Brisbane 2032 Olympics: Original arena plan rejected by Treasury

Queensland previously rejected plans from the world’s largest venue manager to help build the now-endangered Brisbane Arena. VOTE IN OUR POLL

ASM Global CEO Harvey Lister

Queensland Treasury rejected plans from the world’s largest venue manager to help build Brisbane Arena, which is now on the chopping block due to Olympic Games cost pressures.

The inner-city arena, first proposed in 2007, had by 2016 secured backing from a private consortium led by entertainment giant AEG, now ASM Global.

It had handed plans to the state government promoting the significant benefits of an inner-city arena and started investigating how it could help with capital costs.

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In September 2020 Brisbane Arena was proposed to the International Olympic Committee to be a privately owned an operated venue used to host swimming and water polo during the 2032 Games.

However despite work being under way on the market-led proposal, Queensland Treasury bureaucrats then shifted the plan and instead decided to build the venue with taxpayer cash and appoint a private company to manage it.

The Commonwealth has now agreed to fund the $2.5bn Brisbane Arena, but it is understood

state Infrastructure Minister Jarrod Bleijie is pushing for the project to be axed and the cash used elsewhere.

Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie. Picture: Steve Pohlner

ASM Global chief executive Harvey Lister declined to be drawn on whether the private sector would now contribute to the project.

He said the private sector never had an opportunity to submit an offer to help build the arena, with Queensland Treasury instead axing market-led investigations.

“They said thank you for your proposal with all of the value-capture opportunities that we put forward,” he said.

“Treasury took all of that.

“They just wanted to secure us as the operator of the venue, so we’ve progressed on that basis.”

It is understood the 100-day review panel has recommended the planned Brisbane Arena be relocated from Roma Street Parkland to the Woolloongabba Cross River Rail site opposite the Gabba.

Mr Lister has backed the development as a significant boon for Brisbane’s economy.

“We were particularly focused on the trend of the time and that is still what we see today around the world where we’re doing new venues – governments want them to be near transport hubs,” he said.

“If the Roma St site is no longer under consideration we would think the Cross River Rail site at Woolloongabba would certainly be capable of supporting an arena. 

“The site is large enough, it has public transport.”

Former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk’s 2024 venue review labelled Brisbane Arena a much-needed community facility whose legacy would last for decades.

It won widespread support in 2017, with then Labor infrastructure minister Jackie Trad declaring it was an “exciting idea that could reshape our city”.

A ‘Brisbane Live’ arena was pitched for several possible sites around the CBD in 2016.

Originally published as Brisbane 2032 Olympics: Original arena plan rejected by Treasury