2032 Brisbane Olympic Games: Queensland to spend $500m on Gabba before knocking it down

Queensland will have to spend $500m on the doomed Gabba stadium to keep it operational until the 2032 Olympics, before knocking it down to sell off to property developers.

Brisbane’s beloved Gabba. Picture: John Gass

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Queensland would have to spend between $400m and $500m just to keep the doomed Gabba ­stadium operational until the 2032 Olympics to fulfil Premier David Crisafulli’s desire for the gold medal cricket match to be played at the historic ground.

Mr Crisafulli this week broke an election promise not to build a new Games stadium, announcing on Tuesday that taxpayers would fund a $3.785bn 63,000-seat stadium at inner-city ­Victoria Park to host the ­Olympic ceremonies and track and field events.

After the Games, it will ­become the new home of cricket and the AFL, replacing the Gabba which will be knocked down and the state-owned land at ­Woollangabba sold off to developers to build apartments and other housing.

Mr Crisafulli said he hoped the Gabba’s final act would be to host the men’s and women’s gold medal cricket matches at the 2032 Games, after the sport returns to the Olympic roster at Los Angeles in 2028.

Late on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Premier said the government would “be putting in the minimum required to keep it functional to 2032”.

But according to detailed analysis conducted for last year’s stadium review by former ­Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk and the Crisafulli government’s Games Independent ­Infrastructure Co-ordination Authority report released this week, the “minimum” would still be very expensive – and was not included in the $7.1bn state-federal Olympic venue budget.

“The (Quirk) review has been advised that the minimum cost to keep the Gabba operational until 2032 is around $400m to $500m, the cost to extend the life of the Gabba beyond 2032 and upgrade the venue to modern code compliance is around $1bn,” the Quirk review found.

Premier David Crisafulli, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie and Sport Minister Tim Mander arrive at the Gabba on Wednesday. Picture: John Gass

The Gabba was built in 1895 and was last renovated in 2005 to its current capacity of approximately 42,000 – or 37,000 when it is in AFL mode.

This week’s GIICA report warned that the “ageing asset” would reach the end of its ­“expected useful life of a stadium” by the end of 2030, and the ground has serious problems.

It is the only major stadium in Australia not to be fully compliant with the Commonwealth Disability Discrimination Act – apart from the Sydney Cricket Ground, which has developed a disability action plan – and the roof structure is failing and needs to be replaced and strengthened.

Mr Crisafulli’s spokeswoman did not respond when asked whether the Gabba would need to comply with disability standards in order to host the Olympic cricket in 2032.

Sports Minister Tim Mander said the government had not yet decided whether there would be a permanent or drop-in cricket pitch at the Victoria Park stadium when it becomes the city’s permanent home of Test cricket and the Queensland Bulls in 2032.

In a deal with Cricket Australia announced on Wednesday, Brisbane will regain the right to host the first Test of the summer just months after the Games.

The last time cricket was in the Olympics was at the Paris Games in 1900, when Great Britain beat France by 158 runs in a match that lasted just two days.

In Los Angeles, T20 cricket will be one of five new sports including flag football, six-a-side lacrosse, squash, and baseball (for men) and softball (for women).