Gabba’s biggest tenants in Queensland Cricket and Brisbane Lions make plea to state’s new Premier for stadium

Queensland Cricket and the Brisbane Lions have taken advantage of the change in the political Queensland landscape with a plea to the new premier to ditch any idea of Gabba redevelopment and build something new.

Queensland Cricket and the Brisbane Lions have made a joint plea to Premier David Crisafulli to scrap his ban on a new Olympic Stadium.

Queensland Cricket chief executive Terry Svenson revealed on Friday he and Brisbane Lions chief executive Greg Swann have written to new Premier Crisafulli urging him to back a new stadium at Victoria Park.

“We’re hoping to meet with the new Premier and his team over the next couple of weeks,’’ Svenson said outside the Gabba.

With several independent investigations claiming the iconic but fading Gabba will be unusable by 2030, Lions and cricket officials have backed the proposal to construct a 60,000 seat stadium at Victoria Park.

“From our perspective, the Lions and Queensland Cricket have been really clear that this place (the Gabba) will have a useful life until 2030 and that’s the key question. Where do we go? We’re aligned on the opportunity in Victoria Park.

“We’re hoping common sense will prevail.’’

Queensland Cricket and the Brisbane Lions believe the Gabba will be unusable past 2030. Picture: Supplied

Svenson said the Lions and Queensland Cricket were united in the push for a legacy venue which could not only help both teams survive and thrive in the future but also help Brisbane attract more global stars like Taylor Swift.

“I heard recently that many of our kids went to Sydney and Melbourne to see Taylor Swift. We want to keep Queensland money in Queensland.’’

The decline of the Gabba is already hurting the Lions, who are selling out most of their home games and crave a larger venue, and Queensland Cricket, who are scrambling to win Test matches despite their venue being rated the No 5 Test venue in the country.

Crisafulli has been adamant the LNP government will not support construction of a new main Olympic stadium but cricket and Lions officials are hopeful he will reconsider that pledge as the government conducts a 100-day review into Olympic spending.

“That’s the first point of clarification we are looking for,’’ Svenson said of the new stadium issue.

“That’s the first conversation we need to have to get their perspective of it.’’

Svenson said as the Lions and cricket were the major tenants of the Gabba they were hoping “all options were on the table’’ and “the option of a new stadium would be considered by the right people.’’

Both Premier David Crisafulli and Deputy Premier Jarrod Beijie are yet to read the letter, however when asked whether it would be considered Mr Bleijie said he would be “happy to look into it”.

“I haven’t seen the letter, and I’m not going to comment on a letter that I haven’t seen yet,” Mr Bleijie said.

“Happy to look into it. We’re going to have a 100-day review.”

Mr Bleijie refused to be drawn on whether the government would accept the recommendations from the review, saying it would simply “look at what they advise”.

Asked whether the existing projects - Chandler and Sunshine Coast Indoor Sport Centres and the Sunshine Coast Stadium - would be scrapped if the review found them unviable, Mr Bleijie said he was confident they could be delivered under the original budgets.

“I’ve already spoken to the Sunshine Coast Mayor Rosenna Natoli, she’s already got her team looking at those two particular projects on the Sunshine Coast, looking at how to put those back in their original budget,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Premier refused to say whether he would allow private investment to fund a new stadium build, keeping the government within the agreed funding envelope, if the 100-day Olympics review recommended it.

“Just let the review take its place, you know our terms of reference,” he said.

Mr Crisafulli said he would be asking Cricket Australia and the Brisbane Lions to engage with the independent infrastructure bodies during the review process.

Originally published as Gabba’s biggest tenants in Queensland Cricket and Brisbane Lions make plea to state’s new Premier for stadium