Olympic boss says Brisbane needs new venues, will benefit from Games

Departing International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has expressed confidence in the 2032 venues plan finalised by the Crisafulli government earlier this year.

In Brisbane this week for high-level meetings, Bach said the incoming government’s 100-day review had delivered a final blueprint “in great speed and in high quality”.

The LNP reworked the former Labor government’s plan to settle on a Games precinct in Brisbane’s inner-north, with a 60,000 seat stadium and separate aquatic centre to be built at Victoria Park, near a new athletes village at the Brisbane Showgrounds.

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach with BMX Freestyle competitor Natalya Diehm during a visit to Brisbane State High School.Credit: Lyndon Mechielsen

Despite four years of debate over the need for, cost of, and location of, the main stadium, Bach suggested the IOC always knew Brisbane would need time to finalise its plan. Had that process only started this year, he said, it would have been “game over” for 2032.

Bach said the bidding process outlined in the Olympic Agenda, also known as the ‘New Norm’, was successful in Paris, and would ensure the cost of delivering the Brisbane Games was not as controversial as it might have been in the past.

“You speak about investments in the future of the city and the region,” he said.

“If you have a stadium, which you need, if you have an aquatic centre, which you need, and everybody appreciates, you cannot write this investment off to zero in 16 days.

“That’s an investment in the future of the city and the region.

“Look at the Olympic Village [planned for the Brisbane Showgrounds]. You need housing here, desperately, to accommodate all the growth you’re enjoying.

“We are not asking, any more, [for] a city or a region to adapt their long-term development to the Games. We adapt the Games to the long-term development plan of the city and the region.”

Australian Olympic powerbroker John Coates had long championed the need for Brisbane to use existing venues where possible to make the 2032 Games more sustainable. When Labor proposed a last-minute Gabba rebuild, Coates insisted the stadium was required for the city generally, not the Games specifically, although his cut-price QSAC alternative proved even more controversial.

Coates has declined to comment on the latest plan, which still needs to be endorsed by the sporting federations.

Bach – who will depart the role in June, to be replaced by Brisbane 2032 Co-ordination Commission chair Kirsty Coventry – said 2032 was an opportunity for Brisbane to sell itself to the world.

While Brisbane is smaller than other host cities, he said it was important that the Queensland capital be “different” to Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028.

Bach said the 2032 Games should reflect the growing city, the local culture and community values, as well as the organisers’ commitment to innovation and sustainability.

“You should never compare one edition of the Games with another one because every edition of the Games needs to be authentic,” he said.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.