Olympic review to be given ‘golden triangle’ vision, with a hint of pineapple

By March next year, Queenslanders, and Olympic stakeholders across the globe, should finally know Brisbane’s plan for Games venues in 2032.

And the road leading up to that point is as long as it is winding.

There has been a captain’s call on the main stadium, promptly blown away when the political winds delivered a new premier. There has been a 60-day review of the venues, the main recommendation of which was promptly ignored.

Then, there was a change of government, with the promise of yet another review – this one lasting 100 days – to get Brisbane 2032 back on track.

Almost three-and-a-half years have passed since Brisbane was officially awarded the Games.Credit: Toru Hanai/Getty

When Brisbane was awarded the Olympics in 2021, the city was given an unprecedented 11 years to prepare. Almost a third of that time has passed, leading many in business, sport and politics to lament a squandered advantage.

The planned 100-day review has also sparked a round of speculation, and not only about the site of the main stadium. With terms of reference yet to reveal the scope of the review, there is even talk of Brisbane Arena, earmarked to host the swimming, being put off until after 2032, and the Gold Coast instead providing the pool for the Games.

With the start of the review imminent, that chatter is pure speculation.

For now, the new Crisafulli government is expected to announce its expert panel to lead its venue review, and the independent infrastructure delivery authority, as early as Thursday.

That announcement will set the 100-day clock ticking.

Premier David Crisafulli’s office confirmed there would be no grace for the Christmas period, during which many public servants supporting the review will be on mandated annual leave – further tightening the panel’s timeframe.

That ticking clock adds to the urgency to get planning on track and to get shovels in the ground. Dykman Consulting transport planning manager David Hayward is keen to give them a head start, based around what he called the “golden triangle” inner-city Games transport area.

And it’s a focus seemingly in line with the premier’s thinking.

“The Games were bid on a focus of generational infrastructure – that was a contract that Queensland has signed on to,” Crisafulli said in a media conference earlier this month.

“Road and rail – that’s what people were talking about. They were talking about a vision to fix planning across the broader region.”

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Hayward, the Queensland branch chairman of the Transport Australia Society (which falls under the umbrella of Engineers Australia), says the organisation is working on a submission to the review.

Central to their submission will be the importance of leveraging existing transport infrastructure, which meant having venues where people could easily access them.

“Sydney [2000] obviously comes up quite a bit, but the thing I love about Brisbane’s potential for legacy is that we’re actually putting the stadiums where the demand is there for people to be moved in high volumes after the Games,” Hayward says.

David Hayward speaking at an Engineers Australia event earlier this year.

Whereas Homebush in Sydney 2000 and Stratford in London 2012 were large-scale urban renewal projects, Hayward says Brisbane 2032 should be more about leveraging what the city already has.

“There’s transformative travel-behaviour change potential, if we locate the stadiums adjacent to the high-capacity mass rapid transit network, which we potentially will do in the review,” he says.

Like former Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk, who delivered the previous venue review in March, Hayward’s vision includes Victoria Park, though he acknowledges the topography on the site could be challenging for engineers (and expensive).

Brisbane Olympic Games ‘transport triangle’ legacy plan for 2032, by David Hayward from Dykman Consulting.Credit: Dykman Consulting

A 70,000-seat stadium at the site (or elsewhere within the triangle) could combine with other venues to provide 200,000 stadium seats within the inner-city area, well serviced by high-volume public transport.

“I think for the review, it’s important to also consider RNA Showgrounds – Albion, the RNA and Victoria Park are probably the best inner-city locations,” he says.

The submission’s main variation from the Quirk review recommendations, which saw Albion removed altogether, will be for the Brisbane Arena to be built on the existing Gabba site.

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Building Brisbane’s inner-city arena at Woolloongabba, Hayward says, is a matter of putting a “square peg into a square hole”. AFL and cricket would be given a new home elsewhere, rather than attempt to rebuild the Gabba.

“It falls in my category of ideas that make too much sense,” he says.

“I was ready and waiting for it to be in the Quirk review, but it wasn’t. We’re short on construction work resources, so the way you can sequence it [building it after the main stadium] makes so much sense – and you can keep the school there.”

