The battle for the future of the Olympic Games is being played out in Brisbane | 7.30

[Music] the river city of Brisbane has many [Music] attractions the corner of mains and Castle Road in the southern suburb of Nathan is not one of them but in just over 8 years time this is where the world will be watching the stadium just to the right of me will undergo an estimated 1.5 billion transformation to host the Athletics of the 35th Olympiad now why this Suburban ground was chosen seemingly out of nowhere is a story of both local politics and international pressure the winner is Cindy a lot has changed since Australia last won the rights to host the Olympic and Par Olympic Games when was the last time uh a Summer Olympic Games was profitable on the overall level where the revenues were higher than the costs the last time that we saw this I think where the the Sydney Olympics 2000 right so over 20 years ago yeah quite a while ago a series of extraordinary cost blowouts have since made the games increasingly unattractive hosting the Olympics creates a fiscal deficit of anywhere from 10 to 20 or 30 billion dollar and more and more cities are realizing that that's in part why the International Olympic Committee ditched its expensive bidding process and placed a new emphasis on moderation why will this time be different it's a completely different situation effectively Bringing Down the cost of hosting the games allowing existing venues to be used the idea is we shape this the Olympics to the city not vice versa the Queensland games will be the first to be held under this new norm and although the io didn't require a new stadium the Queensland organizers thought this would be a great opportunity to build one as the state arguably lacks a worldclass facility it'll be modern it'll be high tech it'll be sustainable there will not be a bad seat plan a was to demolish and rebuild brisbane's tired and aging Gaba Stadium a $3 billion project that originally had bipartisan support but the plan attracted increasing local controversy and became m in political squabbling the ioc intervened in February the committee's Australian Vice President John coats dropped a few Choice quotes to brisbane's Career mail we should abandon the gabber and we should look for another site for the Athletics it just doesn't stack up the Sydney based ioc Vice President also suggested amongst other things the Athletics venue should be here the Queensland Sport and Athletics Center in Suburban Nathan winking at the crowd right now venue whose Heyday was the Commonwealth Games in 1982 little Joy I think 6 weeks later with a change of premere John coat's musings became official Queensland government policy I am supporting the option that was put forward by John coats in his submission that proposal G us three upgraded stadiums and the arena all within the existing funding envelope the Queensland Premier went against the independent advice had commissioned from a former Brisbane mayor who found building a new $3.4 billion stadium in this Parkland on the other side of the Brisbane River represents best value for money Graham Quirk says although Brisbane will still need a new worldclass stadium he understands why John coats intervened he is the custodian of the Olympic brand and he was very concerned and and express this to me that the Olympics brand was being badly damaged by the public debate particularly the one centering around the gabber and so his job as he saw it was to protect that brand and he was going to do whatever it took basically to protect it John coats declined 7:30 is request for an interview his intervention comes as no surprise to Professor Martin Muer a swiss-based international Authority who has crunched the numbers of past Olympics they are selling the reputation of the games to sponsors um to fans to viewers on television um and theyve had bad experience over the last couple of games so what they want to do is reduce the risk apart from stadiums games organizers also have to tackle transportation in a heavily car dependent region transport expert Professor Matt Burke is trying to work out the best ways of connecting Olympic venues stretching from the gold to the sunshine coasts the Olympics are going to be held on what is effectively a 200 km long strip City that's going to be quite a challenge isn't it as far as transport's concerned this inter city games is the first time it's ever been done for Summer Olympic and Par Olympics so for us transport plan is it's scaring us witless so can it be done it can be done if people work with us I know that transportation is a really really big headache in in Paris and it's an even bigger headache right now in Los Angeles us Sports Economist Professor Andrew Zimbalist has documented Olympic blowouts over the past decades invariably those Transportation routes that are being created are not the ideal ones sometimes they might be useful but but they're not the ideal ones they're not the prioritized ones for the Local Economic Development social needs this is where the 2032 opening and closing ceremonies will be held Brisbane Sun Corp Stadium now they're unlikely to be the traditional Olympic ceremony because it's difficult to see all the athletes of the world marching around the rectangular football pitch so the organizers will have to do something different and doing something different May well be the legacy of the Queensland games the legacy of Olympic Games can be both a material Legacy which is what most people think about you know it's bricks and mor but people underestimate the immature Legacy there's things we could be doing London converted a lot of streets to cycling and walking how do we retrofit the city a bit to make that work for the Olympics but just make Brisbane a better place make the Gold Coast a better City in a few months time the next summer games will open in Paris in four years after that in Los Angeles and that will Mark the end of an era Brisbane may not have the iconic status of these cities but its games are arguably more important for the Olympic movement whatever happens in LA and Paris is not necessarily replicable in other cities but what happens in Brisbane particularly since it's the test case about about the new policies I think a lot of people will be watching very [Music] closely

Channel: ABC News In-depth

Views: 35,882

Keywords: abc news, australian news, abc news indepth, documentaries, long-form journalism, abc 730, 730, olympics, brisbane, ioc, sports, international olympic committee, paris olympics 2024, brisbane olympics 2032

Id: kpbNSD4tGEM

Length: 7min 43sec (463 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2024