Business, sports and civic leaders back new approach on Brisbane Olympics’ venues
Business, sports and civic leaders in Brisbane have joined a push to rethink the multi-billion-dollar spend on venues for the 2032 Olympics, warning against ‘white elephant’ stadiums.
Business, sports and civic leaders in Brisbane have joined a push to rethink the multi-billion-dollar spend on venues for the 2032 Olympics, warning against “white elephant” stadiums and second-best outcomes.
Spurred by the intervention of wealthy stockbroker Steve Wilson, a former chair of the acclaimed inner-city Southbank arts and parks precinct, they have called for better planning and tight integration of venues to deliver “bang for the buck” from the Games.
The existing plan hangs off two controversial cornerstone projects – a $2.7bn rebuild of the Gabba stadium by the Queensland government and the $2.5bn Brisbane Arena to be erected above a CBD railway station and funded by the commonwealth.
Mr Wilson up-ended the model by proposing that the auditorium shift to the Gabba site, with the southside stadium replaced by a 48,000-seat venue at Victoria Park, sandwiched between the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital campus and the northern fringe of the business district.
Under his “golden triangle” blueprint, anticipated savings of more than $1bn would be ploughed into upgrading the 52,000-capacity Suncorp Stadium on the western edge of the CBD to 65,000 seats.
A soon-to-report review into Games venues headed by former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk has been told by International Olympic Committee powerbroker John Coates that the Gabba rebuild should be scrapped, and the centrepiece track and field competition moved to the 1982 Commonwealth Games-vintage Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan, deep in the city’s southern suburbs.
The Games’ opening and closing ceremonies would be held at Suncorp Stadium under Mr Coates’ plan.
Mr Wilson, who also made a submission to Mr Quirk, said recycling the former QEII stadium for the Olympics would be a mistake, telling The Weekend Australian: “I think it’s a proven dog … it’s always been too far away and doesn’t have enough public transport access.”
Former Brisbane Broncos CEO Bruno Cullen said the powerhouse NRL club ultimately had game attendance slashed by three quarters when it moved from Suncorp to the Nathan stadium for most of a decade from 1993. “It was probably just the overall difficulty of getting there and getting back home,” he said of the public transport connections.
Queensland Rugby League chairman Bruce Hatcher, a custodian of the annual State of Origin series with NSW, said provision to expand had been built into the big makeover Suncorp Stadium underwent two decades ago. He backs retention of the Gabba as home of the AFL, international cricket and the Big Bash League in Brisbane, though spending $2.7bn on the ground for the Olympics was “overkill”.
Another former Southbank Corporation chair, Catherin Bull, who also held senior advisory positions with the Sydney Olympic Park Authority, said the case for the Gabba had not been put in a “clear and coherent” way.
“I liked what Steve had to say because the idea is not necessarily using the Gabba as a stadium, but using the Gabba site because it is such an important site in the heart of the city, and the hearts of everyone in Brisbane,” she said.
Its centrality would be reinforced when the $6.3bn-plus Cross River Rail underground system opened next year, with a station beneath the Gabba. Linking the site to Suncorp and the new stadium proposed by Mr Wilson at Victoria Park would be transformational for Brisbane, Dr Bull said.
Mr Wilson said this “golden triangle” of activity was “all about being central”, interconnected and would deliver lasting benefit from the Games.
“Any city in the world that has stadiums and event centres close to the centre of town and close to transport nodes will stimulate other precinct development,” he said. “But instead of having everything jammed together, you actually have one centre of activity in the north, one in the west, one in the south … all within 2¼km of the Brisbane GPO.”
Businessman Scott Hutchinson, whose eponymous construction firm turns over more than $3bn a year, said it was long past time the Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall, earmarked for the Olympic handball in 2032, was retired.
The 13,000-seat hall opened in 1986, but is deeply unloved because of access issues with the suburban northside site.
Mr Hutchinson, an investor in inner-city live music venues, said: “What we don’t want are things like Boondall and Homebush in Sydney … that’s why I’ve put my money where my mouth is and we have seven venues now.”
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner told reporters on Thursday that the “obvious choice” for Brisbane Arena was a site close to Roma St Station, though not necessarily atop the rail hub.
“This will be a concert venue for decades to come and people need to get to it more easily than they can get to the Boondall entertainment centre,” he said.
Peter Edwards, of Archipelago Architects, separately released an Olympic venues plan, Brisbane Bold, centred on Victoria Park where a new national swimming stadium would be built alongside the proposed Olympic stadium. Under existing plans, swimming at the Games will be held in Brisbane Arena in a drop-in pool.
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