New Queensland Premier to deliver changed plan for main venue for Brisbane Olympics

Plans for the main venue for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics and Paralympics look set for a reboot with Queensland Premier-elect David Crisafulli pledging to scrap the proposal to upgrade the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre (QSAC) and instead deliver a new plan for Games venues as of early next year.

The newly elected Premier, whose Liberal National Party won in Saturday’s state poll, has previously opposed all plans for the main 2032 Games venue, without offering any proposal of his own. However, he had previously said he would not commit to a new stadium.

Sworn in today, Premier Crisafulli indicated that previous proposals for an upgrade of the Gabba or an all-new stadium in Brisbane’s Victoria Park are again under consideration.

Speaking with reporters after the election victory over the incumbent Labor Party, Premier Crisafulli promised a new Olympic stadium plan by early February, stating “within 100 days Queenslanders will see a plan that they are proud of and in doing so, we can restore faith in that process.”

Premier Crisafulli has given his team one month to appoint a new independent Infrastructure Co-ordination Authority, which will then have 100 days to deliver a report outlining which infrastructure projects will be approved and at what cost.

The new approach comes as no surprise as outgoing Premier Steven Miles had indicated back in March that contracts for major venues would be put off until after the 26th October election.

With the original Games bid suggesting a main Games venue at Brisbane’s Albion Park, subsequent plans explored a $2.7 billion upgrade of Brisbane’s Gabba in inner-city Woolloongabba and the building of an entirely new stadium at Victoria Park at an estimated cost of $3.4 billion.

The Gabba and Victoria Park options were abandoned earlier this year with an upgraded QSAC offered as the preferred option.

In August, a private consortium unveiled a proposal for a 60,000 seat stadium and surrounding sport and hospitality precinct on the Brisbane River.

Looking to move the city’s Olympics infrastructure legacy forward, Premier Crisafulli advised that he had spoken with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the Olympics in a Sunday morning phone call.

Explaining this, he advised “I spent a considerable amount of time talking to the Prime Minister about that and we intend to speak directly to the (Federal) Sports Minister (Anika Wells), who is a Queenslander, and I reckon we can get a good outcome.”

Earlier in the year, former Brisbane Mayor Graham Quirk led a 60-day review of Queensland’s infrastructure for the Games, and ultimately recommended a new stadium at Victoria Park to replace an “end of life” Gabba.

However, if a rebuild of the Gabba now returns as an option it will leave Brisbane without a major venue for AFL and cricket for the duration of the rebuild.

Images: A 2021 artists impression of a rebuilt Gabba in Games mode (top), the Games bid proposal showed a new stadium in Albion Park (middle) and a concept for a new venue in Albion Park (below).