Penrith Whitewater Stadium
Recent news from the USA suggests canoe slalom events for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics (LA28) will be held in Oklahoma City, clearing the way for Penrith NSW to host these events for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics.
Redland City Council’s whitewater dream
Redland City Council’s whitewater development dream, at Birkdale, seems to be running into the same heavy weather that’s long afflicted its wetlands real estate plans for Toondah Harbour.
The Toondah development was launched under the misguided assumption the Ramsar wetlands protection presented no significant impediment to a quick start on the 3,600 apartments. Nine years on, Ramsar continues to confound the developer, and gives the Federal Environment Minister the power to kill the entire proposal at a pen stroke.
In the same vein, at Birkdale, the Council’s proposal to build a new whitewater venue to stage the 2032 Olympic canoe slalom events seems bereft of basic due diligence.
Who assessed the risk that someone else might deliver an Olympic canoe venue for less than the 100 million dollars of taxpayers money it would cost to build one at Birkdale?
Penrith Whitewater Centre
That ‘someone else’, oh so obviously, is the Penrith Whitewater Centre on the western edge of Sydney. It’s an Olympic-standard canoe slalom course. Built for the 2000 Olympics, it is still the sport’s premier venue in the southern hemisphere. It’s owned by the NSW government and was recently picked to host the 2025 World Championships.
Surely the Redland City Council knew the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had already featured Penrith as the extant alternative to Birkdale? Surely Council was aware of the IOC’s guidelines for single sport venues – that “no new permanent construction shall be required. Instead, competitions should be removed to the most suitable existing venue… even if located outside the Host City/Country”.
Redlands Council is gambling on the Queensland Government being parochial enough to reject out-sourcing of canoe slalom to NSW in 2032.
But recent news indicates the IOC is serious about its New Norms principles of not wasting money on expensive new facilities, if existing venues are fit for purpose.
Oklahoma City firming for canoe slalom
California has no venue that can host canoe slalom at the LA2028 Games.
The USA with a population of more than 330 million (more than ten times the size of Australia) has currently got two just facilities suitable for Olympic canoe slalom events:
News stories from the USA this week are strongly signalling a done deal to shift the LA28 Olympics canoe slalom events to Oklahoma City’s Riversport venue.
Los Angeles 28 close to making decision on canoe slalom relocation to Oklahoma City
OKC in running to host 2028 Summer Olympic events
Oklahoma City May Host Canoe Slalom During Los Angeles 2028
This would save Olympic organizers from spending $100 million on facilities for a minor Olympics sport that caters typically for about 100 competitors. That’s a capital spend of a million dollars per per competitor.
Flying the 1,910 kilometres from Los Angeles to Oklahoma City takes over three hours, twice as long as flying the 750 kilometres from Brisbane to Sydney.
Why not Penrith?
These stories raise important questions for Redland City Council and higher levels of government who will actually be funding the 2032 Olympic venues.
Will the Brisbane 32 Olympics decision makers ignore the Oklahoma precedent, and tip $100 million into a wasteful Birkdale duplication of the Penrith Whitewater Centre?
How would so much unnecessary construction work fit with ‘carbon neutral’ promises for the Brisbane 2032 Olympics?
When will Redland City’s elected councillors and senior officers stop wasting ratepayers’ money on this vanity project, keeping in mind that Redlands already has the highest rates and charges in south east Queensland.
Will Queensland’s Parliament and State Government heed the community’s call to put a stop to the whitewater white elephant and ask NSW to make Penrith available for the 2032 Olympic canoe slalom events?
Redlands2030 – 12 June 2023
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