- Sep 26, 2004
- 47,486
- 64,277
- AFL Club
- Carlton
- Moderator
- #148
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
LIVE: GWS Giants v Brisbane Lions - 7:30PM Sat
Squiggle tips Lions at 65% chance -- What's your tip? -- Team line-ups »
AFLW 2024 - Round 3 - Chat, game threads, injury lists, team lineups and more.
"I know that I said I'd do what the Quirk review recommended, but I cannot support the option they have landed on," he says.
"This option will allow us to upgrade Suncorp Stadium to a standard to host a fantastic Opening and Closing ceremony."
Premier Miles says the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre will be "the nation's best athletics facility".
The review rejected that option on the basis of the Olympic access costs.
"The IOC has committed to me that they will work with us to minimise those requirements," he says.
And the government will work with BCC on public transport options.
"This decision will ensure the Games stays within its funding envelope," he says.
"As Treasurer, getting value for money is my number one priority.
"It will keep faith with the IOC new norms.
"This decision will give us maximum bang for buck."
Mr Miles says they're still working on exactly how much will be spent, depending on the QSAC upgrades, but it will still leave in the order of $1 billion to spend between Suncorp and the Gabba - "roughly half-half".
Another Comm games fiasco in the making? or are Qld relying on the Feds to bail them out?So now they are still spending billions of dollars and getting no new stadium.
And having athletics at that tiny park that aint even a stadium will be one of the greatest embarrassments this country has ever seen. Its not even a commonwealth games standard stadium.
Unfortunately neither part has the guts to cancel it so state and federal taxpayers will stuck with the debts from the white elephant infrastructure and endless junkets that go with the games.Another Comm games fiasco in the making? or are Qld relying on the Feds to bail them out?
If they are going to spend up to $1.6bil on upgrading QSAC, you are going to get a great 60k athletics stadium
A 60k seater $1.6bil redeveloped QSAC
It will be a great legacy stadium for athletics in Oz
What are you basing all this on? The review says seating capacity of 40,000 which will then be downgraded to 14,000 after the Olympics.I reckon this was Johnny Coates' long term plan, get a legacy stadium for Olympic sports
It's a shit plan, one that is thankfully going to be scrapped when he loses government.What are you basing all this on? The review says seating capacity of 40,000 which will then be downgraded to 14,000 after the Olympics.
"The Review Panel also notes that this legacy outcome essentially returns QSAC Stadium to its current functional state...".
In other words, the only long term plan Coates had was to get Suncorp upgraded instead of a new stadium for cricket and AFL.
What am I basing it on?? A bit of commonsense and real sports people making the final big decisions.What are you basing all this on? The review says seating capacity of 40,000 which will then be downgraded to 14,000 after the Olympics.
"The Review Panel also notes that this legacy outcome essentially returns QSAC Stadium to its current functional state...".
In other words, the only long term plan Coates had was to get Suncorp upgraded instead of a new stadium for cricket and AFL.
Non-sequiturs about the athletics stadiums for the Sydney and London Olympics are bizarre. Those venues have retained a high % of capacity post-Games, signed lucrative tenants, and constantly attracted major concert acts. None of that is going to happen with the QSAC proposal, but it'll still cost $1.6 billion.What am I basing it on?? A bit of commonsense and real sports people making the final big decisions.
The review said 40k but don't go and use the QSAC, and the government said, stuff that. So I will as well.
Coates got approval for 50k for the Gabba from the IOC, because it was being redeveloped, but the IOC expected 60k for a new stadium. Rio had a 46k stadium upgraded to 60k for athletics. I expect the IOC to step in and say 60k if you are doing a cheapy upgrade.
QSAC currently has 48,500 capacity but a record crowd of 58,912 was for the 1997 Super League Grand Final between the Broncos and Sharks, with temporary seating used to boost capacity.
When it was redeveloped for the 1982 Comm Games, previously being a suburban athletics track opened in 1975, they had 1 grandstand on the western side and those bench aluminium seats that Footy Park in Adelaide used to have and capacity was about 52,000. Those aluminium seats were built on temporary support pillars, to be removed after the Comm Games, but about 36,000 seats, have been secured further and are still there 42 years later.
When the Broncos moved there for the 1993 season (and stayed there until end of 2003 season when they then moved to Suncorp after the big upgrade for the October/November 2003 Rugby World Cup), they built the eastern stand and it got branded ANZ Stadium.
The 2 grandstands, the western stand built for the Comm Games and the eastern stand built for the Broncos moving there in 1993 hold around 12,000 people.
