Today marks a step forward in our city’s Olympic journey as I signed a memorandum of understanding with Griffith University to explore a major baseball and softball stadium at the university’s Logan campus.
We want Logan to be the home to diamond sports and securing baseball and softball as Olympic sports in 2032 is a great first step.
There’s a huge amount of support and excitement for these sports, with hundreds of millions of fans worldwide.
We currently have one softball facility and two baseball facilities in Logan, which are well-loved by the community.
Our city is ready for something more.
This year on my visits to Taiwan and Japan, I saw first-hand our sister cities’ baseball stadiums and how important these hubs are to their communities – not just during the season but year-round for live music, cultural and economic opportunities, school events and training camps.
The Taipei Dome and Rakuten Baseball Stadium in Taiwan are both major investment hubs for their cities, with everything from naming rights to stand sponsors continuing to generate revenue decades after construction.
This project isn’t about the Olympics, it’s about building a world-class, future-thinking, international entertainment destination that will be a legacy for our city and our state.
The Olympic deadline and focus will be a bonus incentive for private investors.
We have partnered with Griffith University as the ideal location for a stadium for many reasons including that it’s one of the world’s most renowned sporting universities.
With excellence in sports medicine, psychology, nutrition, Griffith also produces more Olympic athletes than any other institution in Australia.
In 2024, Griffith sent 38 athletes to the Paris Olympics, contributing 24 medals to Australia’s tally, including 10 gold, 8 silver, and 6 bronze.
It’s no small feat: based on medals won, if Griffith University was a country it would have come out 13th at those Olympics, ahead of countries like Canada and New Zealand.
A stadium at Griffith’s Logan campus would provide yet another advanced sporting facility for the next generation of athletes to hone their skills alongside their studies.
Importantly, it could also catalyse the green bridge which would link Meadowbrook through to Loganholme, creating a new public transport route.
Today’s signing is just the beginning of our stadium journey, and we expect a lot of interest from private industry to bring this dream to reality.
