediately to procurement, Mr Quirk said.

A review into the 2032 Games has recommended a “world class” stadium at Victoria Park. Supplied by ARCHIPELAGO

With cost blowouts threatening to plague the $7bn Games Venue Infrastructure Program, the former Brisbane Lord Mayor called for projects to be built quickly.

“At this time of high-cost escalation, quicker delivery means much lower cost,” Mr Quirk said.

“The Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games are set to draw international attention to the Brisbane region, Queensland and Australia and the hundreds of submissions received during the review demonstrate the intense interest that exists across the community,” Mr Quirk said.

“This diligent assessment of the proposed venue infrastructure demonstrates a strong commitment to the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games being a model for a sustainable and resilient Games and recognises the Olympic and Paralympic Games as a powerful catalyst for social and economic growth.”

The review did not consider the athlete villages and other infrastructure projects outside of the sports venues program.

Speaking on ABC radio on Monday morning, Mr Quirk would not speculate on whether all 30 recommendations would be accepted, but said they were presented with the games’s legacy in mind.

“We’ve looked at the value for money proposition, we’ve looked at making sure that there is a legacy for the facilities after the games,” he said.

“Everything that we are recommending has been built with a view for the needs of the city, the state and something that will have a long lasting legacy for our city.”

He urged organisers to depoliticise the games and move forward in the best interest of the community, but acknowledged one could not meet everyone’s needs.

“That’s been the purpose of the panel, what we’ve done is we’ve looked at what are the needs, we’ve talked to a lot of people,” he said.

“There are a lot of needs out there, we haven’t been able to fill them ... for example, with indoor sports centres there is an enormous legacy for junior sport that will come from the recommendations.

“We are genuinely in good faith putting forward recommendations that we believe are in the community’s best interest going forward.”

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has remained tight-lipped on the bombshell findings of the Quirk review into Games’ infrastructure.

The freshly re-elected Lord Mayor released a brief statement Monday morning saying he was considering the findings but said Brisbane council was committed to preserving parklands.

But he said the council wants “no net loss of parkland”, which leaves the door slightly ajar to replacing lost green space at Victoria Park with other locations across the city.

“I’ll be briefed later today on Graham Quirk’s Sport Venue Review so do not have any comment on the report’s findings,” Mr Schrinner said.

“However, our team remains fully committed to our long-term position of no net loss of parkland in Brisbane.”

The Lord Mayor sensationally withdrew his support for the Gabba rebuild in December, which ultimately sparked a wider review into Games infrastructure.

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate hit out at the review, saying regions had been “ignored” and urged the State Government to “bin” it.

Cr Tate said his council had put forward a review submission offering up existing Coast venues to save about $5b on new infrastructure but it had fallen on deaf ears.

He slammed the “Brisbane-centric” plan as “short-sighted and selfish” and said he would be seeking an urgent meeting with Mr Miles.

Ct Tate said he feared the biggest legacy of the Games could be a “debt burden” for Queenslanders.

“To grab all the money in the cupboard and don’t give to other brothers and sisters in the state is short-sighted and selfish and I don’t want the regions to miss out,” he said.

Logan’s mayor-elect Jon Raven. Picture: AAP/Steve Pohlner

Logan’s mayor-elect Jon Raven will lobby the state government to locate the proposed Olympic stadium in one of two southside suburbs and make Logan an international food hub.

Speaking to local media on Monday after unofficial outcomes in 10 of the city’s 12 divisions, Mr Raven stepped up his push to have another multimillion-dollar stadium built in Logan, which he said had the “youngest population in southeast Queensland”.

“If the people of Brisbane don’t want it (a stadium) in Victoria Park, we will have it at Meadowbrook or at Beenleigh,” he told ABC Radio Brisbane.

“Meadowbrook has heaps of space with a green bridge to connect (the campus) to Loganholme which is also getting the busway connected to it and there’s the Loganlea train station just down the road.

“The rail is also getting an upgrade with the Beenleigh to Kuraby fast rail.

“But I suspect Graham Quirk, a former Brisbane Lord mayor, was probably only thinking about Brisbane and probably needs to widen his view.”

