In the hours before Brisbane hosts Collingwood in a rematch of last year’s AFL grand final on Easter Thursday, the streets surrounding the Gabba were filling with fans.
From those enjoying a Schoefferhofer at the Brisbane German Club on Vulture St to patrons filling the restaurants on Logan Rd, just behind Stanley St, a sea of fans wearing maroon, yellow and blue, or the black and white of Collingwood, were readying themselves what is surprisingly already a critical clash for both clubs.
Now an established fixture to start the Easter weekend, a capacity crowd is expected for what will be the ninth sellout at the Gabba for the Lions in their past 14 games at the historic venue.
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Even though neither of the 2023 standouts have won a game this season, Brisbane chairman Andrew Wellington has no doubt thousands more would pile in if the capacity at the Gabba was greater.
When the Lions are firing, as they have been dating back to a semi-final appearance in 2019, the atmosphere at the ground is electric and it is a brilliant place to watch footy.
From the speakers pumping John Denver’s classic Take Me Home, Country Roads following a goal from small forward Charlie Cameron to the Brisbane Lions anthem sung to the tune of La Marseillaise after a win, it is a rich footy experience. As Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said on Wednesday; “There is not a bad seat in the house.”
But those attending will not see the chaos and decrepit conditions behind the scenes at the Gabba, as identified in the Sport Venue Review headed by Graham Quirk investigating how best Brisbane should prepare for the 2032 Olympics.
It makes for alarming reading and has been the subject of major discussion in Queensland for months amid government backflips when it comes to planning for the future.
Put simply, by the end of this decade, the Gabba will be on death’s door.
With a maximum attendance of 37,000 for AFL games and 33,000 for cricket, the historic venue already lags behind the other mainland states and will also fall behind Tasmania should the contentious Macquarie Point stadium be build by the end of this decade.
The ramifications are already evident. The Gabba has lost its hold on the first Test of the summer, with WACA chief executive Christina Matthews saying on Wednesday they had received assurances Perth Stadium has hosting rights for the next seven summers.
The problems identified by the Quirk report commissioned by the Queensland Government, which now stands accused of ignoring the key recommendations, are concerning.
Part of the Gabba roof failed in 2008 and it is near the end of its shelf life. Degradation has been identified in the steel structure. The cooling and ventilation system is at the end of its viability. The lifts are unreliable and need upgrading to meet fire safety standards while the lighting at the ground must be improved.
The review found meeting the requirements for back-scene improvements would cost $1 billion … without actually enhancing the viewing perspective or capacity at the ground. It would be a Band-Aid solution.
And that does not consider other major issues. For example, an ambulance cannot currently enter the playing field should it be required. Non-able bodied access to the ground is a disaster. There are no female locker rooms or toilets. Conditions for caterers are inferior.
Anyone who has spent time in the locker rooms below will know that they are inferior to the training complexes at every AFL club, let alone suitable for an international sporting venue.
And when the Cross River Rail station opens outside the Gabba, a source told foxsports.com.au there are real concerns about overcrowding outside the venue given fans can only access the stadium at the section their ticket is in.
“Rebuilding the ageing Gabba requires substantial investment and, even when complete, will still not deliver a truly international standard stadium due to the constraints of the site. There is no alternative partial redevelopment option that will provide value for money or substantially avoid the need for a total rebuild in the long term,” the Quirk review concluded.
“It is recommended that, when an alternative stadium becomes available, the existing structure be demolished and the site be repurposed.”
KNOCKING DOWN THE GABBA? NOT SO FAST
While the Olympics are very much a celebration of international athletes, there is also a hope that they leave a lasting legacy on the host city. But the Brisbane Games were going to cause an issue for key domestic sports.
Leading into Christmas last year, Australia’s domestic sports were gnashing their teeth about the prospect of having to relocate from the Gabba for an extended period during a rebuild when it seemed the venue was the preferred option to host the opening ceremony of the Olympics.
It would end a streak dating back to the summer of 1976-1977 of the 128-year-old venue hosting a Test match, while the Lions were assessing temporary solutions at a time when they are considered to be in the premiership window.
The cost of either adding capacity to the Lions new training venue in Springfield, which is world class, or upgrading the RSA Showgrounds was expected to be in the vicinity of $80 million and came with the prospect of the club receiving no compensation for a loss in revenue associated with crowds, sponsorship revenue and other streams of income at the Gabba.
