Big Brisbane 2032 stadium call made, ‘best in world’ swimming surprise as Gabba gone — LIVE

Brisbane will become the home of an elite state-of-the-art sporting facility that will rival the world’s best stadiums after confirmation on Tuesday that a contentious 63,000-seat venue will be built in Victoria Park to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

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Archipelago Architects Brisbane Bold 2032 Olympic Park concept designs for Victoria Park Picture Archipelago Architects Source: Supplied

More than four years after Brisbane won Olympic hosting rights, it was confirmed that Victoria Park will become the major sporting precinct in Queensland for the Games and beyond, eclipsing Suncorp Stadium to become the biggest venue in the state.

In a decision that has significant ramifications for the city, a new Victoria Park stadium will become the new home of cricket and AFL in the state after the Olympics, with the Gabba to be knocked down after a “swansong” at the Games.

The home of sport in Brisbane for 130 years and the scene of some of Australia’s finest cricket moments, its future is uncertain but likely to become part of an entertainment precinct bordering the Cross River Rail site.

“Wouldn’t it be amazing to see the Australian cricket team win gold at an Olympic final (as part of) the Gabbas swansong?” Queensland Premier David Crisafulli said.

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BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos - MARCH 24, 2025: Pictures of Ò The GabbaÓ Stadium precinct and surrounds in Woolongabba ahead of the Qld State Governments plan for the 2032 Olympic Games. Picture: NewsWire / Glenn Campbell Source: News Corp Australia

The Queensland Premier said time had run out to upgrade the Gabba, which had been his preferred venue, and that the only choice was to “rewind the clock four decades” to the Sport and Aquatic Centre or to invest in a new option, namely Victoria Park.

“It became a choice between spending billions on temporary facilities and temporary stands that delivered no legacy (and did not) secure the future of AFL and cricket at a new home,” the Queensland Premier said.

“It became a choice between delivering a Games with an eye to the future or rewinding the clock for decades. In the end, the choice was clear. The Games must be held at a new stadium at Victoria Park.

“Any other choice would have meant placing the government’s political interests ahead of the interests of Queenslanders. We’ve had enough of that in the last few years and I wasn’t prepared to do that.”

It is an Olympic-scale backflip by Crisafulli, which had won office in part on the back of promises there would be no new Olympic stadium built in his tenure as Premier.

But after a second expert-led review instituted by his government found the initial recommendation by former Lord Mayor Graham Quirk in regards to the stadium had merit, it altered course.

Asked at the function at the Howard Smith Wharves how he would cope with the backlash associated with the backflip, Crisafulli said it would be “by being honest and copping that on the chin.”

“You’re right. I have to own that and I will and I am sorry and it’s my decision and I accept that decision,” he said.

“But I’m also going to release what’s in this independent report and having known ... you’ve got two key tenants in the Lions and the Bulls (at the Gabba), it is not possible to deliver that, with that dislocation, in this period of time. So I have to be open and honest with Queenslanders.

“But in the end it was a choice between QSAC and a new stadium and I know which one would have been politically easier for me to make, but I’ve made the right choice .. and Queenslanders will see why we’ve made it.”

After intense lobbying that led to a significant shift in thinking, Swimming Australia will also be awarded a permanent home at an estimated cost of $650 million, with the centre at Centenary Pool to feature a 25,000-seat stadium.

Centenary Pool will be revamped near the showpiece Victoria Park stadium and will feature as part of a “big and bold” Olympics that follows on from the superb Paris Games last year, with Los Angeles the next host city in 2028.

“That is delivering a legacy for the future and I can confirm it will be the best aquatic centre in the world,” the Queensland Premier said.

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Amid fears Brisbane could become a “global embarrassment” when hosting the Games, four-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer Cate Campbell said the delivery of elite stadiums in the park north of the city’s CBD was vital for the future.

“Let’s not forget that we also have the Paralympic Games coming just a couple of weeks after the Olympic Games,” she told Today.

“For people in the community with disability and accessibility issues, they’re going to be able to access this brand spanking new stadium, which is going to be purpose built and is going to serve Queenslanders for years and years.

“This isn’t just about 2032, it’s (about) 2042, 2052 and onwards.”