I expect some sort of meccano set design like the London Olympic Stadium design, which was to have 80k for the Olympics, but the 2nd and 3rd tier was to be taken down and a 25k permanent seater home of UK athletics would be part of the design.
In the UK governments intervened post the games, which saw West Ham United get the ground as their home ground, it was downsized to 60k, the athletics track was left but movable seats sit on it most days and apart from 2017 World Athletics Championships and 2018 Athletics World cup, very few other athletics events have been hosted, including a couple of 2 and 3 day community events.
Look at Stadium Australia for the Sydney Olympics. The western and eastern grandstands under the big 200m steel arches had 37,000 seats in each grandstand. At the northern and southern ends there were 5,000 seats at each end that were permanent built into the concrete base.
Then both the northern and southern end above those permanent seats, they built temporary meccano set grandstands that held 15,000 people each at the northern and southern ends. That's 114,000 seats and they allowed for 2,000 standing tickets in each of the eastern and western stand for a maximum capacity of 118,000.
The last night of athletics, I sat 2 rows in front of the cauldron way back in the northern stand. It was a bloody long way back, the gradient was steep, and I could feel the stand shake, especially when the Oz women's 4x400m relay team looked a medal chance as in the end there was about half a second between 2nd and 5th place. Oz finished 5th.
Why couldn't you have 5,000 permanent seats and 15,000 temporary seats at the northern and southern ends like Sydney? That's 40,000 seats there. Ok they don't have to have that big a northern and southern end temporary stands, but 60k capacity isn't an outrageous possibility, and it should fall easily within the $1.6bil budget.
The other thing is, they can build this as a permanent athletics only stadium like the University of Oregon's Hayward Field in Eugene that was used for the 2022 World Athletics championships and have the jumps and throwing events all inside the track and not have some of them on the side of the track, like you get at multi-use stadiums.
QSAC is a 10 lane track. That means the distance north/south is 182.8m x 98.4m east/west
Hayward Field is a 9 lane track which means distances are north/south is 180.4m x 96.0m east/west
At Hayward field for the 100m /110m hurdles you have lane 9 then a gap to the fence which is a bit wider than lane 10 would be, and the first row of seats is effectively lane 11.
Hayward Field is a purpose built athletics only stadium, cost $270m USD, was opened in 2021, has grandstands with 13,000 sets and expanded to 28,000 for the 2022 World Athletics Championships and was mostly paid for by Nike's Phil Knight via his foundation, who ran track during his Uni of Oregon days, under legendary coach Bill Bowerman, who was co-founder of Nike with Knight.
The pictures below show the difference of how close fans can get to the outside lane at Hayward Field compared to QSAC. The other great thing about Hayward Field is that they have a "bulge" grandstand near the finish line so that they can seat more people on or near the finish line. If the Qld government want to, they can do the same sort of things for QSAC and say it will be a true athletics only stadium in the future.
At QSAC currently they can put temporary seating in front of the grandstands and around the ground to get capacity up to 60,000. There is 8 years and 4 months before the Olympics. Plenty of time to get the design right for a 60k stadium at QSAC if in fact it is going to be the final selection for the athletics stadium.
How is London some sort of bizarre non-sequitur?? The Sydney example was one about scale of temporary short term capacity.Non-sequiturs about the athletics stadiums for the Sydney and London Olympics are bizarre. Those venues have retained a high % of capacity post-Games, signed lucrative tenants, and constantly attracted major concert acts. None of that is going to happen with the QSAC proposal, but it'll still cost $1.6 billion.
So if you don't see the word legacy you can't comprehend the concept??Keen observers would note Mr. Handball used the word "legacy" three times in his first post, but not once in his even longer rant after being questioned about it.
London and Sydney put their stadiums to appropriate use, in accordance to the money spent on them. Complete opposite of the QSAC proposal.How is London some sort of bizarre non-sequitur?? The Sydney example was one about scale of temporary short term capacity.
I have no idea why you're comparing the $1.6b QSAC proposal to a $400m college venue.So if you don't see the word legacy you can't comprehend the concept??
Why do you reckon I used the Hayward Field in Eugene example in my second post?? Its the type of legacy athletics in Australia would be left with if the Qld government agreed to an athletics only stadium like Hayward Field and not a multi-purpose stadium with a combo of permanent and temporary seating. And an athletics stadium where the crowd is as close as Lane 11 or Lane 12, will produce a lot better experience.
But mummy, mummy, he didn't use the word legacy in his post!
