Brisbane 2032: QSAC stadium to be to smallest Games athletics venue since 1928
Brisbane residents hoping to catch the Olympics action in the city’s $1.6bn athletics stadium are in for a fight for tickets, with the venue set to be the smallest since the Amsterdam Games held 104 years earlier.
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Brisbane’s Olympic athletics stadium at Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre would be the smallest since the Amsterdam Games held 104 years earlier and give residents “little opportunity” to see finals events in 2032.
Analysis of Olympic Games reveals the government’s proposal to build a $1.6bn, 40,000-seat stadium at the Nathan QSAC site will make it the smallest athletics venue since 1928 – when women debuted in athletics and art competitions were still part of the medal program.
Paris’s Stade de France will seat some 80,000 people at this year’s Games while the century-old Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will host 77,500 people during the 2028 Olympics athletics events.
An independent infrastructure review authored by former Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, warned of topography constraints at the QSAC site.
Mr Quirk’s review found the lack of established public transport infrastructure meant moving people in and out could be difficult.
Queenslanders would also have fewer opportunities to attend a scaled-down stadium
“Delivering the track and field events with a capacity of 40,000 spectators would be by far the lowest capacity for any Games held in recent history and would potentially leave little opportunity for the general public to attend major finals,” the review found.
“A lower capacity stadium (30,000 seats) would alleviate the need for some – but by no means all – of the infrastructure elements required to safely support a crowd of more than 15,000.
“This reduced capacity lowers the ambition for the Games even further and would severely limit admission for the general public to the events being hosted there.”
Under the government’s plan, the $1.6bn spend would eventually result in it being transformed to a 14,000-seat stadium after the Games in legacy mode.
Mr Quirk’s review found “limited legacy opportunities” for the region in developing the site.
QSAC also pales in comparison to the most recent venue – Tokyo’s 68,000-seat Japan National Stadium – which was rebuilt for the 2021 Games’ ceremonies and athletics but sat largely empty due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sydney’s Olympic Stadium held 110,000 people when the Olympic flame was lit in 2000, but was redesigned to a capacity of 82,500 people.
International Olympic Committee Vice President John Coates said there would be no problem with the Brisbane stadium’s capacity.
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