But the prospects of a new stadium being built at Victoria Park appealed given the long-term benefits associated with a move from the Gabba, which would be demolished based on a key recommendation of the Quirk Review.
Instead Queensland Premier Steven Miles’ government has ignored the recommendations of the report, which identified a stadium in Victoria Park as a legacy-defining project for Brisbane 2032.
As a result, things have changed for the major domestic sports in the short-to-medium term.
The Queensland Government now says it will allocate $1 billion to upgrade the Gabba and Suncorp Stadium, with the Queensland Sports and Athletics Centre that was built for the Commonwealth Games in 1982 to receive a $1.6 billion makeover to host the Olympics.
When acknowledging this week that the Queensland Government opted for the cheaper as opposed to best option, Mr Miles told The Today Show;
“I don’t think Queenslanders were ready for an extra billion dollars to be spent on the Olympics and Paralympics while they’re struggling with their household bills right now.”
The decision was the subject of yet a scathing editorial in the Courier-Mail on the morning of Collingwood’s clash against Brisbane on Easter Thursday.
Are the domestic codes happy? They are still looking to Victoria Park in Brisbane’s inner-north as the preferred venue in the long-term.
While the economic impact is vastly better for the Brisbane Lions in the short-term, they are of the view that the State Government decision simply postpones what will become a significant issue shortly after the Olympics are completed.
Wellington, who is a chartered accountant with extensive experience in the financial industry, said the Lions believe further consideration should be given to building at Victoria Park.
“The Lions really believe there should be further investigation of the Victorian Park Stadium option,” Brisbane’s chairman told foxsports.com.au.
“The current decision seems to ignore the fact that the Gabba will be nearing the end of its useful life around 2030. So regardless of what investments are made in QSAC or other options, there’s going to have to be some material form of investment in the medium to long-term at the Gabba.
“If you are going to do that, given some of the restrictions associated with the Gabba site, surely you would want to explore some alternative options.
“The Quirk report was quite clear that in that committees view, taking a legacy perspective, the Victoria Park option was likely to
represent the best value for money for Queenslanders.”
When launching the summer of cricket for 2024-25 at the MCG on Wednesday, Cricket Australia’s boss Nick Hockley said the Gabba had fallen behind the rest of the country.
“We’ve talked about the Perth Test. We’ve seen how having a city-centre, state-of-the-are stadium can be the catalyst for sport but (also) more major events,” he said.
“The reality is the other major metros, now Tasmania with the prospect of a new stadium there, are well ahead in terms of the fan experience, the provision for players, just the ease of operation. We want to make sure, as best as we can, that there is a really fantastic solution for the long-term for Queenslanders.”
Hockley, who had a significant role when working on the London Games in 2012, said the 2032 Olympics offered Queensland an opportunity for transformational change.
“We want to be a really constructive partner with the Queensland government. Myself, having worked on the London Olympics, you don’t get many opportunities for real transformational change and a catalyst to invest,” he said.
“There’s going to be some significant investment into the Gabba … and we’re not going to be displaced from the Gabba, so having that clarity is really, really important.
“But I think we are working to really understand what all that means and ultimately what is really important is the longer term, what happens beyond 2032. And I think cricket fans in Queensland and footy fans deserve a fit-for-purpose, long-term solution that’s going to help grow our respective sports. It needs investment, regardless.”
HOW ABOUT THE OLYMPIANS? THE SWIMMERS ARE MAKING A SPLASH
The focus on Australia’s domestic codes may prove galling for administrators and athletes involved in Olympic disciplines given the Games is their time to shine.
But it is worth noting those sports will be the major stakeholders once the Olympic circus has left Brisbane in eight years time.
That aside, from the Paris Olympics this year to the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, there is significant excitement following the difficulties experienced by the Covid-affected Tokyo Olympics.
Athletics Australia president Jane Fleming and Queensland Athletics chief executive Dave Gynther hosted an online forum on Wednesday night to discuss the latest news surrounding the 2032 Olympics and Paralympics.
Reigning Olympic 200m and 400m freestyle champion Ariarne Titmus said she is dismayed the Olympic trials will be held at the Brisbane Aquatic Centre in Chandler, a venue built of the 1982 Commonwealth Games.
She is also disturbed that the current plan is to build a temporary pool at Brisbane Arena in the Roma Street precinct instead of a permanent option.
