SYDNEY: Australian Olympic Committee chief executive Matt Carroll has warned that a final decision on the main venues for the 2032 Brisbane Olympics needs to be made before the end of June.

Brisbane was awarded the Games in 2021 but political rows, particularly over the main stadium and the venue for the athletics, have meant that a final plan is not yet in place.

Upon his election as Queensland State Premier last November, David Crisafulli announced a seven-member board would conduct a second review of the venue options and report in early March.

“I think it is time to finalise any more reviews and settle on exactly what the ... governments want to fund in terms of venues,” Carroll told a Senate Inquiry at the Federal Parliament in Canberra on Friday.

“I think [that needs to happen in] the first half of this year, for two reasons.

“One, the sports programme will start to be fleshed out the following year in 2026, which is obviously very important, and it’s obviously important to start the construction process, or whatever work that needs to be done, which is going to take a bit of time.”

Carroll said that Brisbane being awarded the Games an unprecedented 11 years before the opening ceremony had proved to be a double edged sword but any further delays could lead to challenges in completing projects in plenty of time.

“It’s important to get on with the job now in decisions around the venues, in decisions around anything that’s going to be built,” he said.

“The construction industry in Australia is stretched at the moment, therefore to be able to start to do all these venues, wherever they may be, needs to be you know moved along swiftly, but everyone knows that.”

Crisafulli’s predecessor Steven Miles had rejected a plan for a A$2.7 billion ($1.7 billion) revamp of Brisbane’s Gabba cricket ground as well as a proposed new A$3.4 billion Olympic stadium in the inner city’s Victoria Park.

His solution, the use of the Lang Park rugby stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies with the athletics taking place in the ageing QSAC venue in southern suburbs of the city, was described as an “embarrassment” by a group of local Olympic champions.

Crisafulli’s review committee is no longer taking submissions, having already received a proposal from Swimming Australia for a new aquatics centre in Victoria Park and another for a 60,000-seat wooden stadium to be built next to the Gabba.

Environmental campaigners and some local residents are already organising in opposition to any development of Victoria Park, which Greens Senator Penny Allman-Payne described as the “lungs” of Brisbane.

Carroll said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) would need to approve any changes to the venue plan, which would also have to align with bid commitments Brisbane made on environmental impact and sustainability.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2025