PROPOSAL:
the Brisbane Expo 2020 Olympiad
2020: A Year for Occasion
2020 will be the 250th Anniversary of Captain Cook proclaiming the
Australian continent in the name of King George III. It will be the
most significant
Australian anniversary since the 1788-1988 Australian Bicentennial, and
especially significant for Queensland as this proclamation took place
in Queensland,
at the to the purpose named Possession Island, Cape York Peninsula, on
21 August 1770. It is a Australian year bristling with occasion, not
only on a
national and international scale, but also at the local level as well.
Brisbane: A City waiting for another Celebration
Brisbane as the capital of Queensland,
host of the 1982 Commonwealth Games, World Expo '88, and numerous
other international events, both sporting, cultural
and otherwise, needs to capitalise on the success of these events by
attracting another similar or grander event proposal. We also need to
do so to prevent
the event possibly going to another state capital such as Sydney or
Melbourne. Sydney recently lost the 2012 Expo bid and looks likely to
bid for the 2020
slot as well.
Brisbane has the necessary event infrastructure, both in terms of
physical and intellectual capital to host these joint events. We should
relish this
opportunity to fine tune our skills in this regard and train new leaders at the same time.
The Brisbane Expo 2020 Olympiad and Universal Exposition:
the Brisbane expo2020lympiad
The Foundation Expo '88 proposal is simple and clear - re-unite the
Olympics Games and Universal Expositions back to where they were at the
beginning of the
games of the modern era - both held conjunctly at the same city at the same time (1900 Paris, 1904 St Louis).
A massive event requiring a massive injection of public spending and
infrastructure capital, capturing the imagination of the sporting and
cultural world,
and creating incredible synergies in the arts, sports, tourism,
economics, diplomacy and government - both local, state, national
and international.
A Joint Event such as this would be known as an exp0lympiad - a
Universal Exposition and Olympiad - a term coined by Foundation Expo
'88, and would consist
of a Universal Class Exposition - a Class I Exposition where the
participants design and construct their Pavilions, and a Summer Games
Olympiad.
Brisbane's 1988 World Exposition was an International Specialised
Exposition on the theme of Leisure, where the Expo Authority for the
most part designed and
constructed the participant Pavilions. Universal Expositions allow for
greater architectural creative scope as the participants are required
to design and
construct their Pavilions, and are based on a broad humanistic
universal theme - the proposed theme for the Brisbane expo2020lympiad
being 'Respect and
Preservation of the World's Indigenous Cultures' - linking in with the
cross-encounter of cultures that occurred with the Cook exploration of
Australia.
Time Table
The two events should be applied for separately, as they are
responsible to different organisations, the Bureau of International
Expositions, Paris, and the
International Olympic Committee, Geneva. The bid for the Universal
Exposition should occur first, with a 2011 bid lodgement to the BIE in
Paris, through the
Australian Ambassador. This will allow competing bid cities six months
to respond, after which a member nation vote will take place. Then the
2020 Universal
Exposition will be awarded to the City with the most votes.
The bid for the Summer Games Olympiad will take place later, in 2013.
Whilst each event is bid for separately it should still be known to
both organisations that Brisbane intends to host a Joint Universal
Exposition and Summer
Games.
This allows only three years of preparation for the Universal
Exposition, and five years preparation for the Summer Games Olympiad.
Time is of the essence.
Competitors
Universal Exposition: Houston, San Francsico, Sydney, Manila.
Summer Games Olympiad: Cape Town, Delhi, Istanbul, Buenos Aires
Brisbane will not be without competition for the 2020 time slot, for
Universal Exposition or Summer Games Olympiad. However, Brisbane
increases her chances
of gaining the Joint Events with a proposal that is exciting, captures
the public's imagination, and furthers the Olympics Games and
Expositions movements -
and a Joint Event does just that.
To maximise the potentials here, an early bid lodgement to the BIE in
Paris in 2011 is crucial. Although bid cities can bid between 9 years
to 6 years in
advance for the 2020 Universal Exposition slot, once another City has
put forward a bid we will have only six months to respond, which would
not allow enough
of a time window to put together a bid. Hence a proactive bid
lodgement, at the earliest time possible in 2011 is highly recommended.
Brisbane for the 2020 Summer Games Olympiad is not an impossibility
either. The former Premier Peter Beattie MP has commented that he would
like to see
Brisbane host an Olympic Games by 2024, and this has been supported in principle by IOC President Jacque Rogge.
Funding
There is no reason to say why this proposal cannot be totally funded by
private enterprise, as was World Expo '88, and why it could not be a
total success.
Ticket sales, media revenue, and post-event land development would all add into the funding mix.
Possible Sites
Seville's Universal Exposition should be the template here - a large
site between 160 and 220 hectares, allowing for maximum infrastructure,
recreational and
Pavilion expression, at a site that could be connected by standard
transport and high-speed rail to the inner city. The Olympiad
venues
would be as per the Commonwealth Games with some refurbishment. This
would create an attractive inner city suburb at the event's conclusion
that would be
very attractive to investors and developers, a new urban area with
residential, hotel, retail, hospitality, and parkland space to rival or
even better the
transformed World Expo '88 site, South Bank Parklands.
Next Steps
Collaboration with Brisbane City Council is vital in the bid proposal
process. Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has already signified his interest
in a 2020
Exposition, we need his extra support for a Summer Games Olympiad as well.
A Committee needs to be formed within Tourism and Protocol and Events
Queensland to co-ordinate the task, and bring on board necessary other
Government and
private enterprise players.
Contact
Foundation Expo '88 is the present liaison for the project proposal, contact John McGregor Executive Director at your earliest
convenience at
executivedirector@celebrate88.com, or, tel (+61417) [0417] 434105.