“I feel disappointed in that I don’t think we are putting our best foot forward as a city,” she said on Wednesday.
“We will come off the back of the LA Games in 2028. America does everything huge, but I believe that Brisbane can do it better.
“(But) the biggest legacy they leave behind would be an Olympic training centre and I cannot believe that building a (permanent) pool is not on the cards.
“I really hope that with all these discussions around the Olympics, the athletes are put first and (that we) remember why we took on the Olympic Games, (namely) to create a legacy and build our city and inspire the next generation of athletes coming through. I really hope that is at the forefront of decisions.”
Fellow champion swimmer Cate Campbell was similarly scathing of the uncertainty surrounding the planning for the Olympics.
“We are really squandering an incredible opportunity by all this bickering, by short-term visions by the government looking for ways to keep themselves in a job, as opposed to what will actually be good for southeast Queensland,” she told Today.
“I know that the state Premier is talking about cost of living and not wanting to spend things, but you’ve just spent $450,000 on a review when you had a perfectly good action plan.”
WHY NOT QSAC?
AFL legend Leigh Matthews, who coached the Lions to a hat-trick of premierships between 2001 and 2003 and has been a board member, said the issues surrounding the Macquarie Point stadium build in Hobart and the decision to ignore key recommendations in the Quirk report in Brisbane came down to one thing.
“This is exactly the same debate that is going on up in Brisbane and in Queensland about the 2032 Olympic Games,” he said on 3AW last Saturday.
“Stadiums are a 20-year, 30-year, 40-year thing and unfortunately modern political leadership for the long-term is just sadly lacking. They are just thinking about the short-term stuff.
“Stadiums are long-term issues and I am afraid the politics of our society these days just doesn’t seem to be able to handle that.”
But the Queensland premier Mr Miles said upgrading QSAC will be a cheap and serviceable option and that the Brisbane 2032 will prove a hit regardless of the venue.
Temporary seating would be built to transform the venue into a 40,000 stadium and while that would be the smallest capacity for an opening ceremony since the Amsterdam Games in 1928, it does have the backing of the International Olympic Committee.
Australia’s IOC supremo John Coates told The Australian that the model preferred by the Queensland Government fitted with the ruling body’s move towards lower-cost games using existing facilities where possible.
“If there was to be a new stadium, this is contractually very different from what is signed (by the IOC and the Queensland government) to have a low cost Games, so it would have to have approval from the IOC and the sports federations which would be affected by the decision,” he said.
“Mr Quirk was part of the team which helped get the Games and so this would not be a surprise to him. The IOC is very sensitive to the cost of the Games and so this approval (any deviation from the contract) is not a given.”
Despite Coates imprimatur, those advocating for a new stadium to be built at Victoria Park ponder whether the strict wording regarding existing facilities is being deliberately misinterpreted.
As one Queenslander quipped to foxsports.com.au this week, if an “existing venue” is critical to funding, surely the Gympie local council could put their hands up for an upgrade to the showgrounds at the town sitting by the Mary River.
WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? IS VICTORIA PARK DONE AND DUSTED?
For all the discussion, it seems probable much will rest on the outcome of the next state government election to be held on October 26.
Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner, who replaced Graham Quirk in the role in 2019 and was re-elected in local government elections held earlier in March, has firmed his view on the benefits of a new stadium being built at Victoria Park.
Late last year, he was a proponent for expanding greenlands as part of the Victoria Park Vision when pointing out the advantages of its proximity to public transport.
“The Victoria Park Vision will add to great new lifestyle opportunities that continues to see people flocking to the city to enjoy our sunny and laid-back lifestyle,” he said.
Schrinner, who stepped down from the government’s Games forum last year, declared last weekend the games were at a “crossroads” and stressed Victoria Park was a compelling site to host a new stadium, particularly if it could be built below the current estimate of $3.4 billion.
“The reality is they spend a billion dollars on the Gabba that is still not fit for purpose, still not upgraded, and then QSA is not really a replacement for the Gabba either, so we will be left with effectively two poor outcomes when it comes to stadiums when you could do it properly at Victoria Park,” he said.
Should there be a change in direction post the election, John Coates said it will require approval from the IOC in Lausanne.
For all the current kerfuffle, one thing is certain. The Games will proceed. But whether it leaves a golden legacy for Brisbane remains to be seen.
