BSS
  24 Mar 2025, 09:10

Australia rewrites plan to host 2032 Brisbane Games

SYDNEY, March 24, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Australia said Monday it is overhauling
its multi-billion-dollar plans for hosting the 2032 Summer Olympics in
Brisbane after years of "chaos and crisis".

The new plan, reportedly including a new 60,000-seat stadium, rewrites much
of a Aus$7.0 billion (US$4.4 billion) infrastructure scheme announced two
years ago.

"I do believe we've got a plan that can get the show back on the road,"
Queensland Premier David Crisafulli told reporters on the eve of the official
unveiling of the new scheme.

"It's a plan to make sure that we do deliver generational infrastructure, and
it's a plan to make sure that we do host a great Games when the eyes of the
world are on us," the conservative state leader said.

"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 since we were
awarded the Games."

The Queensland capital was awarded the 2032 summer Olympics and Paralympics
in July 2021, returning the Games to Australia for a third time after
Melbourne 1956 and then Sydney 2000.

Two years ago, the state's then centre-left Labor government had announced
plans to expand the famous Gabba cricket ground and create a new 17,000-seat
indoor stadium for the Games.

But Australian media, including Brisbane's Courier Mail, said plans for the
revamped Gabba and new stadium were now expected to be scrapped.

In all, six of the previously planned 14 Brisbane Games venues were set to be
changed or axed, the Courier Mail said.

The new plan would likely feature a new 60,000-seat stadium to be built in
the city's Victoria Park, the newspaper said.

Crisafulli said he had discussed the revamped plan with Prime Minister
Anthony Albanese, whose Labor government faces general elections in May.

The federal government had committed to paying for much of the Brisbane Games
infrastructure in the previous scheme.

"Of course, that there's been some strong negotiations," Crisafulli said in a
joint news conference with the Australian prime minister.

"Two people of Italian descent, you'd expect that," he said. "But there's
nothing that can't be solved over a bit of common sense and a cannoli."