The construction of the Brisbane 2032’s main Olympic stadium will begin by the end of 2026 or early 2027.
Charting a cohesive 7.1 billion Australian dollars (US$4.4 billion) venue plan for Brisbane 2032 has taken almost four years since the International Olympic Committee (IOC) named the host city.
Stephen Conry, chairman of the 2032 independent infrastructure coordination authority, on Wednesday said “the likely date or year for shovels in the ground for the (main) stadium would be 2026, ’27.”
“There’s a lot of work to be done when you start spending billions of dollars on infrastructure and development,” he said. “We have over seven years, plenty of time to build a stadium. We’ll have it ready in 2031 and for a period longer than is required for preparation for the Games.”
Conry along with Andrew Liveris, the president of the Brisbane 2032 organizing committee, delivered the Olympic construction and legacy plan to the Infrastructure Association of Queensland, a day after Premier David Crisafulli unveiled the latest concepts.
“We are a gold medal factory,” Liveris said of Australia’s consistently strong national swimming program. “For goodness sake, let’s give our swimmers, young generation, the next generation, a chance to make us proud on the world stage as they did in Paris and same with our Paralympians.”
Critics, however, said that the new stadium will decrease the green space in the city and add to traffic congestion.
“Even the worst critics have come to the the table and said ‘let’s get on with it,’” he said. “This is a palpable sense of opportunity. This is a gift.”