Scrap Gabba rebuild for new inner-city stadium, Brisbane Olympics review finds
A review into the beleaguered Brisbane Olympics has found the controversial Gabba plan should be abandoned in favour of a new $3.4bn stadium.
A controversial $2.7bn rebuild of the Gabba should be axed in favour of a new $3.4bn stadium in inner-city parklands, an independent review into the beleaguered Brisbane Olympics has found.
Premier Steven Miles and his cabinet will on Monday consider findings of the 60-day review of Brisbane’s multibillion-dollar Olympic infrastructure program and decide whether to accept recommendations.
The Australian understands the report called for the Gabba rebuild – which had already suffered a 170 per cent early cost blowout – be scrapped and a new stadium be built at Victoria Park, on the outskirts of the CBD.
Wealthy stockbroker Steve Wilson, a former chair of Brisbane’s Southbank arts and parks precinct, had pitched to the review that a 48,000 seat stadium at Victoria Park, on the northern fringe of the city.
Victoria Park, an old golf club that was converted into public parklands in 2021, is within walking distance of two train stations and served by Brisbane City Council’s incoming Metro “road train” system.
Headed by former Brisbane Liberal National Party lord mayor Graham Quirk, the review was ordered by Mr Miles in January to allay community outrage over early cost overruns and criticism of the planning for the Games.
A taxpayer-funded poll in November found support for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics had plunged to its lowest levels, with only 38 per cent of voters agreeing the Games were a good idea for the city.
Mr Quirk’s review also called for the proposed Brisbane Arena to be relocated amid mounting concern the project could not be built over the city’s Roma Street station for the $2.5bn price tag.
Construction of the 17,000-seat auditorium, earmarked to host Olympic swimming in a drop-in pool, is technically challenging and market sounding of contractors had raised potentially costly problems.
Brisbane Arena is being funded by the federal government, but the commonwealth’s contribution is capped so any cost overruns would likely fall on the state.
Mr Quirk’s report recommends the Brisbane Arena instead be built on a block of state land in the top corner of the Roma Street parklands.
Acknowledging the growing infrastructure spend for the Brisbane 2032 Games had become “divisive”, Mr Miles said he had ordered the to ensure taxpayers got the best “value for money”.
As the minister responsible for overseeing Olympic infrastructure under former premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Mr Miles had repeatedly defended the Gabba rebuild.
When announcing the review in January, Mr Miles said: “I signed off on an option that was consistently advised was the best outcome … now I’m saying I would like new advice, I would like independent advice”.
Olympics powerbroker John Coates last month said the Gabba rebuild had lost public support, was damaging the Olympic brand and “just does not stack up”.
Mr Quirk, who served as Brisbane lord mayor from 2011 until 2019 and was central to the original Olympics push, was paid about $150,000 to lead the review.
Taxpayers have already spent $788,000 on a separate report by consultants at Deloitte, which advised the state government to scrap plans for an independent Olympic infrastructure body.
An independent oversight body was a key part of Brisbane’s pitch for the Games and it was promised the body would publish a report by mid-2022 with an “outline of monitoring methodology mapped to a detailed legacy delivery program and specific quantifiable targets alongside appropriate quality measures”.
As Olympic infrastructure minister, Mr Miles decided the agency would instead be brought in-house, handing the state government total control over the rebuild, which had already blown out from $1bn to $2.7bn.
He resurrected the axed agency when he became Premier in December, saying he had been convinced it was “the right way to go”.
The infrastructure authority will be set up after Mr Quirk’s review, and be operational towards the middle of this year.
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