Having been the subject of much discussion and controversy, the new stadium for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games now has an official location at Victoria Park: a valley between Gilchrist Avenue and QUT’s Kelvin Grove campus.
On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the venue’s announcement, the Queensland government also revelealed that construction on Brisbane’s Olympic stadium will begin on June 1 — when Victoria Park’s land tenure is due to be transferred to the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority (GIICA) — offering more details not just as to its location, but its size.
Architecture firms Cox, Hassell and Azusa Sekkei have been charged with the task, with their initial renders showing a large seating bowl, in both legacy cricket and AFL mode, as well as its multi-level pedestrian external bridges, which will also function as regular public thoroughfares on days when there are no events going on at the stadium.
The plan is for there to be three tiers of sitting, in addition to corporate areas, coming to a total capacity of 63,000 seats. In fact, the field is expected to be the equivalent of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), and the field of play size and shape was determined after comparison of four major oval venues across Australia: the Gabba, Perth’s Optus Stadium, the MCG and Marvel Stadium.
The Brisbane Stadium is slated to host athletics, track and field and, of course, the opening and closing ceremonies. But that’s not all, it is expected to become Brisbane’s new AFL and cricket venue, with the Gabba — once considered as a potential main stadium — being demolished after the Olympics are over.
A budget of $3.6 billion, from a total of $7.1 billion dedicated to 2032 Games infrastructure overall, has been allocated for the new stadium.
Alongside this highly anticipated announcement, the government also gave an update on other Olympic venues, revealing Architectus has been selected as the Principal Architect for the Sunshine Coast Stadium, which is set to grow tenfold in capacity, going from 1,046 seats to 10,000.
