Gabba finds a backer as all eyes turn to Victoria Park option

Brisbane’s ageing Gabba should be rebuilt for the 2032 Games despite major challenges, an urban planner says.

A concept for a redevelopment of the Gabba

• Editor’s view: Bring sports to us

Brisbane’s ageing Gabba should be rebuilt for the Olympic and Paralympic Games despite major challenges with the site’s size and disruption to commuters and sporting codes, an urban planner says.

A panel leading the government’s 100-day review into 2032 Games infrastructure will consider the viability of a rebuilt Gabba, despite momentum building for a new stadium at Victoria Park.

Urban planner and Griffith lecturer Professor Tony Matthews argued the Gabba was the ideal stadium fit the needs of the Olympics.

“It’s close to other major parts of the city’s civic infrastructure like Southbank Parklands which is also close to hotels and restaurants,” he said.

“I think it would be unfortunate to bring in an awful lot of people from overseas for the Olympics and then have them travel out to some isolated location that takes them away from town.”

However, Prof Matthews acknowledged challenges in the displacement of sporting codes and constrained site.

“It is in the middle of a lot of action and that does bring difficulties but we’re building things in the middle of the city all the time,” he said.

A concept for a redevelopment of the Gabba

Prof Matthews said Brisbane was good at handling construction disruption and noted major projects have been completed without the “city grinding to a complete halt”.

“No matter where we put the stadium there’s going to be construction work and interruption, whether it is someplace else, that’s not going to change,” he said.

Prof Matthews said, in considering the location of a main stadium, must focus on legacy, future uses and accommodation.

“What would be very undesirable is to end up with a whole bunch of infrastructure that doesn’t really have any future use post-Olympics,” he said.

“There’s certainly, I would think, a better case for redeveloping the Gabba than building a new Victoria Park stadium.”

“We are losing a lot of valuable time that we need to plan either building a new stadium or redeveloping a stadium.”

The state government is also preparing a strategy to lure the bases of national sports to Queensland following AusCycling’s decision to relocate its centre of excellence to the Anna Meares Velodrome.

Queensland Sport Minister Tim Mander said the strategy would inform how the government targeted and incentivises sporting codes.

“We do want other sports to centre their operations here,” he said.