The care factor for the Olympics is declining year on year. Years ago there was excitement around about the event, but these days that has faded away. If the next couple of events don’t boost its appeal, come 2032 it will be the ‘prize‘ literally no one wants. 

it is bullshit isn't it

$1.5 billion of tax money used on sydney stadiums that are never filled.  and now $1 billion on a brisbane stadium that will never be filled.

Lower cost, not necessarily cheap though. I think there still targeting a spend of around $5 - 8 Billion (I forget the exact figure). For context, Tokyo has cost $15b to date and may blow out closer to $20b. Sydney cost around $11 billion in today's money.

The whole rhetoric around the IOC gifting Brisbane the Olympics was that it would be a low-cost games without much in the way of white elephant infrastructure (a la Sochi and pretty much every other Olympics in modern times), since cities are getting scared off by the prospect of shelling out so much for a two-week event.

Now they're proposing a $1 billion makeover of the Gabba? After they couldn't bring themselves to spare a tenth of that money to build a decently sized football ground. 

Brisbane Lions never fill the Gabba as is, and cricket only does for the Ashes. Bullshit.

Tbh, I often find the football infrastructure issue tends to be an issue in Queensland much more than other states. State and local Government haven't been great at backing the sport up here on the whole. AFL also has $$$, so they can often do joint ventures which is a much easier pill for governments to swallow. That's exactly what happened at Metricon.

The point about the AFL/cricket co-location is an interesting one to think about. The other codes do tend to operate in silos. Tbh, as much as I would like dedicated football infrastructure, I do wonder if a more coordinated approach between the rectangular sports up here would be more productive. You could easily see the Roar, Reds and Second NRL team putting forward a good case for another smaller stadium. Leaving Suncorp for the Broncos, finals and international events. It would also allow Stadium's Queensland to facilitate more concerts which is generally where their profit comes from.

I think you need to forget about the extra 8k+ seats when looking at its cost.  The issue with the Gabba is that it doesn't comply with the requirements for the Olympics and it has issues with fire regulations and building codes.  Stadiums basically have a design life of 50 years and will have a couple of refurbishments in that time.  The Gabba in its current form is nearly 30 years old and was planned to have a major upgrade to current standards in 10 to 15 years and the Olympics if the bid is successful will bring that forward by a few years.

Looking at Qld though you could say that the current oval pitch facilities meets the current needs, with the Olympics being a one-off event that will also use an oval. There are oval facilities at the Gabba and Metricon (Gold Coast) that cater adequately for Brisbane Lions, Gold Coast Suns and state and international cricket. There is also Allan Border field for smaller cricket events.
Depending on your perspective you could also say that the current rectangular facilities in Qld also meet the needs, with Suncorp, Robina (Gold Coast), Townsville Stadium, and the proposed upgrade to Sunshine Coast for the Olympics, although there is an argument that the Brisbane area could benefit from a smaller capacity rectangular stadium (football, rugby union) with Suncorp being too large and expensive for them, and Dolphin Stadium being too far away and a bit too small.
My concern is the spending of $1 billion or so on essentially a brand new stadium, while knocking down an existing stadium, for a net gain of 8-12k seats. Keep in mind this is a state government estimate of the cost too (and it sounds like a convenient round number to me), and we all know which way most construction cost estimates (particularly by governments) end up.

Way back in the dim distant past the VFL modified their game from requiring a huge rectangular field to fitting onto a cricket ground.  That decision has resulted in co-location of those two sports ever since and the two sports have benefitted each other as far as facilities are concerned.

If you look at the various sports in Qld at the moment the provision for rectangular pitch sports is better than for the oval pitch sports.  That will change a bit with the once in a lifetime hosting of the Olympics where athletics and capacity requirements are driving the replacement of the Gabba with cricket and AFL getting the long term benefits.  It has to be noted that the Olympics will deliver some improvements to the rectangular pitch sports also.

If you look at NSW the rectangular pitch sports are way ahead in facility provisions with the new SFS, Bankwest, Olympic Stadium, Newcastle and Wollongong as well as plans for improving the stadiums at Penrith, Manly and Kogarah (?).

In WA, SA and Vic the co-location of cricket with AFL has resulted in those sports getting the better facilities but the rectangular pitch sports have also had improved facilities provided.

AFL does well whenever ovals are upgraded but no more than the rectangular pitch sports across the country.

I'm sure there are sound reasons, but it's just remarkable that the AFL always seems to come out of this with better infrastructure.

I get that concern but I suspect the existing stadium may not meet Olympic requirements. It also comes down to design of the existing substructure. It may not be practical or effective to upgrade, especially because they never anticipated it being used for anything like this. Also keep in mind the capacity isn't 42k anymore, when they installed the new screens it dropped to 37k actual seats. My guess is if they couldn't find space for new screens without loosing seats they'll be hard pressed to upgrade capacity without at least demolishing a significant part of it.

Total waste of money.
The existing infrastructure around the Gabba is sufficient for  a full house at the current GabbaStadium.
So how is it $1billion  is required to make infrastructure for 10k more people for two weeks?
It makes no sense to spend that much on a stadium which is fine already and was upgraded relatively recently.

I agree with your assessment about not needing another stadium, if that additional stadium is going to be an oval. My concern is the spending of $1 billion (less the amount required for the non-stadium infrastructure) to ultimately end up with a net gain of 8000 seats. Could a refurb with additional seating have been achieved for less money, rather than knocking down the existing stadium and starting from scratch?

You’re automatically assuming they will be displaced. Someone has to use the space after the Olympics. They may actually get upgraded infrastructure after the dust settles. So a potentilal net positive.

I’m not saying there won’t be an impact, and I get that historically our code usually gets shafted but there’s no indication that will be the case.

