When I heard Brisbane was in the box seat to host the 2032 Olympics as the only considered candidate, I was surprised at my own immediate reaction.
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I have to say that before the announcement my general feeling was one of that it was a waste of time,energy and money.
Yet when I heard the news I was quite excited to hear the Olympics was almost certainly coming to my local capital city in 11 years time.
I was aware of the contradiction in my own feelings and struggled a while to reconcile them.
But I realised that what I hated most was the bidding process itself, opaque, expensive and quite likely corrupt, with no guarantee of a good outcome at the end.
I suppose they could still take the Olympics away from Brisbane and I suspect organisers and governments will still spend a lot of money on the proposal, which will be decided at the Tokyo Olympics.
But this method seems a lot saner and there are no (apparent) competitor cities raising the stakes along the way,
What needs to be done now is to make sure the Olympics does not break the bank and that North Queensland does not suffer at the South East's corner's expense (It is also interesting to note that early names such as the "South East Queensland Olympics" have been ditched for the more media-friendly Brisbane Olympics").
Robbie Katter has made good points saying he cannot support it while the state government acts so poorly on northern problems such as the current Julia Creek Hospital debacle though that should surely be resolved in a much earlier timeframe.
A more interesting point he made is on likely cost blow outs.
He back the call of North Queensland economist Colin Dwyer.who says a southern Olympics would crowd out regional infrastructure projects for a long time.
Mr Dwyer has a vested political interest as a former LNP and KAP candidate but it is a likely scenario if we are not careful.
Nonetheless it is not hard to see all of Queensland wrapped up in the excitement of a Olympic Games coming to our state.
It is up to Annastacia Palaszczuk and the governments that follow her to make sure all of the state reaps the undoubted benefits.