Work on the new RNA Showgrounds arena will start within weeks, Premier David Crisafulli confirmed on Monday, signalling the start of Olympic-related construction in the 2032 host city.

While the improved 20,000-seat arena would not host any competitions in 2032, due to its proximity to the adjacent athletes’ village and the subsequent security overlay, the venue has been touted as a key Olympic legacy project.

Crisafulli said work would begin on the historic John MacDonald and Ernest Baynes stands, built in 1906 and 1923 respectively, as soon as this year’s Ekka was over.

“To see the work happening on those stands is something that will fill the community with hope about taking this venue to the next level,” he said.

RNA chief executive Brendan Christou said the character of the heritage-listed stands would be maintained.

“The Ekka has been changing for the past 150 years, and we evolve – we have to evolve,” he said.

“If you look at our grandstands now, there’s no accessibility.

“Now, that wasn’t an issue a hundred years ago when they were built, but obviously today, that’s not acceptable.

“So there will be changes, but it’ll all be for the better.”

Christou said the improvements to the timber stands would include new flooring, new seat backs, and rectification of the structural issues that put the Ernest Baynes stand out of action for this year’s Ekka.

But the bulk of the improvements – a new seating bowl at Machinery Hill – was still some time off.

Christou said the new stand would be designed and procured over the next 12 months, with construction – to begin after next year’s Ekka – expected to take more than a year.

“There’s probably one major year of interruption where we’ll have to use temporary grandstands – it can’t be built within one Ekka,” Christou said.

“We’re going to get into that planning now.

“We’ve done a fair bit of early works, but as we finalise the design and start working with a builder on Machinery Hill to get that contractor involvement, we’ll have those staging plans soon.”

There would be no disruption to any future Ekka during construction, Christou said, adding that 2032 – when the Olympics are in town – would be the only year the show would not run.

As for the cost of the development, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie would only say it would be delivered within the $7.1 billion funding envelope agreed to by the Queensland and Commonwealth governments to deliver all Games infrastructure.

“We are in commercial, contractual negotiations, obviously, now with the RNA and the federal government in terms of the delivery,” he said.

“I’m not saying anything that I’ve not said 100 times before about the individual costs of each project – it’s contained within the $7.1 billion.”

The former Labor government floated similar plans for the RNA in late 2023 with an estimated $137 million price tag.

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