With Coates clause, Olympic supremos build influence on Brisbane 2032

Olympic powerbroker John Coates and the Australian Olympic Committee have quietly beefed up their influence on Brisbane 2032 just months after the Queensland government took their advice and rejected the building of a $3.4 billion stadium as the Games centrepiece.

Coates, the former long-time AOC president and outgoing vice president of the International Olympic Committee, has indicated he will turn his focus to planning for Australia’s third Olympic Games after the Paris Games.

John Coates was central in securing the Olympics for Brisbane in 2032.Credit: Getty Images

The 74-year-old will do so with the AOC gaining extra clout on the Brisbane 2032 Organising Committee after changes to laws established for the delivery of the Olympics.

The amendments to the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Act, which passed Queensland parliament last month, will make Coates and AOC president Ian Chesterman vice presidents of the organising committee rather than just Coates.

Coates has previously held the title courtesy of his position on the IOC, but as he retires from that post, legislation has been rewritten for him to retain it thanks to his status as honorary life president of the AOC.

Chesterman, who was sworn in as an IOC member in Paris on Wednesday night and who will replace Coates on the Olympic body, also qualifies as a vice president of Brisbane 2032 under the new laws via his standing as AOC president.

The Brisbane organising committee is headed by former Dow Chemical chief executive Andrew Liveris and features federal Sports Minister Anika Wells, Queensland Premier Steven Miles, Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner and Paralympics Australia chair Alison Creagh as vice presidents.

Ian Chesterman was sworn in as an IOC member in Paris on Wednesday night.Credit: Getty Images for the AOC

Coates has been the most influential figure on Brisbane’s major venues. He steered organisers away from a proposed redevelopment of the Gabba before advising Miles to stage the athletics at a rebuilt, 40,000-seat Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, and the opening and closing ceremonies at Suncorp Stadium, rather than pay for a new inner-city stadium recommended by a government-commissioned review.

Contacted in Paris, the veteran administrator said the amended Brisbane 2032 laws would effectively give the AOC and IOC individual representation as vice presidents of the organising committee, as had been the case before the Sydney Olympics in 2000 when Coates and Kevan Gosper held such posts with the Sydney Organising Committee, or SOCOG.

“When the first legislation was done [in 2021], I was there in two capacities worthy of vice presidency. I was president of the [AOC] and I was an IOC member,” said Coates, who was replaced by Chesterman as AOC president when he stepped down in 2022 after 32 years in charge.

“I will cease to be an IOC member at the end of the year and [Chesterman] will become an IOC member effective from the end of the year.”

An artist’s image of the proposed new Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre as it would be developed for the Brisbane Olympics.Credit: RTI - Queensland Government

Coates said that as a seven-time Australian team chef de mission, at six winter and one summer Games, “Ian actually knows more about this than any of us”.

“You’ve got to live in the [athletes’] village and understand the needs of the athlete, which not all of them understand,” he said.

Coates said his views on Brisbane venues so far had been “largely on behalf of the AOC”, and while he endorsed it, it was Chesterman who devised the idea of holding the athletics at the new Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, which would be the smallest Olympic track and field venue since Amsterdam in 1928.

The AOC constitution was changed in 2020 to create the title of honorary life president for a member who had served at least 13 years as president and “rendered outstanding service to the Olympic movement and sport”. Coates was appointed to the role two years ago, weeks before standing aside as president. It will become effective from next year.

“The act ensures that Mr Coates remains a director and vice president of the OCOG [organising committee] board beyond 2024, when he ceases to be an IOC member,” said a spokesperson for Queensland’s Department of State Development and Infrastructure.

“Mr Coates played a significant role in securing the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and his continued tenure on the OCOG board will enable the OCOG to draw on his vast experience with the IOC to deliver a successful Games in 2032.”

The new Brisbane Olympics laws also established the Brisbane Games Venue and Legacy Delivery Authority, which will have a separate seven-person board to the organising committee.

It has been set up as an independent body, overseeing the rollout of venues and other infrastructure over the eight-year run-up to the Games, although under the legislation Liveris will be able to attend the authority’s board meetings and participate in deliberations but not vote.