Thanks for joining us for our live coverage of today’s Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games venue and infrastructure announcements. It’s been a big day, but we’ll be back tomorrow morning with our regular live coverage of Brisbane news.
We’ve heard from lots of stakeholders and interest groups this afternoon, but we’re curious to hear what you think too. Choose an option below – or leave a comment if you have something more to say.
Moves to construct a Victoria Park stadium have been met with praise from the AFL and Queensland Cricket, with AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon confirming the game would now be able to look to Brisbane for “other opportunities in the future to drive capacity crowds”.
Queensland Cricket chief executive Terry Svenson expressed hope Brisbane would once again be a staple of the summer code’s calendar.
The Gabba does not meet accessibility standards, lacks modern amenities, and is on a restricted site with limited opportunity for expansion.Credit: AAP
As revamped venues in Adelaide and Perth left the Gabba in their wake, the ground was left off the hosting cities for the 2026/27 four-Test series between Australia and New Zealand – the first time in 50 years it has not featured in the rotation.
“The Gabba has been wonderful venue for cricket for many years and has provided fans and players with countless memories – however the challenges the stadium faces are well documented, and we need to look to the future,” Svenson said.
“Today’s decision gives us certainty after many years without clarity. We now stand at the starting line as Queensland prepares to unveil a signature stadium that will be known the world over.”
The national and state athletics governing bodies have issued a statement critical of today’s announcement, saying there is “no mention of a lasting legacy for athletics”.
“As it stands, Brisbane is poised to become the only major city in Australia without an adequate facility to host national or international athletics competition,” the statement continues.
“The sport plays a central role in the success of the Games as both a key ticket driver and the most globally viewed sport, yet our submission to the review outlining two practical and cost-effective legacy options seems to have been overlooked.
The statement pointed to the success of Queenslander Gout Gout, one of Australia’s rising stars in athletics.Credit: Getty Images
“We have consistently advocated for a main stadium that showcases our athletes on the world stage, and we acknowledge that the new Victoria Park Stadium with a capacity of 63,000 will achieve this. But there is more to this picture.
“Our athletes, including our para athletes, are forced to train and compete at a 50-year-old facility that does not meet modern accessibility standards and building codes, and 2032 is the opportunity to change this.”
The statement says the national body is seeking an urgent meeting with Queensland Premier David Crisafulli and Sport Minister Tim Mander “to identify a path forward … that is inclusive, accessible and long-lasting beyond 2032”.
Campbell Newman, the last LNP premier of Queensland and once a lord mayor of Brisbane, has been a vocal opponent of the Victoria Park stadium plan since it was first proposed.
On 4BC Drive this afternoon, he told Gary Hardgrave the people of Brisbane were the losers in today’s announcement, and it was right for Premier David Crisafulli to apologise.
“This is going to cause a lot of problems that he hasn’t investigated ...
“Firstly, you’re destroying a park. No ifs, buts, maybes. Parks are required in great cities, and we have less inner-city park space in Brisbane than even Sydney, but certainly Melbourne and Adelaide and Perth and we’re about to take it away.
Opponents of a Victoria Park stadium – including former premier Campbell Newman – earlier in their campaign.Credit: Save Victoria Park
“At a time where we’re going to have tens of thousands of more people in the inner 2 or 3km radius from the GPO, we need places where mums and bubs and dads can go with their kids and fly a kite and have tranquility and peace and quiet in green space.
“[Instead they get] the concrete and steel of a stadium and plazas. We now get told, that’s open space. Rolled gold baloney. And when they tell you that only 11 per cent of it will be taken for this stuff, well, that’s as good as a promise not to build a stadium in a park.
“Great cities need great parks, not just fantastic sporting stadiums.”
The Gold Coast is set to play a major part in the 2032 Games. It will host one of the three new athletes’ villages, which will later be repurposed for existing housing, and get upgraded sports facilities, including the hockey centre.
Mayor Tom Tate had suggested to the 100-day review that his city could poach swimming from Brisbane. But speaking to 4BC this afternoon, he said he was happy it was time “to get on with it now”.
City of Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate.Credit: Justin McManus
“We like to get the camera on the Gold Coast ... [we’re] friendly people here. We’re natural smilers. It’s going to really make us upbeat. And we can add to the fabric of Queensland’s 2032 games,” Tate said.
He said his city was prepared to put its own investment into the venues, and took a shot at Brisbane lord mayor Adrian Schrinner for taking a different approach.
