Brisbane 2032 Organizing Committee President Andrew Liveris on Thursday “re-emphasised his confidence that the city would deliver” despite just one major contract being awarded to build venues with only six years until the opening ceremony, according to Hayden Johnson of the Brisbane COURIER-MAIL. Liveris said, “Six years is perfectly fine in construction terms, even under stress conditions, which of course you know everything everywhere in the world because of wars and supply chains” (Brisbane COURIER-MAIL, 7/23). Liveris said that “he briefed” IOC President Kirsty Coventry as recently as Monday in N.Y., in the wake of the World Cup final. The AP’s John Pye notes the IOC last year backed the Queensland government’s revised venue plan after several false starts, with the committee saying the Brisbane Games were “on the right path.” GIICA, the coordination authority, “only took over possession of the Victoria Park site for the 63,000-seat main stadium last month, after police removed protesters” (AP, 7/23).
BUDGET ESTIMATES: In Brisbane, Matt Dennien notes Olympics Minister Tim Mander has “rowed back suggestions the operational budget for the 2032 Games was ‘a little bit flexible.’” Mander this week suggested that “‘revenue-raising opportunities’ such as ticket sales could be used to ensure the longstanding” $4.9B cost for the running of the Games did not fall on taxpayers. Liveris said in February that 2021-earmarked cost now “bears no resemblance to reality.” Asked by Ignazia Graziella “Grace” Grace during budget estimates whether the operating budget had been superseded, Mander now said that “it had not,” noting that it “was Liveris’ job to ‘make sure that it [the Games] are cost neutral’ through revenue such as ticketing and sponsorships” (BRISBANE TIMES, 7/23).
FIGURING OUT THE DETAILS: In Brisbane, Millward, Tassell & Dennis wrote the National Aquatic Centre for the Brisbane Olympics “will be a legacy to generations of swimmers,” though its cost and design specifics “are yet to be nutted out.” Brisbane City Council will “hand over the Centenary Pool Complex to the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority on September 1.” When it released its 100-day review of Games infrastructure, the government said that the pool “should have 8000 permanent seats and capacity for 25,000 Games spectators.” Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority CEO Simon Crooks, the man in charge of actually building the stadiums, admitted that “that number could fluctuate” (BRISBANE TIMES, 7/23).
