In the 12 months since his appointment as the inaugural president of the organizing committee for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics, Andrew Liveris has refined his vision of what the Summer Games will look like in nine years.
He foresees a bit of Barcelona, a little dose of London and lot more of what makes Australia and the Oceania region tick.
As well as helping establish a board containing 22 people, including stakeholders from three tiers of government, and recruiting CEO Cindy Hook, Liveris has been asking plenty of questions and “benchmarking" previous Olympic hosts to get a sense of where Brisbane will be similar and where it'll be very different from other Summer Games.
“A year in, I see we’ll use the best of Barcelona and the best of London, but we are developing something which actually is going to be very unique and hopefully seen as very much us,” Liveris said in an interview with The Associated Press.
Liveris, a former chairman of the Dow Chemical Company — a former top Olympic sponsor — said local organizers had already conducted about 2,500 branding interviews and the feedback embodies what he describes as the “lifestyle superpower” of Brisbane and the surrounding coastal cities of southeast Queensland state.
“What’s coming out is the warm generous hospitality of the people ... and then the amazing nature that we live in that we maybe take for granted," he said. Some of Australia's top tourism destinations, including the Great Barrier Reef and the Gold Coast, are in Queensland state and will offer backdrops for Olympic events.
Addressing the general assembly of the Oceania National Olympic Committees in Brisbane on Tuesday, Liveris said the warmth of the people and the natural environment were shared characteristics across the region. And he emphasized how sports, tourism and business across Oceania could benefit from Brisbane hosting the Games.
Australia has already hosted the Olympics twice, at Melbourne in 1956 and Sydney in 2000. Brisbane, Australia's third-biggest city, was awarded the 2032 Games in July, 2021 as the preferred candidate selected to fit the IOC’s goal of trying to avoid excessive spending and potential white-elephant projects.
Brisbane is central to one of the fastest growing regions in the country, is an established gateway to people from the Pacific, and was already in the process of reshaping itself with construction of a new subway rail line and a new metro system due for completion next year.
The federal government and Queensland state have already agreed to a 50-50 funding split on a deal worth about 7 billion Australian dollars ($4.7 billion) to build or remodel venues for the Olympics, including a revamp of the Gabba Stadium — the state's long-term cricket and Australian rules football headquarters — and construction of a 17,000 indoor arena in the downtown area.
Both major projects will connect adjoin the new transport infrastructure.
“We’ll blend a Melbourne, which was an urban games, to a Sydney, which was a warm, hospitable beautiful environment games,” Liveris said. “We can be both, because we’re recreating our center. The center of this city will be nothing like it is now. This is a very livable city, but (the Olympics) will make it a livable city for the 21st century.”
While governments will be responsible for the hard infrastructure — with completion of the two major venues expected by 2030 — Liveris is aware it's ultimately the local organizing committee that will be held responsible for delivering the Olympics in Brisbane.
“Everyone is going to remember the events, the Games, and the number of gold medals we win as a country,” he said. "And knowing that, still keeping sport at the heart of this, obviously we put on the event but the commitments being made on behalf of the country, the state and city, I take very personally.
