Liveris doubles down on Olympics cost pledge, rattles tin for US sponsors

Las Vegas: Brisbane Olympics president Andrew Liveris has doubled down on his pledge that the Games will not require taxpayer funds to operate, as he scours corporate America for sponsors to cover the increased costs of the event’s regional spread.

Liveris played down reports from the Milano Winter Olympics, where he admitted the initial $4.9 billion budget “bears no resemblance to reality” and would be revised, probably by the end of this year.

He told this masthead that reports suggesting a cost “blowout” were taken out of context, but would not agree to be interviewed.

At a sport business conference in Las Vegas, part of the NRL’s season launch, Liveris told the audience that the Games would remain cost-neutral for taxpayers.

“We’re going to deliver this with no cost to the taxpayer, that’s our commitment. So we’ve got to get our sponsors to see what the value is for them,” he said.

Liveris, a former chairman and chief executive of Dow Chemical, is well connected in corporate America. He flew to Vegas after attending the G’Day USA gala in Los Angeles the previous night, where he also announced Venice Beach as the location of “Australia House” during the 2028 LA Games.

“With my US connections, I want to tap US sponsors big time,” Liveris said. He suggested that having the previous Games in California, and the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, would be advantageous to his bid for American sponsorship for Brisbane.

“[If] I’m a US company, I want to see what that means for my brand-building across the world because all these sports are globalising,” he said.

Liveris’ presentation to the International Olympic Committee in Milan raised concerns that the Games’ operating budget was already blowing out due to the state government’s directive to spread events out along the coast, rather than concentrating them in Brisbane.

Queensland Premier David Crisafulli promised that the decentralised Games would not cost taxpayers “one extra cent”. Government funding for new and upgraded venues would remain at $7.1 billion, he said.

Liveris told the NRL conference that the Vegas launch was a boon for Australia’s brand in the US, but there was still much work to do to promote Brisbane and Queensland internationally.

“Everyone from outside Australia knows Australia and knows Sydney and knows Melbourne,” he said. “But Brisbane and Queensland in general are not a global grand.”

Later, the NRL held an Indo-Pacific Forum that mixed sporting diplomacy with high-level geopolitics and the domestic political climate of the US under Donald Trump.

The forum was held under Chatham House rules, where the names and affiliations of participants cannot be disclosed, but it included at least one government official from the US and from Papua New Guinea.

High-level officials from rugby league participated in discussions about the rush to diversify the supply of critical minerals from China – on which Australia is partnering with the US – as well as the likelihood of the US launching military strikes on Iran, and the chances of China invading Taiwan.

The consensus in the room was that President Trump would ultimately strike against Tehran using the massive amount of military assets he has assembled in the region, including the largest US aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald Ford, which arrived off the Israeli coast on Saturday.

“We’ve got one hell of a war machine floating out there,” one person told the NRL forum. “You don’t send them there and do nothing,” said another.