It's an abomination that football will have brought four major events to Queensland in the 21st century (2000 Olympics, 2015 AC, 2023 WWC, 2032 Olympics),* and still have not a cent spent on a football-specific venue in Brisbane suitable for a professional-level club. Instead the Gabba gets completely rebuilt twice over, and the state throws cash at AFL training grounds or venues that the NRL might consider playing a one-off game in every now and again. Cameron Atfield's idea of redeveloping Perry Park into a 15k-seater football venue, and using it for the Olympic hockey tournament, is infinitely superior to the Ballymore plan: Perry Park has much better transport links, and it would leave a much better legacy than shipping temporary stands into a rugby training ground (and no chance of a white elephant since the Roar and the Strikers would play there, and it could be used for state finals, low-level international fixtures, etc.). But no, that would make too much sense.

The upside is this government intransigence should prompt the Roar to go it alone and build a stadium with private cash. With modular set-ups they can do so cheaply if they find the land (or come to an agreement to use Perry Park), and they would then control all cash-flows: stadium sponsorship, concessions, corporate boxes, etc., while not having to deal with SQ's exorbitant rental fees. It could potentially change the business model of how football clubs operate in this country, and provide a template for clubs in need of better stadium solutions like Wellington, Melbourne City, perhaps even the Jets (leaving the Western United situation to one side for the moment).

* Contrast that with the other major codes: Rugby, 1 World Cup in 2003; Cricket, 1 World Cup in 2015 (with a grand total of two group matches), Rugby League, nothing; AFL, nothing.