Boyle fears Brisbane 2032 will look like 'cheapskate' Games

SYDNEY: Australian athletics great Raelene Boyle fears Brisbane 2032 will look like a "cheapskate" Olympics after the decision to stage the track and field at a 49-year-old stadium in the southern suburbs of the city.

Organisers originally planned to revamp the city's Gabba cricket stadium to host the opening and closing ceremonies as well as the athletics but the Queensland government blanched at the cost and ordered a review of plans last December.

The review, however, on Monday (Mar 18) proposed a new purpose-built 55,000-seat Olympic stadium be constructed in an inner city park at a cost of A$3.4 billion (US$2.22 billion).

Queensland Premier Steven Miles rejected that recommendation on the grounds of cost and decided rugby stadium Lang Park would host the ceremonies with the track and field shunted to the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre (QSAC).

"I think it is a shame for the sport and the city," Boyle, who won three silver medals in sprints at the 1968 and 1972 Olympics, told News Corp.

"I don't think it will show the city off that well and Brisbane could look like cheapskates are running the Games. The only thing going for it is there is already a track there.

"I don't think it will be a great place to have track and field because it's old. It is a small stadium and it will have to be revamped dramatically.

"But I also see the other side in that this is a terrible time to be spending money on the Olympics when people are struggling with their mortgages and there are tent cities happening in some of the parks."

Miles promised that QSAC would be refurbished at a cost of A$1.6 billion to create "the nation's best athletics facility".

Even that price tag was too high for Olympic powerbroker John Coates, one of the drivers