Olympic Games bid on ice
THE State Government has had no recent discussions about a Brisbane Olympics bid despite the city favoured as a future candidate by the Australian Olympic Committee.
The issue of an Olympic Games being brought back to Australia has been rekindled by a seminar in Melbourne this week which will examine the desirability of the Victorian capital making a bid to host the Olympics for a second time.
Kate Roffey, chief executive of the Committee of Melbourne, which is involved in the conference Sport in Victoria: Who’s really winning, said a Melbourne Olympic bid was getting “momentum’’.
The Beattie government put on the agenda in 2005 a Brisbane bid for the Olympics during the 2020s.
AOC president John Coates said that Brisbane is the most likely successful candidate city from Australia as cities which had not previously hosted an Olympics are best placed to win an International Olympic Committee vote.
Melbourne was the first Australian city to host the Olympics, in 1956, and Sydney won high praise from the IOC for its 2000 Games. Asked yesterday if state ministers or department staffers had been in any meetings in the past two years about a Brisbane bid, a State Government spokesperson said there had been “no discussions with any party regarding hosting/bidding for the Olympics’’.
The State Government was focused on delivering an outstanding Commonwealth Games event on the Gold Coast in 2018.
“This will be the biggest sporting event in Australia in over a decade,’’ the spokesperson said.
“Gold Coast 2018 will provide enormous social and economic benefits for the entire state. It will also cement Queensland’s reputation and track record as a leader in delivering first-class, major international events.’’
Brisbane’s experience and expertise from the 1982 Commonwealth Games led to unsuccessful bids to host the 1992 and 1996 Olympics.
The 2024 Olympics is the next summer edition to be awarded by the IOC, with Tokyo to host in 2020.
Olympic-related costs are always a disincentive to bids, with the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Games organising committee revealing in April that the Games-related infrastructure budget had been revised to $11.54 billion.
Ms Roffey said the return on investment from London’s 2012 Olympics showed the merit in hosting the Games. “I believe Melbourne should go after the Olympics,’’ she said.
Mr Coates wanted to see how southeast Queensland developed in hotel and other infrastructure before a decision was made on a Brisbane bid.