The qsac stadium will be torn down the day after the Olympics. It will only exist for 14 days. And I don't think it's going to be 60 thousand. 40 thousand is what I'm hearing. 1.6 billion dollars and nothing to show for it. That is the definition of white elephant.There is only one real stuff up by the BOCOG/government and that's the main stadium.
Rio was the first Olympics to split the ceremonies from the athletics using the Maracana for ceremonies and Estádio Nilton Santos - home of Botafoga in Brazil's Serie A competition, was already a football stadium with an athletics track around it, and was upgraded from a 46k stadium to 60k stadium for the Olympics, and LA in 2028 the ceremonies will be held at Hollywood Park / SoFi Stadium and the athletics at the several times upgraded LA Coliseum which was used in 1932 and 1984 games for athletics and the ceremonies.
So its no biggy given that the ceremonies will be at upgraded Suncorp and the athletics at QSAC.
If they are going to spend up to $1.6bil on upgrading QSAC, you are going to get a great 60k athletics stadium, which already has a warm up track there next to the main stadium. That's one thing the Gabba redevelopment couldn't provide is a warm up track near the stadium and to me looked like it had to be built 4 or 5km away. The Victoria Park proposal looked like the warm up track would be temporary and removed after the games.
It will be a great legacy stadium for athletics in Oz, it just wont be a great new, best bang for bucks multi purpose stadium close to the city and lots of train and other public transport for Brisbane.
I'm stuffed if I know how a new 55k stadium on a greenfield site can cost over $3bil as per the Independent Sports Venue Review recommended.
A 60k seater $1.6bil redeveloped QSAC might not have all the bells and whistles of LA's SoFi stadium which cost an estimated $5bil USD, but its part of a 300 acre redevelopment real estate project, but Brisbane and Oz will get a more than adequate Olympic athletics stadium.
I reckon this was Johnny Coates' long term plan, get a legacy stadium for Olympic sports rather than all the monies go on a cricket and AFL stadium. Coates isn't a fan of AFL - particular all the government largess they have been able to get the last 20 years, at the expense of Olympic sports.
If you read the Independent Sports Venue Review every other stadium/arena is pretty much on track as per the bid documents and any small change the government has accepted, like moving the Breakfast Creek Indoor Sports Precinct (Albion) to a new venue at the relatively nearby alternative Boondall or Zilmere.
If this was a normal Olympics bidding process then September 2025 would be the vote for a 2032 games, but awarding 2 Olympics in September 2017 to Paris and LA changed the timing.
Johnny Coates played it beautifully in the middle of Covid when nobody else was ready for a bid, to convince the rest of the IOC to have a vote on Brisbane, 11 years before the games, which was the only bid. Getting Oz to host another Olympics, using the memory of how great Sydney was run, was Coates last legacy as AOC president, finished up in May 2022 and as IOC Vice-president and basically IOC's #2 man.
Edit attached is the Independent Sports Venue Review
let's hope so.This is all pointless anyway, labor is going to lose the election. When they do liberal is just going to completely tear up this plan and do whatever they want to do, they have literally already said this.
Agree. But 80 thousand is out of the question. Both QLD parties aren't even willing to build a 55 thousand seat stadium.The popularity of sport in Australia, mixed with Australia being a popular destination as a tourist, means that anything less than an 80,000 seat stadium for the athletics is a shocking decision which will see many people missing out on seeing the athletics in person.
The qsac stadium will be torn down the day after the Olympics. It will only exist for 14 days. And I don't think it's going to be 60 thousand. 40 thousand is what I'm hearing. 1.6 billion dollars and nothing to show for it. That is the definition of white elephant.
Yep its ridiculous.Yes. It will have the lowest capacity since Amsterdam 104 years ago.
Yep its ridiculous.
And if they wont to low ball the capacity they should just stick with the gabba. No need to spend 1.6 billion on a 40 thousand stadium in the middle of nowhere when they have a 40 thousand seat stadium in the city at the gabba already which is also getting a 1 billion revamp.
Busing everyone from the city to mt gravatt for an olympics athletics competition is just going to be embarrassing.
And the most expensive option (the one they have chosen) delivers the least assets post olympics.
And the most expensive option (the one they have chosen) delivers the least assets post olympics.
The 40,000 comes from the independent Sports Venue Review report pages 24 to 29. They also briefly consider a 30,000 stadium.The qsac stadium will be torn down the day after the Olympics. It will only exist for 14 days. And I don't think it's going to be 60 thousand. 40 thousand is what I'm hearing. 1.6 billion dollars and nothing to show for it. That is the definition of white elephant.