It has been 1,343 days since Brisbane was awarded the 2032 Olympic Games.
“Even the most partisan person, looking at where we are at the moment, would acknowledge that it's been three years of chaos and crisis,” Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said.
The Queensland government is set to announce the long-awaited venue blueprint tomorrow, the third and (hopefully) final iteration of the plan.
“Yes, there's been a long time since we were awarded the Games, but I do believe we’ve got a plan that can get the show back on the road,” Crisafulli added.
Following a 100-day infrastructure review and nearly four years of dithering, political backflips, infighting, u-turns and false starts, almost half the 14 venues in the city proposed by Brisbane when it bid for the Games are reportedly on the chopping block.
The original opening ceremony venue, a redevelopment of the ageing Gabba, is gone.
Its replacement, QSAC (the smallest Olympic stadium in nearly a century), is also gone.
Instead, Premier Crisafulli, who went to the state election insisting there would be no new stadiums, is widely expected to backflip and support plans for a new $3.4 billion dollar 60,000-seat Olympic stadium at Victoria Park, the largest remaining piece of green space near Brisbane’s CBD.
Also in the plans? A state-of-the-art swimming centre and a rowing venue with a difference!
The croc-inhabited Fitzroy River in Central Queensland is expected to host the games rowing events.
So, with the clock ticking, can Queensland finally clear the hurdles to deliver a winning Olympic plan?
Former Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has signed an open letter urging Premier Crisafulli not to build the 60,000-seat stadium in Victoria Park.
Newman told The Project that the plan had been rushed.
“There hasn't been proper consultation,” Newman explained. “I've seen more consultation putting swings in a local park, and I was a former mayor of Brisbane, we put more time and effort into consulting the community about those sorts of things and here, what we're about to do is destroy a great park.”
Newman put forward Hamilton Northshore as an alternative option.
“It's adjacent to the major arterial road, so people could drive to the Olympic venue. We have the city cat ferries already. We would enhance that with new ferry services from the CBD.”
