Brisbane Mayor Considers 2028 Olympic Bid

(ATR) Australia’s Queensland region may be one of the first bidders for the 2028 Olympic Games.

Brisbane lord mayor Graham Quirk told The Australian that he will mention a combined regional Olympic bid proposal to the agenda at the Council of Mayors meeting on March 6.

"It’s Australia’s new ‘world city,’" Quirk said. "We have demonstrated we are capable of staging world events, staging them safely and staging them successfully with attention to detail."

Quirk’s comments follow IOC president Thomas Bach’s call for a fresh Australian entry for either the 2024 or 2028 Games.

Bach told The Weekend Australian last week that three Australian cities have the necessary infrastructure to host a cost-efficient Games. Although he didn’t list specifics, most believe he was referring to 1956 host Melbourne, 2000 host Sydney, and Brisbane.

A Brisbane bid for the Games would invoke the entire Queensland region, home to a seventh of Australia’s population, but Quirk doesn’t foresee that being a problem.

"As a group of mayors, we are very proactive and we work cooperatively and I would be very surprised if there wasn’t across-the-board interest," the mayor said.

Brisbane campaigned to host the Olympics in 1992, but ultimately lost to Barcelona.

Written by Andrew Murrell

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