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said his council had unanimously supported the Games bid on the promise it would be a regional Olympics to “spread the love”.

“Now all the money is going to be sunk into Brisbane for the new infrastructure,” he said following the release of the review.

“From Cairns to Coolangatta to Mt Isa to Mitchell, it appears regional Queensland has been ignored.

“My advice to the Premier: thank Graham (Quirk) and his committee with this report and put it straight in the bin. Let the discussions happen at the Olympic board level (because) there’s a lot of flaws in it.”

Cr Tate said the review was sparked by concerns about huge Games infrastructure costs but Mr Quirk had recommended “let’s spend even more”.

“We don’t want the number one legacy from this Olympic Games (to be) a debt burden for Queenslanders,” he said.

“The money could be spent on more police, roads, public hospitals all over Queensland.”

He said the review had rejected the Coast’s pitch to upgrade Carrara Stadium for athletics events because it was not a legacy project.

“There’s no legacy benefit if you live in Brisbane – if you live on the Gold Coast, there’s a huge benefit,” he said, arguing an upgraded Carrara Stadium could be used for events such as more major concerts, Big Bash and even Indian Premier League cricket matches.

He said the Coast had 60,000 hotel rooms which could be used to accommodate athletes without having to build a large athletes village.

The Coast mayor said Brisbane would lose precious green space if the Victoria Park stadium proposal went ahead while the multi-billion dollar Cross River Rail project would not be fully utilised if the Gabba missed out on an upgrade.

The coast mayor said Olympics organisers, Mr Miles and Opposition leader David Crisafulli had “a lot of work to do”.

“Sure, Brisbane will have the major component (of Games venues) … that’s why it’s called Brisbane 2032,” he said.

“But to grab all the money in the cupboard and don’t give to your other brothers and sisters in the state, it’s shortsighted and selfish – and I don’t want the regions to miss out on the once-in-a-lifetime infrastructure expenditure.”

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS

VICTORIA PARK

A new $3bn-$3.4bn 50,000-seat stadium be built here, on a site to be determined, to host Olympics and Paralympics track and field events – and AFL, cricket and concerts into the future.

ROMA STREET PARKLAND

A new $2.5bn 15,000-plus seat indoor arena be built on an existing carpark and maintenance depot at the northwestern corner of the parklands.

ROMA STREET STATION

That the arena not be built here, due to cost constraints, but a new pathway be constructed to link the station to the new arena site, 500m away to the north.

SUNCORP STADIUM

No upgrade is recommended, but a new bridge from Roma Street Parklands over Countess St to the top of Caxton St would better connect it to the city.

THE GABBA

The stadium be maintained to a minimum standard until the new Victoria Park stadium is constructed, after which the Gabba would be demolished and the site “repurposed”.

QUEENSLAND SPORTS AND ATHLETICS CENTRE, NATHAN

Not to be used as an Olympic and Paralympic Games venue to host the track and field events.

ALBION PARK RACEWAY

The government does not proceed with building an indoor sports centre at this site.

BOONDALL/ZILLMERE

A new indoor sports centre to be built here to service Brisbane’s northern suburbs.

SLEEMAN SPORTS CENTRE, CHANDLER

Proceed with building a new indoor sports centre here, as well as expand the site and upgrade existing facilities.

REDLAND WHITEWATER CENTRE, BIRKDALE

Proceed with the project as scoped, and scrap the consideration of Penrith in NSW as alternative option.

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

# Proceed with the Moreton Bay Indoor Sports Centre project, but increase its size.

# Continue with planning and delivery of the Logan Indoor Sports Centre.

# Progress the investment decision for the Sunshine Coast Indoor Sports Centre.

# Proceed with the Wyaralong Flatwater Centre near Boonah as a competition venue.

# Progress the investment decision for the Sunshine Coast Stadium upgrade.

# Continue with the Barlow Park project in Cairns as scoped.

# Do not proceed with the Toowoomba Sports Ground project.

# Continue with the Sunshine Coast Mountain Bike Centre upgrade as scoped.

# Consider what works are needed to ensure the Queensland Tennis Centre is fit for purpose.