Brisbane Olympics 2032: Crisafulli government’s tennis upgrade flood-prone, too expensive

David Crisafulli was warned Tennis Australia’s $113m plan to overhaul Queensland’s tennis centre for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics was not worth the cost but the Premier backed it anyway.

Premier David Crisafulli (right) sits on a panel with Ash Barty and Pat Rafter (far left) to announce the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games venues. Picture: Adam Head

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David Crisafulli and his government capitulated to a demand from Tennis Australia for a rolled-gold upgrade of Brisbane’s major tennis centre for the 2032 Olympics, despite the Premier’s hand-picked panel warning the development was not worth the $113m price tag and had no way to protect against inevitable flooding.

Flanked by homegrown tennis stars Pat Rafter and Ash Barty, Mr Crisafulli on Tuesday trumpeted the state’s plans to overhaul the Queensland Tennis Centre at Tennyson, declaring he could not risk the 2032 Games tournament being shifted to Melbourne.

“I can announce Melbourne will not be taking the tennis from Brisbane, not on our watch,” Mr Crisafulli said during his Games announcement.

The Premier said the suburban venue would undergo a “major upgrade” to deliver a 3000-seat permanent show court arena with a roof and 12 new match courts, and his glossy delivery document insisted the plan would have “significant legacy benefits”.

His announcement mirrored Tennis Australia’s pitch, which the lobby group reportedly costed at $113m in its pitch to the 100-day review conducted by the Games Independent Infrastructure Co-ordination Authority.

Pat Rafter Arena at the Queensland Tennis Centre. Picture: Nigel Hallett

But GIICA’s report was scathing of the sport’s proposal, finding that while there was “legacy value for an additional permanent show court, the legacy benefits are not sufficient to justify the significant cost, relevant to a temporary facility”.

GIICA rebuffed Tennis Australia and Tennis Queensland’s warnings that the Olympics event might be forced to shift to Melbourne, finding that a temporary show court and six permanent additional practice courts would be enough of an upgrade to host the Games event in Brisbane.

“[This] significant enhancement of the facility … meets Games requirements and delivers a strong community legacy,” the report found.

“This proposed upgrade to the venue is supported by Stadiums Queensland.”

Stadiums Queensland is a state-owned statutory body that owns the Queensland Tennis Centre facility, which is operated by Tennis Queensland, in the inner-southern suburbs of Brisbane, 8km from the centre of the city.

David Crisafulli playing tennis during his tour of Ingham Tennis Court Complex last year. Picture: Liam Kidston

The panel also warned that Tennis Australia’s proposal was on a development site that was vulnerable to flooding and had a “lack of feasible mitigation strategies”.

Mr Crisafulli has insisted all the Olympics venues will be built for the existing state and federal budget of $7.1bn, including a new $3.785bn, 63,000-seat stadium at Victoria Park. He scrapped a plan for a $2.5bn federally funded inner-city concert venue, known as Brisbane Arena, to host the Olympic swimming in a drop-in pool, and instead backed a Swimming Australia proposal for a national aquatic centre to be built near the Brisbane Stadium Victoria Park site.

Swimming Australia had costed its own plan at about $650m, but the true cost has been estimated at twice that, throwing the Games budget into doubt.

Mr Crisafulli and Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie must now negotiate with their federal counterparts to adjust the intergovernmental funding deal to allow the $2.5bn earmarked for the arena to be redistributed to other projects.