Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says knock down, rebuild of the Gabba is a new stadium

Brisbane’s Lord Mayor has upped pressure on the government ahead of the Olympics infrastructure report, saying a knock down and rebuild of the Gabba is the same as building a new stadium.

Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says knocking down and rebuilding the Gabba amounts to a new stadium.

Ripping down the Gabba and replacing it is the same thing as building a new stadium, Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner has declared in a veiled message to Premier David Crisafulli.

Mr Schrinner’s comments dramatically up the pressure on the new government ahead of the March 25 public release of the 100-day review into Olympics infrastructure.

He also told radio 4BC this morning that even if the Gabba upgrade went ahead, the site was too small for a world-class venue and had little space for people to move outside.

The existing open space would also be swallowed up by an expansion, he said.

“If you knock down and rebuild the Gabba, that is a new stadium,’’ he said.

“There was always a new stadium expected (and) there’s a chance this independent committee could recommend a new stadium.’’

Mr Schrinner said it was commendable that Mr Crisafulli, who has consistently ruled out a new stadium, was a “man of his word’’.

“But he’s appointed an independent body and it could go either way,’’ he said.

Mr Schrinner, who recently returned from a trip to Paris and Manchester to inspect Olympic legacy projects, said the Gabba site was simply too small.

He pointed to the example of the Stade de France in Paris, which he visited, saying that although it was now several decades old it had withstood the test of time partly because of its size and concourse.

“Every successful global stadium has a large concourse around it to allow people to move freely,’’ he said.

“The more I think about it ... there are four busy roads around it (the Gabba). It seats 30,000 or 40,000 people — if you make it bigger what happens to the roads?’’

The Lord Mayor says the Gabba site is too small for an Olympic stadium. Picture: NewsWire / John Gass

At a media conference on Thursday morning, Mr Schrinner was asked if there were times when a good leader broke a promise for the greater good and if this was such an occasion.

While not directly answering, he said: “The premier made two commitments on this issue.

“First of all, he made it clear that it wasn’t his intention to build a new stadium and I believe that is what he meant.

“But he also made another commitment, which was he would leave the decisions and the recommendations to the experts and he would appoint an expert panel to do that.

“So what you get is those two commitments coming into conflict with each other.

“That’s obviously a matter for the government but my gut feeling here is if you do this right, you could deliver a new stadium for a lower outcome than what we are proposing for the Gabba originally.

“That was $2.7bn plus — and my estimation was that would have been more like $3.5bn.

“With cost escalations, you can potentially get a much cheaper outcome for that if you do it somewhere else.’’

Originally published as Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner says knock down, rebuild of the Gabba is a new stadium