By Nick Mulvenney
SYDNEY (Reuters) – The impassioned debate over the main stadium for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics looks set to be reignited in the wake of a change of government in the state of Queensland at the weekend.
David Crisafulli will be sworn in as the new Premier of the state on Monday after the victory of his Liberal National Party at the polls and he has already promised a new plan for the showpiece arena by early February.
“I spent a considerable amount of time talking to the prime minister about that … and I reckon we can get a good outcome,” Crisafulli told reporters after a phone call with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday.
“Within 100 days, Queenslanders will see a plan that they are proud of and, in doing so, we can restore faith in that process.”
The issue of a main Olympic stadium has been the very definition of a political football in northeastern Australian state since Brisbane was awarded the Games in 2021.
Local politicians have been looking to balance the price of a stadium suitable to host the opening ceremony and athletics at Australia’s third Olympics with the cost-of-living crisis many in the state have been enduring.
The original plan was a A$2.7 billion ($1.78 billion) revamp of Brisbane’s Gabba cricket stadium but Crisafulli’s predecessor as premier, Steven Miles, blanched at the cost and ordered a review of plans last December.
The review reported in March and proposed a new purpose-built 55,000-seat Olympic stadium be constructed in an inner city park at a cost of A$3.4 billion.
Miles rejected the recommendation, again on the grounds of cost, and instead decided rugby stadium Lang Park would host the ceremonies with the track and field shunted out to the QSAC athletics ground in southern suburbs of the city.
Australian athletics great Raelene Boyle responded by saying Brisbane was planning a “cheapskate” Games and a group of local Olympic champions said in a letter to the government that using the QSAC site would be an “embarrassment” for the state.
Crisafulli agreed but is on the record as opposing a new stadium being built so it may be that a modified form of the original plan to refurbish the Gabba is the most likely option.
That would also meet with the approval of Olympic chiefs, who awarded Brisbane the Games under the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) “New Norms” process.
The process is a more targeted procedure aimed at saving hundreds of millions of dollars for host cities and increasing long-term sustainability.
Eight years out from the Games, some 80% of the venues are already in place with the main stadium and a federal government-funded A$2.5 billion arena in Brisbane to host the swimming the only two major construction projects planned.
($1 = 1.5161 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Nick Mulvenney; Editing by Michael Perry)
