Queensland confirm Olympic bid for 2032

To bid for an Olympics in Queensland is an extravagant and unconscionable decision: aside from our current debt, and no plan to address it, Queensland schools are among the lowest performing in the country; doctors say patients are dying on hospital waiting lists, and that the hospital system needs an immediate boost in funding; infrastructure is so stretched that in Brisbane traffic is often grid-locked, and regional roads are in disrepair; a 10 year plus wait for public housing in Queensland, and the second highest rate of homelessness of any state; three-quarters of the state is drought declared, and, at great cost, water is being trucked into some towns — of course it will rain again, but droughts and bushfires are becoming both more frequent and more severe, and this year the Queensland government cut funding to the Rural Fire Service by 25%! We have no drought plan, no climate change action plan, but we have a plan to bid for the Olympics. And on, and on. The Olympics for Queensland is such a good idea?? Really?? No, but it is clear evidence of an arrogant incompetence and a cynical betrayal of trust by the politicians. Oh, and post Sydney Olympics independent evaluations say the final cost to the taxpayer was about $2 billion! If a politician claims a Queensland Olympics will make money for the state (the taxpayer), then lock in a post Olympic independent review. If that review finds an Olympics here cost the taxpayer, then every politician who supported a Queensland Olympics can make up the shortfall!

Queensland isn't broke. Its nonsense to say any state government is "broke". It doesnt have to be a 80,000 seat stadium, Rio had a 60,000 seat stadium. Or they could what they did in stadium and have temporary stadiums and then reduce the capacity after the games to 60,000 And the Brisbane Cricket Ground will need to be upgraded in the years to come regardless if Brisbane get the Olympics or not. A 35,000 capacity stadium (for Cricket, 37,000 for AFL) isn't going to cut it for a city that will hit 3 million in the near future. Only football, golf and tennis have bigger events outside of the Olympics. In the case of tennis the Olympics are still highly prized by players, up there with the 4 slams and the ATP Tour Finals. Plus tennis is always a well attended event at the Olympics. As for golf I don't know, its too recently added but 2016 had some big names. I'm sure at Tokyo golf will be stronger. Even though Olympic football is an under 23 event it still gets good crowds and attendance.

I'm not surprised US TV pays more for the Olympics. Its 3 weeks of constant sport with plenty time for advertising vs 4 or 5 2hr games where you can only show ads at half-time. And that's if the USMNT qualifies. Still, worldwide ratings for both events are on par. Of course, none of that changes the fact that Queensland is broke, and we don't need a 20000 capacity cycling track or an 80000 seat athletics stadium. It also doesn't change the fact that the only sports people care about at the Olympics are sports that already have professional competitions that are much better anyway.

They will all need substantial upgrades. I think the point is that the *land* is already designated so doesn't have to be procured.

The IOC has decreed that all future games will be held in August which pretty much rules out Melbourne and Sydney climate wise. Global warming notwithstanding :-)

Brainstrust: once again proving the moniker is entirely ceremonial.....

how will infrastructure from 1982 Commonwealth games be relevant. a much smaller event 50 years ago?

The 3 most populated countries in the world care more about the Olympics than FIFA world cup. China, India and most importantly America. Look at what NBC paid to show Olympics compared to whoever shows world cup in USA. So what if African and South American countries care more about the world cup? Even if the Olympics are behind soccer in Europe the Olympics are still huge there. Plus only 32 countries play in the world cup where as virtually every country on earth competes in the summer Olympics

https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/3218.0 ABS stats show Brisbane population of 2.5 million. Brisbane roughly adds 50, 000 people a year meaning a population of 3 million in 2032 is extremely likely. https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1011660/london-2012-ticket-sales-record-set-to-leave-politicians-unimpressed 11 million of the 11.3 million tickets were sold for London generating almost $1.3 billion AUD. Gold Coast population in 2019 is around 670,000. By 2032 it will be close to 1 million giving Brisbane + Gold Coast a total population of 4 million. My facts are very much correct.

Atlanta still paying off debt ?

Except your facts aren’t right either

Exactly. Nobody cares about the Olympics anyway.

Queensland is broke. You would have to borrow billions to get it done. And just like those promises of gravy just by taxing the 1%, you will quickly find its the middle and working class that foot the bill.

