Victoria Park precinct: Brisbane Lions’ Lachie Neale backs vision

Brisbane Lions co-captain Lachie Neale has backed a proposal for a Victoria Park sporting precinct, saying he hopes the team could relocate there.

The new precinct proposed for Brisbane’s Victoria Park. Picture: Archipelago

Brisbane Lions co-captain Lachie Neale has thrown his support behind the “bold and beautiful” Victoria Park sporting precinct proposal, saying he hoped his team could relocate there in future.

The proposal, submitted by architect Peter Edwards to the independent review into Olympic Games venues, involves building a mammoth 90ha sporting and events venue precinct with a 70,000-seat stadium and Brisbane indoor arena across the parklands above the Inner City Bypass.

Lions star midfielder Neale backed the idea on Sunday, noting it would mean the Lions could stay at the Gabba in the meantime.

“For the Olympics, it looks good for that and obviously the club would look to move in there afterwards, that would be pretty awesome,” he said.

“Looks pretty bold and beautiful … hopefully they investigate that and look into doing that.

“Then we can stay at the Gabba for a few years.”

But he doubted he would ever get the opportunity to play at the proposed stadium, noting he would likely be in his forties by the time it was ready.

“Maybe like Tom Brady, I’ll just keep going,” he joked.

Lions co-captain Lachie Neale

Graham Quirk is expected to hand over his Olympics infrastructure review to the state government on March 18, before it decides which Olympic projects to invest in.

Asked whether she would support the Victoria Park Olympic proposal on Sunday, minister Shannon Fentiman said it wasn’t her place to comment until the review was complete, but assured the government would not invest in any white elephants.

“It’s not for me to pre-empt an independent review,” she said.

“I don’t want to influence that. All of the venues will be looked at by that review.”

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli criticised the state government of being too focused on stadiums instead of the generational infrastructure Queensland desperately needed, declaring his party was focused on road, rail and accessibility projects and a 20-year tourism strategy.

“It's been over 1000 days and Queenslanders are looking and the government is only talking about one element,” he said.

“The games were sold as an opportunity for road and rail and a 20-year tourism plan and all were hearing from the state government is talk about sporting stadiums and a big party.”

Ms Fentiman said the government would use the review to select the best value for money projects.

“I don’t think we will be interested in investing anything in any white elephants,” she said.