Sunshine Coast Mayor Mark Jamieson has welcomed the release of the Olympic Feasibility Report commissioned by the Council of Mayors (SEQ).
Mayor Jamieson said the feasibility study was the next piece of information to help inform councils and the State and Federal governments on whether to bid to host the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in 2032.
“There are some real opportunities for the Sunshine Coast from being part of staging these Games – particularly in the events that our region could host, the increase in visitor numbers, the international exposure, the improvements to facilities and the upgrades that will be necessary to our public transport network,” Mayor Jamieson said.
“An SEQ Olympics bid will, however, only work if there are clear commitments from the State and Federal governments to the upgrade of the transport linkages to Brisbane and to establishing an integrated public transport network on the Sunshine Coast prior to the Games.
“In both cases, our preference is to see a faster rail solution from the Sunshine Coast to Brisbane plus an integrated light rail network connecting the major populations centres in the urban corridor of our region.
“Council will now review the feasibility study to determine the extent to which it accommodates our interests and how matters such as the facilities master plan could be implemented in our region.”
The feasibility study suggests the Sunshine Coast could host five Olympic sports – beach swim marathon, road cycling, football (preliminary finals), triathlon and volleyball (preliminary finals and beach volleyball).
“The study also suggests that the Sunshine Coast would be the home for a satellite athletes’ village – which in my view would be ideally situated in the Maroochydore city centre and then re-purposed afterwards as apartments, as we have seen with such facilities at other events of this scale,” Mayor Jamieson said.
The feasibility study, which comes on the back of the SEQ People Mass Movement Study, also reaffirmed the Council of Mayors (SEQ) push for greater transport investment and timely infrastructure to support the anticipated population growth of the region
“We want to see much needed government investment in our transport systems and facilities,” Mayor Jamieson said.
“A potential Olympics bid would be one mechanism to see this occur – particularly in tandem with an SEQ City Deal.
“This is a potentially significant opportunity for SEQ and would well and truly showcase us on the international stage.
“Any bid cannot go forward on its own however, without the support of the State and Federal governments.
“We look forward to working with both tiers of government to analyse the feasibility study, better understand the economic impacts and reach a decision on whether to bid for the 2032 Games.”
The study recommends that a decision on whether to bid for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games should be confirmed prior to the Tokyo 2020 Games, with the host anticipated to be announced by the International Olympic Committee in 2025.
The 2032 SEQ Olympic and Paralympic Games Feasibility Study is available at seqmayors.qld.gov.au.
