Brisbane Olympic Games: David Crisafulli 2032 plan different to IOC winner
David Crisafulli’s plans for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics is vastly different, and is likely to be far more expensive, than the blueprint that won the city the Games.
David Crisafulli’s plans for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics are vastly different, and likely to be far more expensive, than the blueprint that won the city the Games.
In 2021, the International Olympic Committee awarded the Games to Brisbane, the only candidate left in the bidding process after Madrid, Budapest, Jakarta, Delhi and Germany’s Ruhr Valley region – which had all expressed interest – dropped out.
Then Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, with the guidance of Australia’s Olympic boss John Coates – won over IOC officials by embracing their “new norm” philosophy for host cities to deliver the Games using a mix of existing venues and new “legacy-creating” infrastructure that would have lasting benefits and minimal cost.
Central to the Palaszczuk government’s plan – then estimated to cost $5bn – was an upgrade of the Gabba cricket ground and construction of the Brisbane Arena, a 15,000-seat indoor facility that would host the swimming with a drop-in pool, and then become a concert venue in the CBD.
The government then announced it was demolishing and rebuilding the Gabba for a $1bn price tag – with a review later concluding that cost had been estimated with no business case – which later blew out to $2.7bn.
Ms Palaszczuk’s Labor successor Steven Miles then scrapped the Gabba as the Olympics stadium and replaced it with a plan for a $1.5bn upgrade to the suburban Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, which hosted the 1982 Commonwealth Games.
A $7.1bn federal-state funding deal, struck in 2023, secured $2.5bn of commonwealth finance for the arena and nearly $1bn in smaller venues, plus state funding for the Gabba rebuild.
Four years after being signed-off by the IOC, the newly-elected Crisafulli government has announced it is building a new Olympics stadium at Victoria Park, conservatively estimated to cost $3.8bn, and dumping the proposed Arena as the swimming venue.
Instead, an aquatic centre will be constructed in neighbouring parkland to accommodate diving, water polo and artistic swimming events, with seating for the competitive swimming expanded to nearly 25,000 by temporary stands constructed in wings around the pool, and will have a permanent capacity of 8000. A submission advanced by Swimming Australia put the price at about $600m, which sources said was heavily “underestimated”.
The government has also expanded the regional footprint of the Games, compared to Queensland’s original pitch to the IOC.
Olympic hockey will be moved to the Gold Coast after originally being slated to be held in Brisbane, at the former rugby union headquarters of Ballymore.
Sailing events, which were going to be held near Brisbane, will now be held off Townsville and the Whitsunday Islands.
The basketball, which was to be largely staged in Brisbane, will now have its preliminary games on the Gold Coast, and the final will be staged at the Boondall Entertainment Centre.
The Games Independent Infrastructure and Co-ordination Authority recommended that the flatwater rowing competition – an Australian strong suit – be shifted to Sydney, but the finding was rejected by the state government.
The authority said “all reasonable efforts” had been exhausted to keep it in Queensland, within the time available. Instead, Mr Crisafulli said the racing would go to the Fitzroy River in Rockhampton on the state’s central coast, despite the watercourse having a current and crocodiles. “We’ll be taking the 2032 Games to regional Queensland,” he said.
And the original plans put to the IOC for a massive Athletes Village on the Brisbane river has been dumped, and divided between three accommodation hubs on the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and at Brisbane’s RNA showgrounds.
The latter will house more than 10,000 athletes and team officials for the Olympics and more than 5000 for the Paralympics.
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