Brisbane 2032 Olympics: Battle over uncosted QSAC option

As the state government and Opposition trade blows over the QSAC Olympic stadium option, it’s been revealed the controversial choice could threaten the Games’ viability.

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The viability of Brisbane’s Olympic and Paralympic Games is under threat from the Premier’s controversial plan for the smallest main stadium in more than 100 years.

Brisbane 2032 president Andrew Liveris has for the first time revealed Steven Miles’ proposed 40,000-seat no-frills Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre stadium would leave a hole in his $1.29bn ticket revenue target.

It comes as a high-ranking bureaucrat conceded the state government does not yet know how much the plan will cost, beyond a $1.6bn estimate from an independent venue review.

The admission came just one day after a state parliamentary estimates committee was told the original $1bn price tag quoted to demolish and rebuild the Gabba was also flimsy.

“That $1.6bn was a cost that came out of the review panel and their report, which they themselves acknowledged during the course of putting it together would need to be tested,” State Development and Infrastructure Director-General Graham Fraine told an estimates hearing on Wednesday. “And that is what the project validation report will do.”

Speaking in Paris this week, Mr Liveris said organisers would be forced to look at introducing money-spinning sports for 2032 in order to hit revenue targets hampered by the small QSAC venue.

Brisbane 2032 organising committee boss Andrew Liveris in Paris. Picture: Michael Reaves/Getty Images

“If there’s the decision on athletics [that] impacts revenue, there has to be a ‘make whole’ [strategy],” he said.

The Los Angeles Games in 2028 will feature T20 cricket and Mr Liveris hinted that the sport would remain as a way of managing the financial hit.

“The things that we will care about is if they (the new sports) give us revenue opportunities that we might not otherwise have,” he said.

“Cricket comes to mind always as a phenomenal thing for Australia … and you can have it in regional stadiums as well.”

Mr Liveris said “there has obviously been some changes already and I’ve been told to keep expecting that” as the state election looms.

A bureaucrat conceded the government did not know how much the QSAC stadium option would cost, just a day after revealing the $1bn Gabba price tag was conjured up.

Mr Miles on Wednesday said Queensland was left “no choice” but to submit a hollow $1bn estimate on the redevelopment or risk missing out on the Games.

State Development and Infrastructure Minister Grace Grace at budget estimates. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

State Development and Infrastructure Minister Grace Grace said there were “questions” about the need for a flat concrete podium underneath QSAC – which itself would take up about $1bn of the initial $1.6bn estimate.

The other $600m of the planned budget was slated to pay for the upgrade of the western grandstand.

“So I put to you that the $1.6bn (price tag) could be higher,” Deputy Opposition Leader Jarrod Bleijie said.

“Could be lower,” Ms Grace replied.

“It could be higher,” Mr Bleijie said.

At 40,000 seats – 14,000 of which are permanent – QSAC would be the smallest athletics stadium since the Amsterdam Games of 1928.

Mr Bleijie has slammed the government for calculating costs for the Games on the “back of an envelope”.

But Mr Miles declared the government was “determined to stick to the funding” packet of $7.1bn for venues.

“We are determined to stick to that envelope,” he said.

This commitment would mean delivering upgrades to QSAC, the Gabba and Suncorp Stadium within the current budget of $2.7bn.

Originally published as Brisbane 2032 Olympics: Battle over uncosted QSAC option