LOGAN City Council is hoping the Olympics will be a good way to draw money from the state government for a large indoor sporting complex at Logan Central.
Mayor Darren Power has played up Logan’s chances of gaining an Olympic event.
Yet, latest council information has played down the notion that Logan may yet host an Olympic event.
Rather, it says city experts completed a study into the best location for a new indoor venue, and would be happy with a “training facility” for Olympic athletes.
“I’ve made no secret of my desire to secure an Olympic venue for Logan’s growing community and since the (Olympic) announcement I have been working hard behind the scenes to ensure that the deputy premier and Logan’s state and federal members were well aware of this,” Mayor Darren Power said in a column penned for MyCity Logan last week.
“An Olympic venue in Logan Central enables council to bring forward and value-add to the already endorsed plans for Logan Central Civic and Community Precinct Plan.”
A statement released by council last week said the venue could be configured for a range of sports, for crowds of between 5000 and 10,000 spectators.
Cr Power said while the community already needs the facility, building it before 2032 would allow us to capitalise.
“Logan Central ticks so many boxes with handy access to key rail and transport nodes and a local population that thrives on sport,” he said.
He said it also made sense economically.
A council study into the venue’s ideal location was led by industry experts, and did modelling across the city based on the dimensions of the Coomera Indoor Sports Centre.
That venue was built for netball and gymnastics at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and has since been reconfigured into a multi-sports and community facility.
The study found there was significant demand within the local community for more indoor sporting facilities.
Sporting trends and participation rates were also examined while access to transport and accommodation were taken into account.
The City of Logan was not included when 2032 Games organisers initially allocated sports to venues across South East Queensland including Brisbane, Gold Coast, Moreton and Redland council areas.
“We understand Games organisers have a huge job ahead of them and their plans are already underway,” Cr Power said.
“But we just hope they can give some more thought to ensuring the City of Logan doesn’t miss out on being part of the Games action and legacy.”
Council is not yet revealing the exact location, saying there are “possible commercial considerations”.
