2032 Brisbane Olympic Games: Victoria Park stadium cost could hit $5bn

An unbudgeted upgrade to public transport and access infrastructure for the inner-city site is set to blow out the declared cost of the 2032 Games centrepiece.

An artist’s impression of Brisbane Stadium in Victoria Park for Brisbane 2032 Olympics. Source: Queensland government.

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The price tag of Brisbane’s new Olympic stadium could hit $5bn, with an unbudgeted upgrade to public transport and access infrastructure for the inner-city site blowing out the declared cost of the 2032 Games centrepiece.

Premier David Crisafulli said the 63,000-seat stadium at Victoria Park would cost $3.8bn, but on Wednesday conceded the venue’s extra public transport costs were “significant but vital”.

The Australian understands Mr Crisafulli’s hand-picked independent panel only publicly costed the stadium itself, but privately estimated associated infrastructure would force the total cost up to as much as $5bn.

Sources close to the Games Independent Infrastructure Coordination Authority said the Victoria Park stadium – first recommended in a review a year ago by former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk – needed a “massive transport fix” because of its relative isolation from existing public transport.

The stadium is more than a 1km walk from the nearest train station – the rarely used Exhibition station at the RNA showgrounds – and pedestrians would have to navigate major roads, including the inner-city bypass.

Former Labor premier Steven Miles said one of the reasons he rejected the Quirk review’s Victoria Park stadium recommendation was the public transport expense additional to the construction cost.

“Early advice from the Department of State Development was that it would cost $1.6bn to provide transport to the Victoria Park stadium,” Mr Miles told The Australian.

The now-Opposition Leader said he had also been advised that the Exhibition station could not be used during the Olympics because it did not have enough room for passengers to be screened for concealed weapons, and would not meet Games requirements.

There was no detail or cost of the anticipated transport upgrade in the government’s long-awaited 2032 Delivery Plan, published on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Mr Crisafulli acknowledged the stadium and nearby aquatic centre needed public transport improvements.

“The transport costs are significant, but they are vital,” he said. “We need to make sure, particularly the Exhibition station, gets a world-class opportunity.”

Both the Quirk review and the GIICA report found the Victoria Park site needed upgraded pathways and bridges to increase accessibility to public transport, and a further upgrade to Exhibition station to cope with extra passengers.

Mr Crisafulli also indicated that “many billions of dollars” in transport upgrades were needed across the state ahead of the 2032 Games, but were not included in the $7.1bn venues budget.

The $7.1bn federal-state taxpayer-funded infrastructure deal – originally signed by former Labor premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Anthony Albanese in 2023 – needs to be renegotiated after Mr Crisafulli removed the federally funded $2.5bn Brisbane Arena from the Olympics plan.

Federal Infrastructure Minister Catherine King is urgently seeking more detail from the state, including how much each venue is actually going to cost.

Several of the major Olympics sites – including the new national aquatics centre at Spring Hill near Victoria Park, the 20,000-seat upgrade to the RNA showgrounds main arena, the upgraded tennis centre in suburban Brisbane, the whitewater rafting site on the city’s bayside, the equestrian centre in Toowoomba and the rowing venue in Rockhampton – have not been publicly costed.

The Australian understands the state government does not intend to reveal individual project costs until after construction deals have been negotiated.

Swimming Australia has estimated the new aquatics centre will cost $650m to build, but Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie said his department had done its own assessment.

“We have put the figures based on our assessment, not what the venues (sporting codes) have said,” Mr Bleijie said.

Rowing bodies were blindsided by the government’s decision to host the Olympic sport in the crocodile-inhabited central Queensland Fitzroy River, arguing it breaks international rules forbidding a current, tide or stream in an event watercourse.

But Nationals Senator Matt Canavan – who is based in Rockhampton and lobbied the Crisafulli government since he floated the Fitzroy River proposal in January – said there was no flow in the river in winter because it rarely rained.

Meanwhile, Cricket Australia confirmed Test cricket would return to the “tired” Gabba in 2027-28 and Brisbane would regain the right to host the first Test of the summer in 2032-33 at the Victoria Park stadium, after the Olympics.

Cricket Australia chair Mike Baird said the body did not intend on contributing to the cost of building the stadium – as the AFL and the Brisbane Lions have indicated they could do – because the sport delivered cricket games that caused an economic boost to the city.

The Gabba will host a day-night Ashes match in December, but will miss out on a Test for the first time in 50 years in the summer of 2026-27 due to uncertainty about the stadium’s future under the previous Labor governments.