Queensland is ill-equipped to host Olympic soccer, Football Queensland and Football Australia have warned in their review submission.
The Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority is conducting the 100-day review of Olympic infrastructure. Read some of the submissions here.In the lead-up to the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the Gabba was redeveloped largely for the purpose of hosting Olympic soccer, leaving no legacy for the sport – cricket and AFL reaped the spoils.
In their submission, FQ and FA say football is Queensland’s largest club-based participation sport, with more than 350,000 active players – more than both rugby codes and Australian rules combined.It also sells more tickets at Olympic Games than any other sport, largely due to its ability to be played in large stadiums across a host nation, as happened when the Gabba hosted matches in 2000.
The submission has the backing of Brisbane Roar, the Australian Professional Leagues , the Asian Football Confederation, the Oceania Football Confederation, the ASEAN Football Federation, and the Professional Footballers Australia players’ union.At the heart of the submission is a boutique “tier two” stadium at Perry Park in Bowen Hills, which could hold 17,000 spectators and scale up with temporary seating during the Games.
“If it’s a round-two qualifier, for instance, against a weaker nation like Bangladesh, where we were not confident of getting to the 50-plus numbers, if we want to be in a stadium with great atmosphere, we’re looking for something about half the size of that.” A club record 3712 fans packed into Perry Park to watch the Brisbane Roar v Adelaide United A-League Women’s match on Sunday.“To realise this vision within an acceptable cost envelope and maximise the long-term legacy benefits, football is recommending a comprehensive, master-planned spine of sporting and entertainment venues and infrastructure be developed in Brisbane’s inner city, centred on the strategically significant Victoria Park precinct,” the submission says.
Competition venues aside, the governing bodies also rang the alarm about a lack of training facilities for the men’s and women’s teams that will compete at Brisbane 2032. “The most impactful and legacy-leaving training site infrastructure solution in Brisbane would be the expansion of the Queensland State Home of Community Football at Meakin Park. This would see a total of 10 pitches constructed, which has the capacity to host multiple participating OFT teams, as well as other sporting codes and Olympic teams.”“That was highlighted in the most recent tournament ; we did struggle to procure compliant training bases that serviced just four teams,” he said.
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