The Keen Planning office was very excited when it was finally confirmed that Brisbane and South East Queensland would be the host of the 2032 Olympics.
Now we will look past the fact that Brisbane was the only serious bid after being awarded exclusive negotiating rights by the IOC in February and celebrate the fact that Australia will host the Olympics for the second time in 32 years which is an amazing feat for a country the size of ours.
While the actual event is the spectacle, as Town Planners we cannot help being intrigued by the necessary development of facilities to hold events, infrastructure development and the resultant economic benefits that coincides with staging an event the size of the Olympics.
It has been reported that staging the games will come at a cost of 5 billion dollars, however the CEO of Westpac has been quoted as saying they estimate the economic boost to Australia could be in the vicinity of 17 billion dollars (8 billion dollars directly invested into Queensland). In comparison the 2000 Sydney Olympics provided a 6 billion dollar boost to the Australian economy.
Credit ABC website
A key aspect to the successful bid was that as many existing facilities as possible would be used to stage events which enables existing infrastructure such as public transport to be utilised and simply upgraded rather than having to be constructed from scratch. This has enabled the associated cost of staging the event to be kept down.
The centrepiece of the 2032 games will be the home of our Director’s beloved Brisbane Lions, the GABBA, which will be completely redeveloped (anyone who has been to the GABBA recently is probably thinking it’s about time this happened) at a cost of approximately 1 billion and will host the opening and closing ceremonies and the track and field athletics.
Further investment in infrastructure will also be made to upgrade road and rail links between Brisbane and the Gold Coast/Sunshine Coast which is where events will also be staged which will provide benefits to the region long after the Olympic flame is extinguished.
Despite the excitement for Brisbane 2032, we are going to have to wait and let Paris and LA have their turn first.
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