2032 Brisbane Olympic Games: Premier Crisafulli ‘sorry’ for breaking election promise on stadium

David Crisafulli has confirmed Queensland’s worst-kept secret: Brisbane will have a major new stadium for the 2032 Olympic Games, breaking the Premier’s election promise.

David Crisafulli is announcing his Olympics plan on Tuesday.

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Anthony Albanese holds in his hands the fate of a multi-billion-dollar plan by the Queensland Liberal National Party to revive the stalled Brisbane Olympics infrastructure program, after Premier David Crisafulli tore up a cost-sharing deal with Canberra and axed funding for the showpiece venue that was to host the swimming in 2032.

The centrepiece of the strategy is a taxpayer-funded $3.785bn, 63,000-seat “Brisbane Stadium” at inner-city Victoria Park to host the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletics, forcing Mr Crisafulli to apologise to Queenslanders for breaking an election promise not to build a new stadium.

“The Games must be held at a new stadium at Victoria Park,” he said, later adding: “I have to own that, and I will, and I am sorry.”

Mr Crisafulli dramatically scrapped Mr Albanese’s pet venue, the $2.5bn federally funded Brisbane Arena, from the Olympics plans, declaring the swimming events will instead be held at a new 25,000-seat national aquatic centre next to Victoria Park, and the commonwealth cash would redirected to other projects.

But the Premier did not release the cost of the new swimming venue he boasted would be “the best aquatics centre” in the world – or any of the secondary venues – despite giving repeated assurances the new infrastructure plan would be delivered within the existing $7.1bn state-federal funding ­envelope.

The new swimming centre – which will have three pools and a permanent seating capacity of 8800 – is understood to have been costed by Swimming Australia at about $630m, but the government’s independent 100-day review panel, the Games Independent Infrastructure and Co-ordination Authority, did not validate that cost.

Mr Crisafulli will now have to convince Mr Albanese to renegotiate the $7.1bn state-federal funding deal, signed by Labor premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Mr ­Albanese in 2023 tying the $2.5bn to the indoor inner-city arena and providing an extra $1bn to smaller venues. And with a federal election looming, Mr Crisafulli may also need to negotiate with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton.

Mr Crisafulli is insistent the taxpayer spend on the Games ­infrastructure – not including the athletes villages, transport infrastructure and some other costs – will not exceed $7.1bn, even though his hand-picked independent panel warned that figure could be up to $8.8bn due to the increase in building expenses and changes to the program.

If Mr Albanese accepts Mr Crisafulli’s new terms, it will be the third rewrite of the finance contract since Brisbane won the bid for the Games in 2021.

As recently as Tuesday morning, the Prime Minister reiterated his support for an inner-city arena to host big music acts, saying “one way or another, Brisbane does need an indoor arena so that you can have acts … it’s about leaving a legacy post-2032 as well”.

A spokeswoman for federal ­Infrastructure Minister Catherine King said the Albanese government would need to consider the “significant proposed changes to venues and their impact on the work that is already under way”.

“We will need to see and assess the costings, proposed funding splits and any further alternatives,” Ms King said. “Our final ­decisions will be supported by due diligence on the venue sites and what is realistic within a now shortened time frame and the context of our funding commitment.”

The Queensland government will use a prized state-owned site near the existing Gabba stadium to lure private investors to bid to build the 17,000-seat Brisbane Arena for concerts and other non-Olympic events.

Mr Crisafulli’s decision to axe the arena for the Olympic swimming was a major repudiation of his hand-picked independent panel’s 100-day review of Games infrastructure; the Premier also overruled the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority’s suggestion to hold the rowing in Sydney and is shifting it to Rockhampton’s crocodile-inhabited Fitzroy River instead. In all, he rejected one in 10 of the GIICA recommendations.

As flagged by The Australian, the panel recommended the arena be shifted from Roma Street Parklands to the GoPrint site next to the Gabba, as well as a new main stadium to be built at Victoria Park.

A public-private partnership will be used to develop an athletes village at the Brisbane showgrounds.

There will also be athletes villages built on the Gold and Sunshine coasts, and athlete accommodation at Rockhampton.

The new oval-shaped “Brisbane Stadium” at Victoria Park means the Gabba will eventually be knocked down and the land repurposed for apartments and housing.

Cricket and AFL will shift permanently to the new stadium. Brisbane Lions chief executive Greg Swann said on Tuesday the AFL and the club would be willing to chip in for the new venue. Mr Crisafulli had repeatedly told voters ahead of October’s state election that the LNP would not build a new stadium for the 2032 Games. He said there was simply no time for his preferred option – a redevelopment of the Gabba, as originally proposed by Ms Palaszczuk – and described his predecessor Steven Miles’s mooted revamp of the suburban Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre as an “embarrassment”.

“So it came down to a choice, a choice between the embarrassment of hosting the Games at QSAC or a new stadium at Victoria Park. It became a choice between spending billions on temporary facilities and temporary stands that delivered no legacy, or securing the future of AFL and cricket at a new home,” Mr Crisafulli said.

More than one-quarter – 27 per cent – of the Olympic events will now be held outside of Queensland’s southeast corner, including sailing events shared between Townsville and the Whitsundays, archery in Maryborough, football in Townsville, and basketball in Cairns.

In the southeast, a new 3000-seat centre court arena will be built at the Queensland Tennis Centre at Tennyson, in Brisbane, the Gold Coast will host the hockey, triathlon and marathon swimming, and mountain biking will be held on the Sunshine Coast, while the equestrian events will be in Toowoomba.

All the regional venues still have to be approved by the international sporting bodies.

Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games Organising Committee president Andrew Liveris said while he did not believe the time that had elapsed since Brisbane won the Games had been “a waste”, he said “we get a lot of politics and politicians involved in decisions because of our frequent changes of government”.

Former one-term LNP premier Campbell Newman said the Victoria Park decision would “haunt” the Crisafulli government and jeopardise Brisbane’s growth.

“Parks are required in great cities, and we have less inner city park space in Brisbane than Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth – and we’re about to take it away,” Mr Newman told 4BC Radio.

Multinational entertainment group Live Nation, which has developed concert halls overseas and runs a worldwide concert promotion business, confirmed its interest in investing in Brisbane Arena with its consortium partners.

The company put a public-private partnership on the table with the previous state Labor government under Mr Miles, but was rebuffed.

Additional reporting: Elodie Jakes