Future Gold Coast: Inside plans to use Paris Games to sell Brisbane 2032 event to the world

Mayor Tom Tate will take the Gold Coast charm offensive to the Paris Olympics in the hopes of selling the city to athletes as a place to train and businesses as a place to invest. HIS PLAN REVEALED

Mayor Tom Tate will take the Gold Coast charm offensive to the Paris Olympics in the hopes of selling the city to athletes as a place to train and businesses as a place to invest.

The Mayor, recently appointed to the Brisbane 2032 organising committee, will be among a team of high-profile southeast Queensland figures to fly out in late July to fly the flag eight years out from southeast Queensland’s own opening ceremony. The Gold Coast and broader 2032 Games will have a “full-time brand presence” in France during both the Olympics and Paralymics, with plans for a “takeover” of the Coutume Cafe in central Paris.

Mr Tate has locked-in meetings with the heads of various Olympic sports to promote the Gold Coast and as a venue for training and hosting events including world championships in the lead-up to 2032.

Mayor Tom Tate. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

He is also set to meet with a Gold Coast-based engineering and event project delivery firm which is in Paris to review the 2024 event’s logistics and operations.

Mr Tate said this was to make connections with a view to future contract opportunities around events and security overlays, such as temporary grandstands.

“There’s a lot of opportunities there and I’ve already been given permission to see the back-of-house, how the Games are being run, and that means the transport management, the security management and all the things we did for the Commonwealth Games, but much, much bigger,” he said.

“So I’ll be concentrating on that along with advocacy, which will include catching up with some of the people I already know who are presidents and leaders of various sports to see is there any additional thing that the Gold Coast can do and if there are any training programs they want to come down to the Gold Coast before the Olympics to start establishing (that).

“For example, the British swimming team are using the Gold Coast as a warm-up place, whether they’re planning for a world championship or a national title. They’re actually over here because it’s too bloody cold in London.”

A general inside view as the Paris Olympics 2024 pool (Photo by Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)

The 16-member Brisbane Co-ordination Commission will attend Paris, with Brisbane 2032 president Andrew Liveris delivering a keynote update to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) session immediately prior to the beginning of the Games Mr Tate is planning to attend several events during the Olympics including the swimming, during which several Gold Coast-based athletes will compete.

Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus

“I’ve got the time see a couple of swimming events and I wanted to see Ariarne Titmus. I know (her father) Steve’s going to be there and he’s a mate as far as I’m concerned. The Gold Coast is a small place and there are a lot of people who their sons and daughters are swimming, so I’ll be cheering them on.

“I’ll be looking at other sports we can potentially host, especially demonstration sports, though I won’t have time to go to Tahiti to watch the surfing. If I can get to see the Matildas play the US, that would be a gem. Anything else I’ll be watching will depend on future investors. I’ll go and watch a game of whatever is part of that advocacy.”