The Gabba Olympics Saga

[Diamond_Jim 12,591]

This is heating up.

Definitely a few buckets of popcorn required...........

Brisbane’s lord mayor, Adrian Schrinner, has quit the Brisbane 2032 Games delivery forum, saying the Palaszczuk government had “completely lost its way” on the road to the Olympics.

The Liberal National mayor has also withdrawn his support for a $2.7bn Gabba rebuild, insisting there must be better options than demolishing and rebuilding the inner-city venue.

On Friday the government announced it would chip in $46m for a proposal to upgrade Brisbane’s showgrounds with a temporary 20,000-seat stadium to act as the city’s home of AFL and cricket while the Gabba was rebuilt.

The government requested the remaining $91m cost be shared by Brisbane city council, AFL and cricket authorities and the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland, which runs the annual Ekka show at the venue.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/03/brisbane-mayor-resigns-from-2032-olympics-forum-calls-it-a-dysfunctional-farce

[Little Goffy 14,574]

Things like this are so exasperating I just shrug and keep an eye open for the starter pistol of proletarian revolution.

Now that'd be an entertaining Olympic event! How would you keep score, though?

[Sir Why You Little 37,046]

On the First Morning of the 2004 Olympics in Greece, there was a Major Drug Scandal, with Athletes riding through the City on Vespa’s evading Officials and Police. 
I haven’t watched one moment of Olympic Competition since. 
 

What a Grotesque waste of money they are…

[Wrecker46 2,985]

Hmmm why do i feel like i've seen this before

[Deebauched 1,220]

I was shocked when i heard Brisbane got the Olympics in 2032. 

Obviously there were no other serious bids.   Absolute insane waste of money for a 14 days athletics meet.

There will be cost blowouts (corruption) on the multiple stadia and facilities needed  not to mention soccer and baseball tournaments  ffs.

No way Brisbane can afford the cost.

The Federal gov will be pressured to bail them out financially.

Dont be surprised if you all end up paying for major stadia infrastructure in Brisbane.

Theyre scabs in QLD. Watch them like a hawk. They'll want you to pay for it.

[Demon17 5,188]

Not so fast. The Afl (Gil's) outrageous Hobart stadium racket ranks up there with this issue given the scale of impact on a city smaller than Geelong and the nation's worst housing crisis.

My tip is eventually tassie govt will change and rightfully renege on the plan.

Poor Brissie is just stuck and will be car car crash

[Sir Why You Little 37,046]

Olympics are now just ego traps for Governments. Politicians doing favours. 
He sure wasn’t perfect, but i am glad Andrews curtailed the Commonwealth Games before he left. Now they are a complete waste of time…

[whatwhat say what 22,773]

surely just a matter of time til they pull out of hosting, right?

insane waste of money

[Brownie 5,981]

Demolishing a perfectly good stadium is just insane.

Building a 'temporary' stadium at the show grounds is insane.

Replicating a stadium next door to an existing one in Hobart is insane.

The Lions should just play at Metricon.

It's underutilised and actually not a bad stadium to watch footy.

The Brisbane Olympics are going to cost an estimated $7,100,00,000,000.

let's say 8 billion conservatively as a true cost.

at 14 days for an event running maybe 18hours a day works out about half a million dollars a minute I think.

AN obscene waste of money.

Schools, health, aged care, housing. Naaah, Olympics maaaate

[Rab D Nesbitt 8,367]

Brisbane being awarded the Olympics are a bit like getting a Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood franchise just when they start to be a bit naff. 

[Deebauched 1,220]

8 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Brisbane being awarded the Olympics are a bit like getting a Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood franchise just when they start to be a bit naff. 

Never understood the popularity of those gimmicky yankee bars including TGI's.

Theyre just a bar with overpriced drinks and a few silly photos stuck on the wall.  Theyre usually opened or owned by some shonky Hollywood celebrities.

Rather drink at home or at a friends place.

[Adam The God 30,261]

They're not a waste of money, because they create jobs and create revenue for local businesses, but when governments are imposing austerity in most other sectors of the economy, spending on stadiums and infrastructure for the Olympics does feel like the wrong value proposition. But we lost our way on many of our values many decades ago, so this is merely a continuation of this.

Edited December 3, 2023 by Binmans PA

[Macca 16,972]

30 minutes ago, Binmans PA said:

They're not a waste of money, because they create jobs and create revenue for local businesses, but when governments are imposing austerity in most other sectors of the economy, spending on stadiums and infrastructure for the Olympics does feel like the wrong value proposition. But we lost our way on many of our values many decades ago, so this is merely a continuation of this.

Same story for all the 100's of $Millions spent on 'Training venues' for most of the AFL & NRL clubs?  Often, those vast amounts of money comes with a caveat ... buying votes in close run electorates (except when it comes to the MFC of course, where the value of inner City votes is negligible)

And as @Demon17 mentioned, the $Billion (at least) to be spent on the Hobart venue (for the AFL) may go ahead instead of that money being spent on health, housing etc etc

The argument is broad, not just confined to the Olympics

Edited December 3, 2023 by Macca

[Clintosaurus 7,849]

35 minutes ago, Macca said:

And as @Demon17 mentioned, the $Billion (at least) to be spent on the Hobart venue (for the AFL) may go ahead instead of that money being spent on health, housing etc etc

Our health system in Tasmania is poor, but not due to funding. It gets close to half the State Budget. Problems are structural but nobody has the desire to tackle it. Housing has much the same issues.

