IOC President Thomas Bach Encourages Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games Bid

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, Thomas Bach, has provided encouragement for Brisbane’s initial feasibility study in its’ bid to host the 2032 Olympic Games.

Mr Bach said Australians and Queenslanders must first decide whether they want to host the entire world before South East Queensland decides about continuing with the bid for the Olympics.

“We can’t go into details at this very early stage,” he said.

“What I can read is that this concept is really reflecting the reforms of Olympic Agenda 2020 by making excellent use of existing facilities.

“There would be no need to have any infrastructure being built for the purpose of the Games.

“This would lead to, I think, a pretty strong candidature.

“As has to be taken into consideration at the first stage is, for the Australians to say, ‘yes, we want to be a host to the entire world’.

“That’s the first decision, yes, we want to host all athletes from the 206 national Olympic committees.

“If this will is clear, then the reforms offer them the chance for that to come true,” Mr Bach said.

The 265-page feasibility report that was released by the Queensland Government in February, outlined the plan to renovate as many as 60 per cent of the existing venues and add further infrastructure and transportation upgrades.

In the report, it was estimated that these costs would be approximately $5.3 billion, which was expected to be funded partially by the IOC and domestic revenue of $2.7 billion.

This left a tax-funded deficit of about $900 million.

Despite this, Bach said the operating costs for the Games would be cost-neutral due to a financial contribution from the IOC, which will likely be greater than the $2.6 billion appointed for Los Angeles in 2028.

“I think this figure [$2.6 billion for Los Angeles 2028] was new to the mayors and I could see them starting to calculate in their heads and what this means for their feasibility study and for their budget,” Bach said.

Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) president and IOC member, John Coates, said the decision to progress with the 2032 bid strongly relies on the need for transportation upgrades ahead of the Games.

“If there is a decision to go ahead, it will be a joint decision of the South East Queensland Mayors, the AOC and the State Government and Federal Government,” Coates said.

The IOC will not select a host until 2025, however, multiple nations including Indonesia, Argentina, Germany, Russia and India have expressed interest at this early stage and started preparations for their bids.