Total waste of time and money in a state that's wasted enough of both and is effectively broke. Nobody cares about Olympic sports anyway.

I said London were the exception to empty stadiums, Japanese will attend the Olympics as well. The myth there is significant pay off from tourism is a problem whereas the world cup the stadiums were full of foreigners, instead of relying on fellow athletes. As far as the world cup there is no way any South American country outside of Brazil should be let near the world cup they are all bankrupt and have not got one world cup quality stadium at the moment whereas Australia could host it tomorrow. Brazil was a massive error but now they wasted all that money on the stadiums they can host it again . China are known as the miserable hosts of Beijing , a world cup there is as welcome to people only behind Qatar. Qatar will prove to be a miserable affair and that could affect the next bids. The Costs are going to beyond massive, the 80k Olympic stadium that will have no tenants after the Olympics, they are looking at massive infrastructure programs as well. The 80% figure is as pie in the sky as it gets. As far as I know the Gabba is not going to be the main Olympic stadium and is a lot newer it certainly doesn't need another upgrade.

Complete nonsense. Greece's problems are not the result of the Olympics. London didn't have "empty stadiums". Quite the opposite. As for the world cup we're not getting that until 2046 at the absolute earliest. As for the costs, read the article, a lot of the facilities are already built. Redevelopment of Brisbane Cricket Ground ('Gabba) is due in the not too distant future regardless.

The Olympics is just money down the drain, and the most embarassing thing will be when they have to offer yet again not just to pay for the airfares of all the athletes and the officials they last time payed for the all the relatives of the athletes to come over. Atlanta is still paying off the debt, Greeece the country is broke, the myth of tourism exposed empty stadiums except in London where it would have been all locals The only reason for the bid is desperate people wanting an economic boost conning the taxpayer in order to spend the taxpayer money in the delusion that will produce it. The Australian media controlled by the AFL dont want the only sensible event to bid for the world cup, and every world cup bid article was negative and mentioned the dollar figure for the bid Expect the complete opposite for an Olympic bid and dont expect a single mention of the cost of the Olympic bid.

I think this is great news. Under the current IOC rules Brisbane is the only Australia city capable of hosting the summer Olympics. The IOC has made the bidding process easier and cheaper and are more flexible with hosting requirements. Considering Australia will not get a FIFA world cup before 2046 at the earliest (next world cup in Asia is 100% guaranteed to go to China) the Olympics is realistic target. Will be interesting to see where the IOC go. Selecting Paris and LA for 2024 and 2028 was the safe decision after the financial problems of Rio. I don’t know if the IOC will be willing to risk an Olympics in India despite the financial gains for the taking. Madrid doesn’t quite have much of the infrastructure built but the last time Spain hosted an Olympics was before Australia. Singapore is an interesting bid. Singapore is a developed city/country in a developing region. That means the IOC gets the opportunity to have a summer Olympics in a developing region that hasn’t had it before but without the risks of having it hosted in a developing country. If Singapore can show they can have the infrastructure and ability to easily and economically host the Olympics they might be hard to beat. Germany’s Rhine-Ruhr region could also be tough considering so much of the infrastructure and facilities are already built. Plus Germany hasn’t hosted an Olympic games since Munich 1972. I think the biggest obstacle for the Rhine-Ruhr region would be that Paris would have hosted in 2024 and London 2012 and the IOC might want to avoid having too many Olympics in one region. Between 1976-2002 North America had 6 Olympics (3 winter, 3 summer) and especially against America there was a backlash in the Olympic community.

Giving tens of billions of dollars in tax cuts to the rich and corporations is a waste of money. The Olympics are not. Many cities have benefited from hosting the Olympics. Sydney, LA, London, Barcelona, Seoul. The IOC tried to take the Olympics to developing countries and Rio was a mistake. As for Russia and the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics a lot of that was bankrolled by Putin's oligarchs and Putin's vanity. Athens 2004 turned out to be a much better Olympics than people say but again it was the wrong city to host and was picked for nostalgic "feel good" reasons.

We can easily afford to host the Olympics. If we can afford to give massive tax cuts to the 1% and big corporations we can easily afford to host the Olympics. Brisbane 2.5 million people and the Gold Coast close to a million. Thats in 2019. By 2032 Brisbane will have over 3 millions and the Gold Coast well over 1 million bringing the total to almost 4.5 million. Getting your facts right helps.