Hayward has a novel idea for the arena – a “big pineapple” to dwarf Nambour’s landmark – though that design flourish is no dealbreaker.

David Hayward’s ‘Big Pineapple Arena’ vision proposed for the Gabba stadium site at Woolloongabba.Credit: David Hayward

Something a little less eccentric, akin to the new Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, would also suit the site.

“It’s set up for an entertainment quarter, the Gabba, with the pubs and venues around the high density living – it ticks so many boxes,” Hayward says.

Focussing on transport links, Hayward says Perry Park makes better sense than Ballymore, the rugby union venue slated to host hockey in 2032.

“My preference is Ballymore is not a venue that’s used for the Games,” Hayward says, describing it as “a redundant facility”.

Hayward said a rectangular stadium of between 15,000 and 25,000 at Bowen Hills would fill a hole in Brisbane’s sport and entertainment market and take pressure off Suncorp Stadium.

“You’ve got the train station there that’s underutilised and you’ve got the entertainment precinct of the Valley and Brekky Creek,” he said.

“Perry Park would be a true legacy of the Games. We should be optimising our stadia network in the inner-city to last us for 100 years, right? And if you look forward 100 years at what stadiums we’d like to have, and where we’d like to have them, Perry Park is up there in the top three.”

Football Queensland’s proposal for a ‘tier 2’ stadium at Perry Park.Credit: Populous

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The previous Labor government wanted the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre at Nathan to be Brisbane’s main Olympic stadium.

Under Hayward’s vision, the ageing stadium would be integrated into a new low-cost housing, sport and medicine precinct – similar to the transformation of former AFL stadium Waverley Park in Melbourne.

“All the state athletics carnivals, local school carnivals, can still exist there,” he says.

“A lot of the travellers from the regions of Queensland for any Queensland Academy session could have accommodation right on site as well, and whatever other facilities to go with it, and there’s enough space there within the footprint of the grandstands and surrounds to put in a decent amount of housing and academy facilities.”

The former Waverley Park stadium in Melbourne has been redeveloped to integrate housing.Credit: The Age

Hayward also wants Suncorp Stadium’s capacity to be increased to 60,000 in time for the 2027 Rugby World Cup – a capacity that would also allow Brisbane to host the latter stages of a FIFA World Cup, should Australia be granted hosting rights.

“There’s a few areas I believe you could add in more seating at Suncorp,” he says.

That includes moving the video screens/scoreboards from the middle tier at both ends of the stadium to the roof truss – or even suspended above the field (Hayward cited Deutsche Bank Park as an example) – and elevating the lower tier at the northern and southern ends to add six rows closer to the pitch.

Hanging the video screens over the pitch, like in Frankfurt’s Deutsche Bank Park, could allow for more seating at Suncorp Stadium.Credit: Getty Images

That Frankfurt stadium has a retractable membrane roof, which is stored in the central screen structure when open, and folded out along the cables to protect the field from the elements.

“That could actually work because there’s some strong truss structures around Suncorp,” Hayward says.

“You can actually get a roof in there and the scoreboard there, and that offers more value to Stadiums Queensland, obviously, because you can have more crowds in wet weather.”

In the CBD, Hayward says the Riverstage could be so much more than it is now.

David Hayward’s ‘Eternal Flame’ concept for the Riverstage.Credit: David Hayward

He envisages a flame-light structure, representing both indigenous culture and the Olympic movement, acting as a live site for the Games and continuing its role as a live venue into the future.

“It’s a focal point of the city that is completely lost on the city as well,” Hayward says.

And as for the Brisbane Entertainment Centre at outer-suburban Boondall, Hayward says the ageing venue’s days should be numbered.

It is expected to be kept for Brisbane 2032 to host handball, but after that, its future use remains anyone’s guess.

“I don’t know if the site is suitable for housing or not, but given it’s next to a train line, you could perhaps repurpose the massive expanse of gray fields – as we call the car parks, in planning terms – into either housing or parklands surrounding the existing complex,” he says.

“The facilities could be more suited for community purposes and I think that’s potentially the best use for that precinct longer term.”