Football Australia should exclude Queensland from hosting any available Socceroos and Matildas matches until the state makes a genuine commitment to support football.
“New stadium to be the pride of Brisbane Town and Lions fans,” reads the headline on a media statement released by the Queensland government on March 26.
“Crisafulli Government’s new Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park to be home to the Brisbane Lions.”
In case you missed the context, that announcement came on the back of the Queensland government’s long-awaited 100-day Olympics stadiums review – which finally saw premier David Crisafulli announce which venues would host the 2032 Brisbane Games.
The showpiece of that announcement is a new 63,000-capacity venue to be built at Victoria Park in inner-city Brisbane – the keys of which will be handed over to AFL club, the Brisbane Lions, presumably as soon as it’s ready.
There was no upgrade to Perry Park though, with the state government ignoring multifaceted pleas to help build a dedicated home for football in Brisbane.
And in case there were any doubts as to just how enamoured the incumbent Liberal National Party leadership is with oval sports, they’ve also announced a multimillion-dollar upgrade to the ageing RNA Showgrounds in Bowen Hills.
Which would be fine, if the point of the Olympic Games was to benefit domestic sports like cricket and Aussie Rules. But that’s obviously not the case.
“Tennis Queensland chief executive Cameron Pearson said it would be impossible to host events in the Queensland Tennis Centre unless the facility was given additional capacity, courts, and another arena before 2032,” wrote Brisbane Times journalists Catherine Strohfeldt and long-time football watcher Cameron Atfield on March 15.
Lucky they did, because the state government dutifully announced a major upgrade to the Queensland Tennis Centre that will include, among other things, a new 3,000-capacity show court to sit alongside the 5,500-capacity Pat Rafter Arena.
The heritage-listed Centenary Pool Complex will get an even more eye-catching upgrade, with the government announcing it was set to be turned into a 25,000-capacity national aquatics centre.
Apparently there’s an urgent enough need for a 25,000-capacity swimming stadium – that’s not a typo – but not enough to leave a much-needed legacy for football with an upgraded Perry Park.
“Soccer will be hosted in Cairns and Townsville,” read the single line of copy in news.com.au’s analysis of where Brisbane – sorry, Queensland’s – Olympic football will take place.
That’s no accident.
Queensland’s latest premier Crisafulli was born in Ingham, studied journalism at James Cook University in Townsville, and draws much of his support from the north.
Taking the Olympics to Far North Queensland is not only a huge coup for the region, but it also keeps any tourism dollars within the state.
But it does little for football.
The region hasn’t had a professional football team since North Queensland Fury folded in 2011 – successor club North Queensland United also went under in 2018 – while any upgrades to the ramshackle Barlow Park in Cairns will mainly benefit rugby league.
Which isn’t to say that football shouldn’t continue to press its claims for a fair share of government funding – with rumours abounding that Perry Park will still receive some kind of upgrade in the near future.
You’d want to hope so given Crisafulli is a friend and political ally of former LNP politician and current Football Queensland chief executive, Robert Cavallucci.
Brisbane Roar have been working quietly behind the scenes to mend relationships with Football Queensland in the hope of one day making Perry Park their new permanent home.
Fewer than 5,500 fans turned up at Suncorp Stadium for the first-ever visit of Auckland FC on Sunday, with the Roar succumbing 2-0 in energy-sapping conditions.
The 52,500-capacity stadium will presumably still host the finals of the two Olympics football tournaments – with football remaining one of the most sought-after tickets at the 2024 Games in Paris.
You’d have a hard time convincing politicians in Queensland of that.
And until they agree to fairly fund the sport with the highest participation numbers in the state, Football Australia should play its lucrative national team games elsewhere.
