‘Speak up’: Games boss’s stunning call over new stadium

Brisbane 2032 chief executive Cindy Hook has urged concerned Queenslanders to speak up and demand an Olympic Games stadium a growing city needs.

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Brisbane 2032 chief executive Cindy Hook has urged concerned Queenslanders to “speak up” and demand an Olympic Games stadium a growing city needs.

In striking comments tipped to reignite debate about the lack of a major sporting legacy for the city from the 2032 event, Ms Hook used a QUT Business Leaders’ Forum on Wednesday to call for people to make their views known to Premier Steven Miles.

“If you think Brisbane is a growing city that needs a new stadium I encourage you might want to speak up on that,” she said.

Her response drew significant applause from the hundreds of guests.

The state government has axed plans to rebuild the Gabba and ignored an independent review which declared the best outcome for the booming city would be a new stadium at Victoria Park.

Amid persistent questions about the government’s record planning for the 2032 Olympic Games, Ms Hook insisted the organising committee would deliver the event in whatever venues the state determined – but hinted at her preference for something other than an upgraded Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan,

“We will make them work in the stadium and the stadia that is provided to us by the government which will be based on their view of what is needed for this community in the future,” she said.

Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics CEO Cindy Hook

Premier Steven Miles said Ms Hook was, like everyone, “entitled to an opinion” but said Queenslanders were not in favour of a new stadium.

He defended the lack of a cost-benefit analysis for Victoria Park, but acknowledged an investigation into using the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre could also reveal it to be a poor use of cash.

“That’ll be a consideration for government but the early advice is that it will be a suitable venue, that it will provide a legacy for athletics for our state,” he said.

“The existing facility is one of our most used stadiums and this will effectively replace it with a brand new one.”

Steven Miles said everyone was entitled to an opinion, following Cindy Hook’s comments. Picture: Tertius Pickard

Mr Miles said QSAC remained the best option for Brisbane.

“It will allow us to deliver a fantastic games under the IOCs new norms and to ensure that we spend what we have now on Queenslanders and their households,” he said.

State Development and Infrastructure Minister Grace Grace dismissed Ms Hook’s comments, declaring building a new stadium was expensive and “a lot of wasted money”.

“The government made its position,” she said.

“We have decided that we will build a new arena in Roma St, we will upgrade the Gabba, we’ll upgrade Suncorp Stadium and we will upgrade QSAC.”

Ms Grace said support for a new stadium build reflected a “healthy democracy,” but the government would remain steadfast in keeping to the $7.1bn budget.

“There are plenty of people who don’t want the stadium to be built,” she said.

“A new stadium in Victoria Park, and I was there on Sunday... it is not something that we can do under that funding envelope.”

Ms Hook’s organising committee is tasked with putting on the logistics of the 2032 Games, with a now independent infrastructure authority tasked with delivering the venues chosen by the state government.

Former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s plan to rebuild The Gabba was dumped by her successor Steven Miles – who has pledged to spend $1.6bn upgrading QSAC after ignoring the advice of former Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk’s independent review, which suggested a new stadium at Victoria Park was the best option.

Mr Miles’s plan has drawn criticism from athletes, business leaders, transport experts and environmentalists.

The American-born chief executive Ms Hook, speaking exclusively with The Courier-Mail before the lunch, also revealed her concern the effect negative publicity on Games planning had on her 30 staff.

“When your team wakes up every day and reads negative media they start to question why am I doing this,” she said.

“I’m trying to not let it frustrate me. I’m sure it will at some point.”

Ms Hook, a former Deloitte global executive, declared the organising committee “truly a start-up” and said the first 15 months had been about doing the basics.

“When I came in, we didn’t have a bank account, we didn’t have any accounting systems, any infrastructure,” she said.

“A lot of what we do have been doing has been building an organisation from scratch and doing it in a way that will stand up to scrutiny.

“We are going to be under a spotlight, our policies, our procedures, our systems need to be fit for purpose.”

Her four-year contract will expire in 2026 and Ms Hook said she was unsure if she would continue in the role until 2032.

A scene from the new Brisbane 2032 promotional video

“The board will have a decision to make and I’ll have a decision to make on whether we go beyond that but I know that I’m excited, I’m enjoying it,” she said.

“I mean I really, truly want to deliver something amazing for Brisbane and southeast Queensland.”

Ms Hook said her leadership approach was to avoid raising tension too early for not really good reasons, declaring it unproductive.

A delegation of staff from the 2032 organising committee will travel to France in July for Paris’s Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Ms Hook, who is attending her first Olympics and Paralympics, said it would be an opportunity to learn about putting on the global event and building relationships with sponsors.

Brisbane’s rights to the Games do not start till January 1, 2027, but Ms Hook said Paris would be a strong opportunity to get global brands thinking about joining Brisbane 2032.

“It’s relationship building, idea seeding, but no form of sales … we know that we’ve got to get people starting to think about it,” she said.

The committee on Wednesday launched a new promotional video showcasing Brisbane to the world with a new tagline: Shine Brightest. Together.

Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee President Andrew Liveris said awareness of the Brisbane brand was “continuing to gather momentum” across the world.

“Our window to promote our city, state and country like never before is now, and what better way to do so than by showcasing our diverse natural environment and climate, our warm and welcoming people, and our passion for sport,” he said.

“We have an amazing opportunity and runway ahead of us as we continue preparations ahead of 2032, extending an invitation to the world to join us and be part of an experience that unites the best of sport and humanity as one.”