Brisbane Olympics 2032: David Crisafulli breaks election promise and announces controversial new stadium

Story by Andrew Messenger and Ben Smee, Guardian – extract of on line story

The Queensland government has announced it will build a new $3.8bn 63,000-seat venue at Brisbane’s Victoria Park as part of plans for a main stadium and other venues for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Breaking an election promise, the state government on Tuesday announced it would build several new facilities.

And the historic Gabba is slated for demolition, to be replaced by residential development.

A long-planned Brisbane Live Arena – which had been slated for the swimming – will not receive $2.5bn in commonwealth funding.

The premier, David Crisafulli, said the private sector will build the entertainment hub project at an old industrial site next to the Gabba.

“A new national aquatic centre will be developed at the site of the existing Centenary Pool in Spring Hill.”

The two large facilities will be just a few hundred metres apart.

The aquatic centre will feature main and secondary stadiums, each with large indoor pools to support elite training and competition. It will have a capacity of more than 25,000 during the Games and 8,000 after they end.

The Brisbane Showgrounds, which is also nearby, will host the athletes village. An earlier plan to build a new facility at Hamilton has been shelved.

Its 140-year-old heritage-listed main arena will be upgraded to a 20,000-seat capacity.

Upgrades to the Queensland Tennis Centre in Tennyson will include a new 3,000-seat show court arena and 12 new match courts.

There will also be new indoor sports centres at Logan and Moreton Bay, and a new whitewater rafting centre in the Redlands.

“The time has come to just get on with it and get on with it we will,” Crisafulli said on Tuesday.

The government has yet to reveal the individual costs of each venue, but insists it will be able to deliver the entire games within their existing $7.1bn budget.

At a press conference later on Tuesday, the premier confirmed he would tap a number of sporting codes and the private sector to help fund the event.

The Brisbane Arena – estimated to cost $2.3bn – will be entirely funded by the private sector, he said. The land the Gabba sits on will form the basis for a new residential precinct.

Crisafulli flagged that many other projects will be delivered in a public private partnership.

“I don’t fear that. I embrace that. And if there’s an opportunity with the stadium, well, that should be looked at,” he said.

He said the government had received “multiple, multiple” offers from the private sector for an arrangement to build the Arena, with government providing land and planning approval.

“And that, to me, makes a lot of sense. It makes a lot of sense, not just for taxpayers, but indeed, for people who want to get who want to see cities become world class cities,” he said.

Crisafulli said the state was not going to ask the Commonwealth for additional money than its $2.5bn commitment, and private sector investment isn’t required to keep within the $7.1bn budget.

Timeframes are also tight.

An indicative timeline prepared by the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority suggested the main stadium would need to have a investment case finished in months, with planning approvals complete by the third quarter of 2026 to make it in time.

The project would need to be built in just four years with “practical completion” set for 12 months before the opening ceremony.

It’s estimated cost of $3.785bn does not include “associated precinct and transport infrastructure costs”.