Brisbane Olympics Development Guide

The 2032 Brisbane Olympics may still be a decade away but a raft of development and infrastructure projects are ready to break ground following planning discussions between the Brisbane City Council and the International Olympics Committee.

As many as 14 new sports venues in Brisbane, seven on the Gold Coast and five on the Sunshine Coast were proposed as part of Brisbane’s original Olympic bid.

Brisbane’s new venues includes the $1-billion redevelopment of the existing cricket stadium in Woolloongabba to serve as the main stadium, hosting the opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics.

New stadiums will be constructed, including the 17,000-capacity inner-city Brisbane Arena, first mooted in 2018, to host swimming in a temporary pool, and the Brisbane Indoor Sports Centre to host basketball.

The International Olympic Committee said that about 80 to 90 per cent of the “advanced games concept” venues needed for the 2032 games already existed in Brisbane or would be completed by 2032.

The successful bid makes Brisbane the smallest city by population to host the summer games since Montreal in 1976.

Queensland’s tourism sector will be one of the key beneficiaries, a sector significantly impacted by the pandemic due to international border closures and intermittent domestic border restrictions, with up to 130,000 direct jobs anticipated to be created.

Overall, it will cost almost $7 billion to run the games, which will be privately funded.

Fondly known as the Gabba, the first stadium was built on the site in 1895 and has undergone two substantial renovations and refurbishments since 1993.

The last major redevelopment was completed in 2005 when a 24-bay grandstand was built for $128 million.

Long-overdue renovation plans for Queensland’s historic sports stadium which were drawn up in 2017.

The stadium is surrounded by some of Brisbane’s busiest arterial roads, leading to large crowds of pedestrians having to wait at multiple sets of traffic lights.

It has also been long criticised for its lacking “sense of arrival” or “defined front door”.

In August 2018, the state government committed $100 million to rectify land surrounding the stadium to activate public space while connecting pedestrians with existing and future transit infrastructure.

▲ An artist's impression of a proposed Olympic village at Robina for the Brisbane Olympics in 2032.

It eventually could offer a diverse residential offering, including aged care, retirement living, social and affordable housing, key worker, hotel, build-to-rent and market accommodation.

Economic Development Queensland recently awarded a $14-million package of works to BMD Constructions to construct three new roads and upgrade two others with associated services and landscaping at the eastern end of Northshore.

Robina will be the location for the second athletes village housing up to 2600 athletes and officials in a new residential development.

The region would host events including aquatics, beach volleyball, golf, judo, triathlon, volleyball, weightlifting and wrestling.

The village’s Collyer Quays site is only two minutes from Cbus Super Stadium, where football games will be held.

It’s also close to all other proposed Olympic venue on the Gold Coast except the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre.

In early August, plans for the Roma Street Cross River Rail Priority Development Area, above the new Roma Street underground train station, were approved to include a new indoor arena to host swimming and water polo.

It was originally pitched as the Brisbane Live arena, a 17,000-seat entertainment venue pegged for Brisbane’s CBD by music entrepreneur Harvey Lister’s company ASM Global, which operates the ageing Brisbane Entertainment Centre at Boondall.

The Roma Street Cross River Rail PDA covers about 32ha as a gateway to the city centre.

An additional 2ha of public space will be added to the Roma Street Parklands along with new residential buildings along Parkland Boulevard, which would include a mix of social and affordable housing.

Cycling and pedestrian paths would connect to the Olympic indoor arena next to the heritage former Roma Street Railway Station, which has been earmarked for adaptive reuse.

The Brisbane Indoor Sports Centre forms part of Brisbane's bid to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

The new venue will be located in or near the inner Brisbane suburb of Herston or Albion, just north of the CBD, not far from the Brisbane showgrounds, Ballymore and Victoria Park located nearby.

The facility will host basketball during the Games, with a seating capacity of 12,000.While little is known about this venue, following the Games it'll be a 12 court facility and a community sports hub.

Therefore, it appears it'll be a similar facility to the Gold Coast Sports and Leisure Centre and the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre, both used for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with temporary grandstands used to create a show court.

Chandler Arena is an indoor arena located at the Sleeman Sports Complex in Brisbane.

Formerly known as the Sleeman Sports Centre, the arena was built for the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games and has a seating capacity of 2700.It can host a range of sports including basketball and netball, and is the previous home venue of the Brisbane Bullets and Queensland Firebirds.

As part of Brisbane's bid to host the Games, it was proposed the Chandler Arena be replaced a new 10,000-capacity Chandler Indoor Sports Centre.

The Brisbane Aquatic Centre is being redevelopment into a world-class indoor swimming centre.

Part of the Sleeman Sports Complex, the aquatic centre consists of four main swimming pools—a 50m indoor Olympic pool, a 50m outdoor Olympic pool, a 25m diving pool and a 25m lap pool.

The centre has grandstand seating for 4300 spectators in two tiers on either side of the indoor pool.

Previously known as the Chandler Aquatic Centre, the venue has hosted numerous high-profile events including the 1982 Commonwealth Games and 2001 Goodwill Games.