Thanks, I’m familiar with Cross River Rail given I have worked on it. I said subway because our friends down south may not know what CRR is. Being familiar with the existing plans, I can tell you that the station will most definitely need some reconfiguration to do what they’re talking about. Not at the line/tunnel level but certainly with how it will interface with the ground level activation.

My main point here is that, upgrading an existing cricket/facility is in my view actually a positive for Football. If another stadium was built, not only would it not be suitable for football, it would leave Brisbane with too many large stadia. This would suck any oxygen (not to mention funding) out of a potential boutique rectangular stadium for decades.

first competitive football match in Queensland was played in 1984.

Whoa!  What did they do in the hundred years before that?   Suppose the games might have been very one-sided and uncompetitive, like 20 v 5 or something.  Maybe, they just threw the shirts in a bin, mixed them up, and a player pulled one out with eyes closed?  Sort of like the Victory coaching staff have been doing all season. "Haha Brox you got a training bib again!"

Interesting factoid:  There was a women's league in Toowoomba in 1922.

And by the way, the subway station, which is part of the project known as Cross River Rail, is already being built (costing billions) and is not part of the cost of the Gabba rebuild.

From what I have seen, the warmup facility that will supposedly also be developed a couple of blocks away looks like Raymond Park, the eastern part of which is the home ground of community football club Kangaroo Point Rovers, and has been home to this club (previously known as Pineapple Rovers) for over 100 years. The western part of Raymond Park is apparently where the first competitive football match in Queensland was played in 1884 *edit*.
So it looks like a local football club may well lose their home ground, a ground which has historical significance for Queensland football.

This bit is a good call.  Let's see how it pans out.
The thing is that the Gabba was actually upgraded for the Sydney Olympics (to host football!), so a mere 32 years later, the AFL gets a completely new and bigger $1 billion stadium out of it (just as they too got an upgraded stadium out of the Commonwealth games on the Gold Coast)
You can see why we find all of this quite extraordinary.

I'm actually pretty happy that they haven't gone overboard on this. Given this will be mostly used for for Cricket and AFL beyond the Olympics which rarely hit the current capacity it's probably about right. I would have preferred 60k but I can live with 50K. Anything bigger would be totally under utilised. I actually think the Gabba makes the most sense, it's already an AFL venue so you can accomodate and remove the athletics track without much fuss. Building a main stadium anywhere else would mean yet another oval stadium in Brisbane which would be totally unnecessary. Just look at how useful the QSAC (originally 70k) has been since the '82 Commonwealth Games. The only reason you might want more seats would be the opening/closing ceremonies, but who cares about crowd size at those tbh.

Also, the cost is actually cheap. When you consider this also includes a smaller athletics facility two blocks away for warm ups, the expansion of the subway station, transport and road reconfiguration, the entire public Olympic pavilion and cultural hub, inflation etc, $1billion aint that much. The new SFS is costing $720 million for a 42k venue.

The added benefit here for football fans is that it opens up the Albion Park site for different use case, potentially a boutique rectangular stadium (as well as the proposed rectangular stadium on the Sunny coast). If we get that it will be a good outcome. I'd happily take two fit for purpose venues over one giant white elephant. Just look at Rio.

It’s actually worse than that, it’s only 8k additional seats. And it sounds like they are knocking the whole thing down and restarting from scratch. Surely they could add on another 8k seats somewhere, even temporarily, for a fraction of the price. How often does the Gabba at current capacity of 42k ever get a full house?

Staggering.
$1billion for an extra 10k seats at the Gabba.Because its going to be close to a train station?

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the Gabba, which has been home to Queensland sport including cricket and AFL for 126 years, would host the opening and closing ceremonies.

Whoever helped re-elect this fat pig should be ashamed of themselves.

So...as we might have feared - the Gabba will be upgraded to 50,000 capacity to host the OLympic Games in 2032.
We were silly to think there was going to be a different outcome.

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/gabba-in-games-box-seat-as-olympic-upgrade-could-lift-capacity-to-50-000-20210420-p57kma.html#comments

Gabba to be ‘demolished’ in $1b Olympic Games facelift: Premier

Brisbane’s historic Gabba stadium would be “essentially demolished” as the Queensland government pushes ahead with plans to redevelop and lift the stadium for the 2032 Olympic Games.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the Gabba, which has been home to Queensland sport including cricket and AFL for 126 years, would host the opening and closing ceremonies.

That’s because it’s on acreages and the houses are shit. Don’t worry, there’s other places just as bad as Munruben but there are a multiple more places that are better. 

Yeah apologies for the hijack.  I'm out of this thread.  

Carry on.

You'll find that the median price is roughly $100k more than the median Brisbane price but whatever mate you live in sprawling suburbia if you want.

Cheap land when you can’t afford the city.

I'll support any of our cities hosting the olympics as long as we can afford and all Brisso so be it.
Every single main city has its great,good and bad points.
I've enjoyed them all.

The SOO combat, State vs State, should start a new thread in appropiate section for good points Muz and Keeper66, would be a fun thread but for those trolling trouble makers mucking it up.

Full game for Souttar in a 1-2 loss to Swansea, Stoke conceding a 96th minute penalty.

Munruben Paul.  Beautiful, leafy, rural acreage.  

You see the hint is in the name MUNRUBENmuz.

Haha, ok. I've also lived in other places, both Australia and overseas, so I've seen the differences too. I found some (not all) Western Australians tend to think of themselves in a similar way (e.g., disparagingly referring to non-WA's as "Easterners", or "people from over east" or similar). I found some regions of Germany had some animosity towards other regions as well, and not just old West vs old East. I guess I'm fortunate that the circles I move in in Queensland are not as redneck as some. My personal generalisation of Queensland people is that rugby league followers tend to be those who most closely match your description of parochial Queenslanders.