Olympic Officials Move To Back Brisbane 2032 Games After Vague Tour For Stadium Projects Achi-News

BRISBANE, Australia: After weeks of uncertainty over billion-dollar stadium projects for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, the IOC and local organizers moved on Wednesday to present the games more positively.

Plans for a $2 billion rebuild of the Gabba cricket stadium as the centerpiece of the Olympics were dropped this month after the expected price tag increased. Australia’s most influential Olympic official, John Coates, had called the stadium issues in Brisbane’s home state of Queensland damaging to the Olympics brand.

Queensland Premier Steven Miles, who faces state elections in October, has requested a review of Olympic venue construction and prefers to renovate the existing rugby stadium for the opening and closing ceremonies.

Reports that Queensland had explored scrapping their commitment to host the Olympics were dismissed as “fake news” last week by International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach.

It led to the IOC and local organizing officials being asked on Wednesday – after their annual review of preparations – how Queensland could be made to fall in love with the games again.

“I don’t see a change in that feeling,” insisted Kirsty Coventry, the member of the IOC executive board overseeing the Brisbane project, adding that 8½ years out from the games “is the time for changes to happen. “

Coventry and Andrew Liveris, president of the Brisbane 2032 organizing committee, spoke repeatedly about doing “due diligence” and adapting to the needs and wishes of local people and public authorities.

“Right now, the state government has given us locations and we’re going to work on that,” Liveris said in an online news conference.

Coventry, who has won two Olympic gold medals in swimming for Zimbabwe, said athletes were a priority for the IOC and ensuring there were “world-class playing fields.”

“It is clearly dependent again on what the people in the communities want, how the region grows,” he said. “That is not something that we as the IOC will dictate. That’s where we listen.”

Stadium issues and curbing costs are Brisbane’s biggest challenge almost three years after the 2021 Olympic Games were awarded a full 11 years before the opening ceremony.

Brisbane was the first Summer Games host selected in a new process to put a preferred candidate into exclusive fast-track negotiations without facing a rival bidder in a vote. The IOC aimed to cut the cost of campaigning and building venues, and also avoid the kind of vote-buying scandals that marred the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

However, Brisbane’s victory was seen to lack transparency and rewarded one of the IOC’s key allies, its vice-president Coates.

“Brisbane giving and awarding so far has been really good,” Coventry said, “and been really good learning experiences.”

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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – Associated Press)