Brisbane Olympic prep hits crucial Sydney 2000 milestone
With 2548 days until the Olympic flame arrives, Brisbane faces a race against time to match Sydney's golden Games preparations.
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Brisbane’s Olympic and Paralympic Games advantage is over – with the state now having the same number of days Sydney had to prepare for the world stage.
Four years after winning the right to host the 2032 Games, Brisbane now has 2548 days until the Olympic cauldron is lit.
It marks the same time Sydney had between winning the bid in 1993 and the stockman riding into the stadium for its opening ceremony in 2000.
The milestone could raise questions about Brisbane’s use of the unprecedented four-year advantage, with a precise location for the Olympic stadium at Victoria Park yet to be identified and ongoing uncertainty over minor venues.
Olympic and Paralympic Games Minister Tim Mander on Thursday revealed the International Olympic Committee had been concerned about Brisbane’s progress in building the Games.
“The IOC are over the moon about what we are doing to make sure we get things done,” he said.
“They have been worried from afar that we had loss of momentum with regards to the Games and when they came recently, the co-ordination commission … they just couldn’t stop talking about how excited they were that decisions were being made and that we’d taken measures to make sure it gets delivered on time.”
Rod McGeoch, who led the 2000 bid before becoming a director of its organising committee, said Sydney formed the foundations of its Games masterplan in the late 1970s during its failed bids for the 1992 and 1996 Games.
It meant that when then IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch announced “Sydney” in 1993, the city’s stadiums plan was locked away.
“We’d already got the stadium and the aquatic centre, we knew where they were going to be,” Mr McGeoch said.
He said Brisbane residents shouldn’t fear the scale of the infrastructure program ahead.
“Brisbane did a wonderful job on Expo,” he said.
“We know from Sydney there is still time.
“As long as we get on with it now everything will be all right.”
Brisbane has switched the location of its main stadium and indoor arena three times and overhauled its minor venues program to spread the Games across the state.
Then premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s 2023 decision to make Brisbane Lions, Queensland Cricket and Brisbane City Council pay for upgrades to the RNA’s Main Arena is thought to have contributed to her exit from the top job.
While the Olympic infrastructure program has faced significant change, the Brisbane Organising Committee for the Olympic Games has been quietly progressing its planning.
The committee, led by president Andrew Liveris, will announce Brisbane’s Olympic and Paralympic logos next year – two years ahead of Sydney.
The Games Independent Infrastructure and Co-ordination Authority has launched an expression-of-interest program for a delivery partner to provide a range of management services to deliver infrastructure.
It is considered a major step in delivering venues and getting shovels in the ground to build them on time and on budget.
Separately, a registration of interest program for 17 new and upgraded venues outlined in the state government’s 2032 Delivery Plan is under way.
It is seeking responses from organisations in the design and construction sector interested in working with the authority to deliver its projects and will gauge industry capacity and interest across the market.
Authority chairman Stephen Conry said the latest milestone marked a significant step forward on venue delivery.
“No matter how you cut the numbers, the economic and social benefits of building for the Games and then hosting the event are outstanding,” he said.
Last month’s call for interest to help design new indoor sports centres at Logan and City of Moreton Bay and upgrades at Sunshine Coast Stadium and Barlow Park Stadium in Cairns resulted in 48 applications across the four venues.
Award-winning architectural practice bureau^proberts managing and creative director Liam Proberts said 2000 Games organisers achieved a lot during its 2548 days with the focus on urban renewal around Homebush.
Mr Proberts said for Brisbane, the same opportunity for mass renewal - but this time in the inner city - was achievable in the same amount of time and could continue after the Games.
“What the opportunity for us is to use this as a catalyst to connect our city and to use the Olympic venues to ... re-energise our city and use the CBD as the prime driver of connecting to those venues,” he said.
“I don’t think we can sit on our haunches for too long now, now’s the time to get on with capitalising on those opportunities
“We don’t have to have everything that happened (in Sydney) happening before 2032.
“But we have to have all of the infrastructure, all the pieces that come together, so that the legacy could be a very strong one.”
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