2023-09-17 16:10:18
The requalification of Gabba Stadium and its surroundings in the run-up to the Brisbane 2032 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games continues to raise criticism and concern. If local players had already been skeptical on the subject, a Senate Commission in turn calls into question the advisability of such a company valued at 2.7 billion Australian dollars (1.63 billion euros).
Visual of the Gabba Stadium requalification project with the development of a vast pedestrian, tree-lined and green esplanade (Credits – Queensland Government)
While the government of Queensland (Australia) shows its determination to continue its momentum and adopt as soon as possible a vast urban redevelopment project for the Woolloongabba district in Brisbane, the heart of the system continues to be singled out.
In fact, if the project aims to improve access to the neighborhood and to design new public facilities and other residential or commercial buildings, the main effort however concerns the overall overhaul of the Gabba Stadiuman emblematic stadium today with 42,000 seats.
With a view to the 2032 Games which will take place in Brisbane and its surrounding areas, the Queensland authorities intend to modernize the venue in order to allow it to host athletics competitions during the global event, as well as the Opening and Closing Ceremonies.
To raise this challenge and to ensure urban regeneration of the surrounding district, the government plans to inject the tidy sum of 2.7 billion Australian dollars, or 1.63 billion euros. Specifically regarding the Gabba Stadiumthe investment to be made would guarantee an increase in capacity by some 8,000 places, although at the cost of some sacrifices in neighboring infrastructures.
Among these, the historic school grounds of theEast Brisbane State School should be destroyed to free up sufficient land space for the reconstruction of the stadium. The impact of the project would also affect the Raymond Park where a track and various athletics equipment intended for training competitors could be installed by 2032.
Visual of the Station Square project proposed by Trenert to rethink part of the Woolloongabba district of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia (Credits – Trenert)
Faced with this prospect, and even though the authorities recognized this summer a hasty approach to explain the sharp increase in the projected costs of the project, the opponents are trying to make themselves heard, from local residents to the educational community, including associations and local elected officials. For the moment, without impact on the government project.
However, a new episode could well undermine said project and lead to a possible alternative.
Indeed, in an interim report the broad outlines of which were revealed this week, an Australian Senate Commission is concerned about the advisability of maintaining the redevelopment of the Gabba Stadium in the proportions and objectives previously presented.
As stated by the senators who authored the document:
It would perhaps be unwise and inappropriate for the Government to insist that a redeveloped Gabba host athletics for the Games.
[…] State governments should not use major events as a pretext to accelerate already planned urban development against the wishes of their citizens and local communities, and without due diligence.
Before the publication of the final report in December 2023, the Commission calls on the Queensland government led by Annastacia Palaszczuk to reconsider the redesign of Brisbane’s main sports venue.
Also pointing to the project of a Whitewater Center in the Redland sector for canoe-kayak events, the interim report encourages more broadly reflection on the mobilization of already operational sites, in particular certain installations inherited from the Games. Sydney 2000.
As the Senate Commission report recommends:
Examination of alternative options should be carried out, including through the use of existing infrastructure, while striving to find a solution acceptable to all parties..
Visual of the Gabba Stadium requalification project (Credits – Queensland Government)
While recent months have been marked by much less popular support for the organization of the 2032 Games, a rethinking of the project of Gabba Stadium could constitute one of the keys to better consideration of local issues and, in finerenewed enthusiasm for what will be the biggest event on Australian soil since the 2000 Games.
As summarized by Matt Canavan, Senator for the State of Queensland and Chairman of the Commission responsible for the aforementioned report:
This is an interim report, so we will have much more to say about the Games in our final report.
I think the local communities of East Brisbane and Redland need a lot more consultation.
We are going to have a good Games, I am really convinced of that, but I think we have failed to involve the local community.
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