“It’s always good to stir them up ... when Brisbane pump, the rest of us in Queensland will flourish.
“I didn’t want Adrian to be too shy and just wait for a handout from the feds and the state. He’s got to put some skin into it so that we’re all on one team.”
Former lord mayor Graham Quirk says the “pressure is on” Brisbane to successfully host the Games, now that the latest venues plan has been released – several years after the bid was won in 2021.
Quirk, who was instrumental in south-east Queensland’s bid, said Brisbane initially had “several more years than any other host city” to sort out necessary infrastructure.
“The circumstances have changed (since 2021),” Quirk said, speaking to 4BC’s Sofie Formica.
“We’ve gone through this massive cost escalation. We’ve got a limited workforce in the construction and infrastructure sector. We just can’t build in the same time period now what we could have in 2019 even.”
Former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk speaks to 4BC.Credit: 4BC
Quirk said all the proposals would benefit Queenslanders.
“If we were being asked to build white elephants, as Olympic authorities used to ask cities to build, I’d be concerned – but that was one of the conditions,” he said.
Quirk’s review for the previous Miles Labor government recommended a 55,000-seat stadium for Victoria Park, but the new plan is for a 63,000-seat stadium.
“I think 63 is great ... We thought 55, 60, but from a budgeting point of view we came in at 55. That’s the only reason,” he said.
While a new main stadium at Victoria Park will likely steal the headlines, there are new venues and upgrades planned across the city.
We’ve created this map to show where they will be located in Brisbane.
It’s worth noting that the exact location of the new stadium in the 64-hectare Victoria Park is not clear at this stage.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie told the 100-day review panel three weeks ago the government did not support its recommendation to push ahead with the Brisbane Arena and use it for Games swimming events.
“The government does not accept, based on the information contained in the draft report, that the Brisbane Arena is essential infrastructure for the Games,” Bleijie wrote on March 7.
Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie.Credit: Joe Ruckli
“It is clearly not practical for the Arena, as well as all of the other Games venues, to be constructed within the $7.1 billion funding envelope.
“It would be much more desirable from a legacy perspective that funding be directed to providing Queensland swimming with a world-class venue that not only provides a Games showcase but assists future generations of Queensland athletes.”
In the letter, Bleijie also noted the recommendation for a new stadium at Victoria Park, which the LNP government had “publicly stated it does not support”, but did not disagree with the review panel’s reasoning.
Bleijie also asked for more information on possible sites for the athletes’ villages, before the government chose the RNA Showgrounds.
RNA chief executive Brendan Christou has described the venues plan as a “game-changer”, saying the main arena was the “last piece of the puzzle”.
The main arena at the Brisbane Showgrounds will be upgraded, and the precinct will become home to the Brisbane Athletes Village, and later transformed into permanent housing, under the 2032 venues plan released today.
The main arena at the RNA Showgrounds will be upgraded, with seating for 20,000, ahead of the 2032 Games.Credit: Queensland government
“Quite frankly, if this didn’t come along, we were unable to fund those upgrades,” Christou said.
“So what this means is the Ekka will remain in Brisbane, in this location, for another 100 years.”
Christou said the upgrades would restore significant heritage assets and provide much-needed accessibility.
Brisbane’s lord mayor probably felt his excuse for being late to today’s council meeting, the last before autumn recess, was reasonable, but his attendance at the Olympic review lunch didn’t sit well with some of his rivals.
In response to a motion by Deputy Mayor Fiona Cunningham to move question time to allow for Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner to return to City Hall, Tennyson Ward councillor Nicole Johnston was the first to push back on the diary clash.
Adrian Schrinner, seated next to Ash Barty and Tim Mander at the 2032 Brisbane Olympic venues panel. Credit: William Davis
“The LNP created the timeframe for these council meetings,” Johnston said.
“They did so without any reference to any other councillors. They did so because it suited their own political agenda, and now they want to change it because the lord mayor is off at a fancy lunch giving away Brisbane’s green space for development.
“The city of the business [sic] apparently has to grind to a halt because he’s off having cocktails and canapes.”
Labor councillor Jared Cassidy was equally critical.
“We know where the lord mayor is,” he said. “If you tuned into the … coverage before, where you saw the Deputy Premier’s [Jarrod Bleijie] unhinged speech, there was Adrian Schrinner front and centre at Howard Smith Wharves with the caviar.”