Brisbane Olympics 2032 just 39 days from voting confirmation

Brisbane is just 39 days from its date with destiny, the vote that could hand the southeast the biggest event in the world.

Brisbane is just 39 days from its “date with destiny”, the full International Olympic Committee vote that could hand Queensland the biggest event in the world.

In the early hours of Friday morning, the IOC executive board voted unanimously to put the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics proposal to a full vote of Olympic members ahead of the Tokyo Games.

The vote is the final hurdle in six years of trying to bring the Games to Queensland.

A clearly excited Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said winning the vote would set Queensland up for the future.

“There’s no better day to be a Queenslander than today,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“We have moved the next most significant step on our journey, our quest, to attain the 2032 Olympic Games. This is an incredibly proud moment for every single Queenslander.”

The Games would transform Brisbane and the southeast and pour billions into the state’s economy, details of the bid released by the IOC show.

AOC president John Coates said Brisbane 2032 now faced final scrutiny from the IOC members at the session ahead of the start of the Tokyo Games for what he called its “date with destiny” – needing to secure 56 of 110 votes on July 21.

According to an independent economic assessment released along with the IOC executive decision, the Games would deliver a total benefit of $8.1 billion for Queensland and $17.61 billion for Australia and create 91,600 years of full time equivalent jobs for Queensland.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk

“As we emerge from the economic setbacks of the Covid period, this is exactly the panacea Queensland and Australia needs. Economically, socially and for the health and wellbeing of the state and beyond,” said Mr Coates, who absented himself from the decision-making process during the executive board meeting and previous considerations of the Brisbane proposition.

“Most importantly for Queensland and Australia, the Games will supercharge the sporting environment which is so critical for the health and wellbeing of future generations.”

Mr Coates said Queensland had worked hard to get to a vote.

“Frankly, the due diligence undertaken by the IOC’s Future Host Commission far exceeds that to which we were subject with our candidacy for Sydney 2000,” Mr Coates said.

“But it is the members we have to convince of the merits of our ambition to host the Summer Olympic Games for the third time. We have our date with destiny.

Announcing the decision to put the Brisbane bid to a full vote, the IOC also released documents that reveal the Queensland economy would receive an $8 billion boost in the decades before and after the Games, as well as a whopping $3.6 billion “feel good factor” from better transport, health and wellbeing changes brought on by the Games.

According to the venues masterplan, Brisbane, Ipswich, Moreton Bay, Scenic Rim and Redland along with the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast will host 28 Olympic sports within 32 venues, with 16 sports and disciplines within 5km of the Brisbane central business district.

Across the three Greater Brisbane and coasts zones are seven venue clusters or precincts, which include “iconic beachfront, breathtaking rural hinterland and city centre locations”.

In addition to the three SEQ zones, football preliminaries and quarter-final matches will be staged in Toowoomba, Townsville and Cairns.

Along with the Gabba, the new Brisbane Arena would host the swimming, Victoria Park and the RNA could be used for equestrian events and Southbank for archery and 3 on 3 basketball.

Included in the details are $85 million for spectacular opening and closing ceremonies that are expected to reach well outside the revamped Gabba and $30 million for the torch relay the length and breadth of Queensland.

To win the right to host the Games, Brisbane must convince a majority of the more than 100 IOC members that Brisbane is the best fit for the 2032 event. In June 2019, The Courier-Mail and sister SEQ mastheads officially backed the bid with front page editorials and has continued to fuel the push for the 2032 Games and the billions of dollars and 100,000 jobs it promises for Queensland.

The SEQ Council of Mayors proposed a Games bid to fast-track public transport with a feasibility study which gathered momentum on the back of The Courier-Mail’s Future SEQ campaign that warned the southeast risked grinding to a halt as major roads hit peak congestion by the early 2030s as the population grew from 3.5 million to 5.5 million people.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s representative on the Brisbane Olympics leadership group, Sunshine Coast MP Ted O’Brien, said he was delighted but they had not crossed the finish line yet.

“I am delighted on one hand but nervous on the other,” Mr O’Brien said.

“I’m optimistic but very cautiously so. We’ve cleared the penultimate hurdle but there’s still one more to go, and we take absolutely nothing for granted.

“These Games represent a massive opportunity for all of Queensland, not just Brisbane and the southeast; the benefits will flow to the far reaches of our great state, all corners of Queensland will be touched by the Olympic spirit.”

Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said the proposal was the culmination of years of work by the mayors and councils of southeast Queensland, together with proposal partners from the state and federal government and the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympics Australia but said southeast Queensland needed more transport infrastructure.

“We know a 2032 Games can only succeed if the State and Federal Government deliver a significant investment in transport infrastructure and we will continue to advocate for these projects to ensure local mums and dads can spend more time at home and less time stuck in traffic,” he said.

IOC president Thomas Bach said the project shows how forward-thinking leaders recognise the power of sport as a way to achieve lasting legacies for their communities.