While Suncorp Stadium was not referenced in the Olympics plan, the Queensland Premier said the union and league venue is already world-class. He promised the venue will not be neglected over the next seven years leading into the Brisbane Games.

KEY CALL MADE AS REGIONAL VENUES GET GREEN LIGHT

The highly-anticipated announcement of Olympic venues on Tuesday afternoon saw the Queensland Government adopt a broader scope when it came to hosting rights for events.

Rather than being solely the Brisbane Olympics, with events held in neighbouring regions on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, it will instead be a Queensland Games given the spread from the south-east of the state all the way to Far North Queensland.

As previously speculated, Rockhampton will host rowing events on the Fitzroy River, a body of water that has its share of freshwater crocodiles.

There are concerns about the course meeting IOC compliancy but Crisafulli said that if it is good enough for Queensland school-aged rowers, it will be “good enough for Pierre from Paris”.

Sailing events will be held in picturesque FNQ between Townsville and the Whitsunday Islands in a significant switch from the original plans voted upon by Olympic nations when awarding the Olympics to Brisbane in 2021.

Townsville will also host football along with Cairns, which will feature some basketball matches.

Should cricket feature in the Olympics, as appears likely, Cairns will also host some cricket matches along with Mackay, which currently hosts international matches, before a “swansong” at the Gabba.

Toowoomba will be the new home for equestrian events after a shift in plans for the Olympic Village, which will now be located at the Brisbane Showgrounds, the home of the popular Ekka show each August.

Maryborough will host archery, while the Pat Rafter Tennis Centre in Tennyson will receive a significant upgrade, with a new 3,000-seat stadium built as a secondary court at the facility along with 12 additional outside courts.

The Courier-Mail revealed on Tuesday that hockey will be hosted on the Gold Coast at the venue that was used during the 2018 Commonwealth Games rather than at Ballymore, the home of the Queensland Reds.

Hockey Australia lobbied for the Gold Coast venue as a legacy site, stating upgrades to the facility would enable it to host future international competitions. An athletes village will also be built at the Royal Pines Golf Club.

Back in Brisbane, the Chandler facility will be upgraded to become a dedicated parasport site.

But the Olympics announcement on Tuesday is unlikely to put a full stop to four years of political brawling, with opponents of the Victoria Park concept having briefed barristers to be ready to fight prior to the announcement.

There is only seven years to prepare Brisbane for the Olympics but opponents including the Save Victoria Park group seem likely to issue legal challenges regarding the new venues.

Campbell Newman, a former Queensland Liberal Premier, features among a group said to include Indigenous elders and senior lawyers aghast at the potential loss of green space in Victoria Park.

“It is not only the stadium, but now we’re getting the swimmers talking about putting a swimming venue in the park as well. And this is what happens. These people really have to look at their own words,” Newman told Fox Sports News.

“One minute they’re saying it’s only going to take up x-percent of the Park. The next minute, within a few breaths, they’re talking about putting the swimming in there as well. And that’s how it goes (and soon) you have no park.”

The community are rallying together to protest the likelihood of an Olympic Stadium in Victoria Park/ Barrambin, following the information leak from the Olympics 100-day review panel. Location Queens Gardens. Picture: Patrick Woods. Source: Supplied

Former Premier Steve Miles, whose preference was for an upgraded Queensland Sport and Aquatic Centre to host the Olympics in keeping with the new Olympic ethos of making use of existing infrastructure, was savage in his condemnation before the announcement.

“David Crisafulli promised there would be no new stadiums,” he posted on social media.

“David Crisafulli has been a long-time opponent of a new stadium. He promised he would not build one. But it seems that was just a lie.

“(On Tuesday) we will see the truth about what this LNP Government has been secretly planning. And what they will cut to deliver it.”

But Crisafulli said the time had come “to get on with it” and that his “job was to deliver it, and deliver it we will”.

“Imagine the visit Queensland story. Just imagine people sitting there consuming the best food and drink we have on offer in buildings built using Queensland products and metals made using Queensland minerals,” he said.

“That’s a story to tell and let me assure you, with this plan, we will be ready when the eyes of the world turn to Queensland.

“Let them see we’re not Paris, we’re not LA. This will be better and it’ll be the Queensland way and that’s what will make the Games great to my fellow Queenslanders.

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