Eddie McGuire is urging stakeholders of the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane to take inspiration and build a stadium that rivals Paris and LA.
After a successful Paris 2024 campaign for Australia, the country is now just eight years away from hosting its own Games in the Queensland capital.
However, McGuire and Jimmy Bartel aren’t so convinced that the current Brisbane stadium, the Gabba, is fit for the world stage.
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But where exactly to begin?
According to McGuire, it’s time to take inspiration from around the world, and work out how to make the Gabba better than its current state.
Eric Hipwood of the Lions at the Gabba. AFL Photos via Getty Images
“I think what Brisbane needs to do, is go and have a look … at the Bernabeu Stadium (Spain), go and have a look at Frankfurt Stadium (Walstadion), go and have a look at BC Place (Canada),” McGuire said on Nine’s Eddie and Jimmy podcast on Monday.
“They’re all amazing state of the art stadiums that have been reconditioned.”
The Gabba, which currently hosts the Brisbane Lions in the AFL as well as world-class cricket matches, has a crowd capacity of 42,000.
“There’s suddenly a quantum leap in technology and, you know, I often say that if a stadium was built before wifi, it may as well be Noah’s Ark, as far as the creature comforts of what’s going on,” McGuire said.
“So you can actually build one ripping stadium that can have AFL football, cricket and athletics events… if need be an opening ceremony.
“And you could actually turn this into the best stadium in the world.”
Baretl echoed McGuire’s thoughts, also raising his concerns regarding the Gabba.
The Gabba. Angela Wylie
He has urged Brisbane officials to “spend big” to ensure the 2032 Games are as spectacular as Paris 2024, and what LA 2028 will likely be.
“What Paris showed us and what LA is going to show us … is we can’t just have a goat track just out at Brisbane and just think, ‘that’s going to be enough, we’ll just put some temporary stands around’,” Bartel said.
“We’re going to have to spend big.”