I first visited Brisbane in July 1989, and I happened to go along to see the Britain – Australia Rugby Union Test (I think these days Rugby Union in the UK is so well developed that they have four separate teams instead of one, but I am not one to pay close attention to Rugby Union at the best of times).
The test was at Ballymore, a Rugby Union ground which was far less than a stadium at the time. I get the impression that it was two embankments bulldozed upward on either side of the pitch for the benefit of spectators rather than properly constructed pavilions or stands. Very outer suburban.
I was used to the VFL crowds of the era, but Queensland Rugby Union fans were next level (even when compared to Collingwood supporters at home). On the way into the ground, my friends and I encountered an acquaintance who already seemed quite drunk (it was 11am), and what appeared to be mostly still full beer cans were flying around the ground during the match.
Oh my! This makes the utter tossers who support Melbourne Victory in the domestic soccer competition seem well behaved in comparison! (Of course, we are all familiar with the private schoolboy saying that Rugby Union is a thug’s game played by gentlemen. And presumably watched by thugs too.)
Queensland sport, both in terms of its spectators’ behaviour and the facilities for viewing it, have improved a lot since then. I was in the Storey Bridge Hotel near the Gabba in April 2005 when there was going to be an AFL game that night, and I was told by the staff that after the recent threepeat, the Brisbane Lions were as popular on game day as the Brisbane Broncos (ie the long established Rugby League team). In August 2015 I went with a friend to see the Bulldogs-Brisbane game at the Gabba and was quite delighted by the comfort and accessibility of the relatively recently rebuilt Gabba stadium. (The Bulldogs lost a see-sawing game, but I did not mind too much, and the following year we did win the premiership, which made up for decades of disappointment.)
Ballymore too apparently is a somewhat improved stadium, although no longer as important for any form of football as it was 35 years ago.
The upcoming Brisbane Olympics in 2032 initially raised high hopes for taking sporting stadia in Queensland to a much better level. The original plan was for the Gabba to be rebuilt as a 50,000 seat stadium rather than the current 40,000 seat configuration.
The Labor government has since reviewed its plans and shelved the idea of rebuilding the Gabba. Whilst this is not as ruthless as the Andrews Labor Government in Victoria first accepting the 2026 Commonwealth Games and then cancelling it in what appears to have been a cynical exercise in pre-election pork barrelling, it is prima facie a matter of some concern. After all, the Olympics is usually the sort of event that the overseeing government goes insane about, regardless of costs.
If I were the IOC, I would right now be rather nervous about the intentions and capacity of the Queensland Government to actually host the Olympics, and start drawing up contingency plans.
But the economics of building large sporting stadia, even in large cities like Brisbane, is somewhat questionable.
Brisbane is a city of about 2.6 million people. It hosts one AFL team, and various other teams in the various inferior football codes. The AFL team, the Brisbane Lions, plays its home games at the Gabba. At best, this makes for 11 home games in a year, plus possible home finals matches. (The exception to this is when in the Covid cursed 2020 AFL season, the AFL lifeboated the entire competition to Brisbane.) There is also a cricket test sometime in the summer, as well as various international limited over matches.
Let’s compare that to Perth Stadium or Adelaide Oval. They have two AFL teams each, so in a usual year, those fine stadia will host a minimum 22 AFL games (to say nothing of the current Gather Round in South Australia), possibly more if their teams are firing up in the finals. And they are as likely to have as many cricket matches as Brisbane.
And then there is the MCG, the global cathedral of both Australian Rules Football and Cricket. Aside from the usual number of cricket matches, including the marquee Boxing Day Test, the MCG also hosts a minimum of 45 AFL matches per year, plus AFL finals, including the AFL Grand Final (ie the most highly attended domestic competition final in the world). With 9 AFL teams located in Greater Melbourne, there is considerable economy of scale to enable both the successful existence of the 100,000 seat MCG and the 57,000 seat Docklands Stadium.
Plus Taylor Swift and similar concerts. Top tier acts are going to perform at the MCG, whilst second tier will go to Docklands, and third tier acts like the sort I like seeing will perform at Melbourne Park. (Sadly, the sort of musicians I really really like, eg Suzanne Vega, are related to the Palais these days, and previously to Hamer Hall and Crown Casino.)
Ultimately, and I hate to say this (especially as I have been a loud advocate for rebuilding the Gabba much much bigger than it currently is), it makes very little economic sense to build any major sporting stadia anywhere approximating half the scale of the MCG anywhere but Melbourne, as they will not be used sufficiently enough to warrant the large expense.
For this to change, there would need to be more AFL matches held in other cities, which would necessitate more AFL teams being admitted to the competition – something I do not think is viable except in Perth or Adelaide. Alternatively, more Rugby or Association Football matches would need to be held in such stadia common used for AFL or Cricket.
And would we really want that?
Lost For Words! 