[Macca 16,972]

22 minutes ago, Clintosaurus said:

Our health system in Tasmania is poor, but not due to funding. It gets close to half the State Budget. Problems are structural but nobody has the desire to tackle it. Housing has much the same issues.

My initial point is that it's not just the Gabba getting funding, as the NRL & AFL clubs get heaps of public monies as well

Besides which, the AFL and Cricket will be the beneficiaries of a refurbushed Gabba

So the argument is broad and widespread and not just confined to the Olympics

As an aside, 84% of the venues needed for the Olympics in Brisbane are in place

It's really just the Gabba that needs upgrading and again, after the Olympics are done, cricket & footy will be the winners 

In the meantime, the Lions can play at Metricon for a few years.  And if anyone does care, the t20's can be held there as well

But the money spent on the Gabba can be compared to the money spent on a would-be stadium in Hobart

Edited December 3, 2023 by Macca

[Ethan Tremblay 30,861]

3 hours ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Olympics are now just ego traps for Governments. Politicians doing favours. 
He sure wasn’t perfect, but i am glad Andrews curtailed the Commonwealth Games before he left. Now they are a complete waste of time…

Let’s be honest though.. Dictator Dan never had any intentions for Victoria to host the games. It was purely a strategy to buy votes from Rural towns. 

[Sir Why You Little 37,046]

19 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Let’s be honest though.. Dictator Dan never had any intentions for Victoria to host the games. It was purely a strategy to buy votes from Rural towns. 

Possibly. It is hard to put exact figures on any of these things. But i have no doubt the final figures were a complete blow out. 
So i am glad we curtailed it. Canada did the same. 
The Commonwealth Games have no meaning anymore. They peaked in the 1950’s

[Rab D Nesbitt 8,367]

46 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Let’s be honest though.. Dictator Dan never had any intentions for Victoria to host the games. It was purely a strategy to buy votes from Rural towns. 

LOL. You mean the dictator democratically elected in a landslide victory yeah? 

[Rab D Nesbitt 8,367]

27 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Possibly. It is hard to put exact figures on any of these things. But i have no doubt the final figures were a complete blow out. 
So i am glad we curtailed it. Canada did the same. 
The Commonwealth Games have no meaning anymore. They peaked in the 1950’s

You mean you're not looking forward to watching Australia crush Tonga in lawn bowls SWYL?

[Ethan Tremblay 30,861]

39 minutes ago, Sir Why You Little said:

Possibly. It is hard to put exact figures on any of these things. But i have no doubt the final figures were a complete blow out. 
So i am glad we curtailed it. Canada did the same. 
The Commonwealth Games have no meaning anymore. They peaked in the 1950’s

Agree they’ve peaked.

[Diamond_Jim 12,591]

What do people think are the chances of the AFL kicking in $20M plus to do up the Ekka grounds as mentioned in the article.

AFL isn't known for giving money to State Governments after years of being on the receiving end.

Be interesting to know if the GC ground was ever discussed?

Flip it and imagine we and Geelong were the only Victorian clubs. Would we go down to Kardinia for a few years while they rebuilt the MCG

[Ethan Tremblay 30,861]

37 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

LOL. You mean the dictator democratically elected in a landslide victory yeah? 

Social policies and promising new infrastructure wins votes. Toxic Dan played the lying game well. 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Ethan Tremblay

[Rab D Nesbitt 8,367]

Of course they do ET. Sometimes governments even follow through on them. It's a misconception though to think that DA is / was toxic though and the only people surprised at his election victories were the ones getting their information from their "News" Corp echo chamber. The Dictator Dan quip was lazy then and boring now. And I didn't even vote for the guy. 

Your patter on here is usually pretty good Ethan and the off season is a good time to try out some new material. 

[Ethan Tremblay 30,861]

27 minutes ago, Rab D Nesbitt said:

Of course they do ET. Sometimes governments even follow through on them. It's a misconception though to think that DA is / was toxic though and the only people surprised at his election victories were the ones getting their information from their "News" Corp echo chamber. The Dictator Dan quip was lazy then and boring now. And I didn't even vote for the guy. 

Your patter on here is usually pretty good Ethan and the off season is a good time to try out some new material. 

Something tells me you’re a lefty and you don’t like it when anyone has an opposing view to yours. Ok.. not toxic. A communist dictator then. 

Edited December 3, 2023 by Ethan Tremblay

[Rab D Nesbitt 8,367]

29 minutes ago, Ethan Tremblay said:

Something tells me you’re a lefty and you don’t like it when anyone has an opposing view to yours. Ok.. not toxic. A communist dictator then. 

I'm not bothered what anyone's political views are. Particularly on an online football forum. I only replied to your post because 1. It's nearly 2024 and you're still going with the DD thing and 2. It might be more constructive to think about why whoever you vote for are currently unelectable.