Brisbane goes for gold with $70b win from 2032 Olympics

Perth Now

22-07-2025

Australia is on track to strike Brisbane Olympic gold, with the 2032 Games forecast to pump more than $70 billion into the national economy.
But a business expert has played down the Olympic-sized impact touted on Tuesday, warning the cost of preparing for a Games might outweigh the benefits.
The seven-year countdown to the 2032 Games has begun, with a Deloitte Economics Report predicting the country would benefit from tens of billions of dollars post-Games.
The report forecast the Games would help inject $39.5 billion and create 7800 additional full-time jobs for Queensland's southeast through to the year 2052.
The remainder of Queensland was set to receive $19.3 billion and 4900 extra jobs, with $11.8 billion and 4700 additional jobs for the rest of the country over the 20-year period.
"In some sense, the exact dollars don't matter," Deloitte Access Economics' Pradeep Philip told a packed Brisbane event boasting Olympic heavyweights on Tuesday.
"It's the magnitude and the trajectory of our economic growth that is important."
A forecast volunteering uptick is set to attract 50,000 mostly Australian people, and is expected to contribute to higher labour productivity, feeding the economic boom.
Transport, event and public infrastructure set to be built for the Games would also contribute to the long-term economic legacy, Mr Philip said.
Brisbane's enhanced reputation was also expected to be factor, contributing to higher pre-and post-Games tourism as well as boosting merchandise exports and foreign direct investment.
Australian Olympic Committee CEO Mark Arbib said the report was "music to our ears".
"We can't wait for Brisbane 2032, the world is going to come to Queensland," he said.
But business expert Sheranne Fairley claimed projects rarely came in on budget and warned the Brisbane Olympics may not have a positive economic legacy.
She urged people to keep a healthy amount of scepticism about the touted impacts, with a string of previous Olympic host cities enduring cost blowouts.
"Pretty much every Games we've ever had, we've touted economic benefits and said there's going to be all these positive benefits," the University of Queensland academic told AAP.
"But we see a lot of the time, there's cost blowouts.
"Then there's really no sustained tracking of what those benefits are."
She said multiple studies would likely be completed after the 2032 event boasting different Games impacts, but believed it would be difficult to determine its overall legacy.
She cited the 2018 Commonwealth Games hosted by the Gold Coast, saying some businesses were left "high and dry" when they ordered extra stock for the expected influx of visitors that never came.
"There were certainly some businesses that were left out of pocket," she said.
Glasgow will host a pared-down Commonwealth Games in 2026 after Victoria reneged as host, citing contentious cost blow-outs.
Yet Brisbane Olympic boss Andrew Liveris said the 2032 Games legacy would be different, after being hosted under new reforms.
Brisbane organisers will abide by the Olympic "new norm" that encourages host cities to use existing or temporary venues to help ensure a more affordable, beneficial and sustainable Games.
"We will deliver a Games for the entire region and the entire country that happens to have the word Brisbane as its headline," he told function on Tuesday.
The 2032 Olympics will ensure Queensland had a reputation for "warmth, hospitality, openness" lasting beyond the event, he said.
The clock is ticking for the Games after the Queensland government finally confirmed its venue blueprint in March, more than 1300 days after Brisbane was named host city.
Victoria Park in Brisbane's inner city is expected to become the Games hub, with a 63,000-seat main stadium as part of a $7.1 billion venue funded by the state and federal governments.