The announcement that Brisbane was given IOC approval to host the 2032 Olympics came on June 10, 2021. Since then, there has been much excitement, even though the event itself is ten years from now. For the city of Brisbane, being given the honour of hosting the Olympics has meant a huge boom in the local construction industry.
Twenty-six new venues are proposed to be built, 14 of which are supposed to be in Brisbane, seven on the Gold Coast and five on the Sunshine Coast. These appeared in the initial bid put forward by the City of Brisbane. But what, so far, has been done in the development of these new stadiums, and what about the possibility of renovating older stadiums?
The Brisbane City Council is awaiting approval for a redevelopment of the existing Woolloongabba Arena to serve as the main stadium for the Olympics, these include hosting the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as athletics events.
The Chandler Arena is also being demolished and rebuilt, to serve at a greater capacity than its current 10,000. Its exact capacity is unknown, but it will be renamed as the Chandler Indoor Sports Arena.
There are also redevelopment plans in the works for Ballymore and Ipswich Stadiums, which will have a maximum capacity of 10,000 and be used for hockey and pentathlon respectively.
As above, there are a number of new stadiums being built, including two arenas in Brisbane – the Brisbane Arena, earmarked to host 15,000 people. The Brisbane Indoor Sports Centre, meant for Olympic basketball, will play host to a maximum of 12,000 people.
A brand new centre is also being built with water in mind – the Redland Whitewater Centre is intended to be used for Slalom Canoeing, with a capacity of 8,000. Likewise, the 7,000-seater Moreton Bay Indoor Sports Centre will host Olympic Boxing.
Luckily for Brisbane, the IOC has stated that nearly 80-90% of buildings that would be appropriate to host Olympics sport already existed in the city – and Brisbane has promised that those that did not meet the criteria, would be up to snuff by 2032.
The Games are projected to bring in $8.1 billion for the Queensland region, and $17.61 billion for Australia as a whole.
This intense period of design and building over the next decade means that construction work in the Brisbane area is going to be at an almost all-time high – this huge boost to the labour market in the city of Brisbane and Australia as a country will not only bring in millions in revenue for the city of Brisbane and the country, but may also offer one part of a panacea to some of the country’s labour shortage woes, along with rectifying the construction industry’s own problems.
While Brisbane being awarded is a sure-fire reason to celebrate, the country and city must proceed with cautious optimism as ground is broken and construction work begins – or has already begun in many parts of the city. Bearing in mind that the entire national construction industry is suffering from historic labour shortages, supply-chain breakdown and more than enough construction to take on already, given the number of homes that are sitting unbuilt – but already paid for – nationwide.
A degree of cautious optimism should be exercised moving forward for Brisbane 2032 to be realised in actuality.
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