Qld’s Olympics bid includes new 80,000-seat Brisbane stadium

Plans for a world-class stadium in Brisbane with capacity for 80,000 people have been revealed as the centrepiece of a Queensland bid for the 2032 Olympics.

The stadium, which would host the athletics and opening and closing ceremonies, was part of a masterplan that included two athletes villages — one in Brisbane and the other on the Gold Coast – a faster rail network linking south-east Queensland and a second M1 Highway between the Gold Coast and Brisbane.

The current QEII stadium would need to be demolished with the RNA Showgrounds and QEII at Nathan suggested as possible sites for the new Brisbane stadium.

Mayne Rd Rail Yards at Bowen Hills and Albion Park were also among possible sites for a new stadium.

The plans were announced as an Australian delegation that included Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates and Star Entertainment Group chairman John O’Neill met with International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach in Switzerland overnight.

Palaszczuk told the delegation that Queensland would stage a “safe and welcoming” Games.

“We will provide a safe and welcoming Games,’’ Palaszczuk told Bach. “There is no other place like Queensland on the planet.’’

Marking a contrast with the old expensive system of bidding, Bach has invited countries to sit down with the IOC executive to work out whether a successful bid was feasible. Bach said he wants “very few losers’’ from the new bidding process.

If Queensland’s pitch impresses the IOC, it will proceed on its final bid, which will go before the IOC just before the Tokyo Olympics in July next year before a final decision by 2022.

Sheridan Randall, 11^th September 2019