Queensland Sport Minister Tim Mander has defended the decision to host soccer preliminaries outside Queensland for the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.
He confirmed on Friday Sydney and Melbourne would host matches if the sport was locked in for 2032.
“As I keep saying all the time, we’ll confirm all those things once the sport’s confirmed, but they’ve always been slated to have football games, yes,” he said.
“It’s important we take advantage of the most popular sports, and obviously football is one of the most popular sports and will be the ones that draw the biggest crowds,” he said.
“It’s our commitment to Queenslanders these Games are cost-neutral – to do that we have to make sure we maximise ticket sales on the sports that are the most popular with the public.”
Mander said venue allocation would be confirmed once the sports program has been approved by the International Olympic Committee, which was expected by the end of the year. He said once approved, the government aimed to finalise the venue plan in the first quarter of 2027.
When asked why the matches would not be played at venues in regional Queensland, Mander said the regions would get their share of events and noted Townsville and Sunshine Coast had been earmarked to host matches as well.
“I don’t need to run through all the other sports that have already been slated for the regional areas,” he said.
“Our regions will be well and truly serviced by great sports.”
Mander then shot down the suggestion that tennis preliminaries would be in Melbourne.
Olympic soccer has traditionally been spread across an Olympic host nation.
For Los Angeles 2028, matches will be in New York, Columbus, San Diego, San Jose, St Louis and Nashville, along with the host city.
The Gabba was redeveloped in the late 1990s so it could host Olympic soccer during the Sydney 2000 Games.
Other host cities in 2000 were Melbourne, Adelaide, Canberra and, of course, Sydney.
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