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Kooky
Builder of Shaka, the payment router that pays every agent their commission on closing date.
About Kooky and Shaka →A joint venture of BESIX Watpac and John Holland has been taken forward as the only remaining bidder to build Brisbane Stadium at Victoria Park, the Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority announced on Wednesday 30 September 2026. The pair moves into the second and final phase of the authority's selection process, with a contract expected to be settled around the turn of the year and construction to start in 2027.
On the ABC's cost figure the stadium is by far the largest venue in the 2032 program, and the one that has shaped the argument over inner-city land since the site was chosen. Naming a builder, even provisionally, is the point at which a design and a budget start being tested against what a contractor says it can deliver.
Games authority announcement and ABC News report, both 30 September 2026.
What was decided, and what was not
The authority, known as GIICA, has been running what it calls an Early Contractor Involvement process. Two groups took part in the last round. Austadiums, the venue industry site, reported that the BESIX Watpac and John Holland venture progressed ahead of a partnership between Built and Sacyr.
The ABC described the joint venture as the sole finalist for contract negotiations. GIICA chief executive Simon Crooks told the broadcaster: "We are satisfied that the process has delivered the best possible contractor for this second and final phase."
A finalist is not yet a signed builder
The joint venture has advanced to the last phase of selection. The construction contract itself is still to be negotiated. The authority expects the process to finish in the new year of 2027, and the ABC reports contracts are expected to be finalised in January.
Neither the authority's announcement nor the State's delivery update gives a contract value, and none is reported here.
Games Minister Tim Mander put the remaining task in plain terms, saying it was now a matter of working through the contracts "so we can make sure there are no cost blowouts", according to the ABC. Premier David Crisafulli said the stadium would be delivered "on time and on budget".
Related readDesign team named for the 1,800-apartment Brisbane athlete villageHow early contractor involvement works
Under a traditional tender, a design is finished and builders then price it. Early contractor involvement brings the builder in before the design is complete.
The State's 2032 delivery website, in an update dated 1 October, describes what happens next: the joint venture will work with the authority and the stadium's design team "to refine design details and construction methodology". Only then is the contract fixed.
The reasoning is practical. A builder that has helped settle how a structure goes together is better placed to commit to a price and a program, and problems are found on paper instead of on site. The cost is time before the main contract is signed, which is why the authority split off the earthworks. It says the civil contractor BMD is carrying out bulk earthworks as the early works contractor while the selection continues.
- October 2025The process begins; a market invitation for prequalification is issued on 31 October.
- April 2026The field is cut to two bidding groups.
- 30 September 2026BESIX Watpac and John Holland advance alone to the final phase.
- New year 2027The process is due to be finalised and the contract settled.
- 2027Main construction is scheduled to start.
Who the two builders are
Both firms have built large stadiums before, and the authority's announcement leans on that record.
| Partner | Projects named by the Games authority |
|---|---|
| BESIX Watpac | Suncorp Stadium, the Gabba, Queensland Country Bank Stadium |
| John Holland | MCG Great Southern Stand, Marvel Stadium, Sydney Football Stadium, Penrith Stadium |
Games Independent Infrastructure and Coordination Authority, 30 September 2026.
The three BESIX Watpac projects are all in Queensland: two in Brisbane and one in Townsville. For a build in the middle of the capital, local delivery experience is the obvious point of the comparison.
The design team is already in place. COX, Hassell and the Japanese practice Azusa Sekkei are the principal architects. In a post dated 14 September, the authority said the design draws lessons from Suncorp Stadium's reputation for having no bad seats; project director Lucy O'Driscoll of COX and Hassell said successful venues "are designed around the people who experience them". The delivery website describes the form as inspired by the Queenslander house.
Related readShowgrounds rebuild costed at $287.5 million ahead of athlete villageThe budget the contract has to fit
The stadium is funded from the $7.1 billion Games Venues Infrastructure Program, shared between the Australian and Queensland governments, which covers seventeen venues. The ABC puts the stadium's cost at approximately $3.6 billion. On those two figures, one building accounts for about half of the whole venues program.
Cost is also the reason the stadium is at Victoria Park at all. The ABC's July report recalls that an earlier plan to rebuild the Gabba was estimated at $1 billion and then, in 2023, at $2.7 billion, before it was dropped. The present Government announced the Victoria Park site with its 2032 Delivery Plan in March 2025.
That history is why the contract negotiation matters beyond the site. Every dollar the stadium runs over its allowance is a dollar the other sixteen venues do not have, unless the envelope grows.
The pressure on price is real. In July the ABC reported that Construction Skills Queensland projects an average shortfall of 19,100 construction workers over the next eight years, and quoted Australian Constructors Association chief executive Peter Colacino saying "There's not a second to lose". The Games build overlaps with large hospital and transport programs competing for the same trades.
Smaller commitments are being added to the same envelope. On 21 September the Government announced that a cricket wicket grown at the Gabba would be moved to the new stadium after the Games. The Premier declined to give the cost, the ABC reported, saying only that it sits within the $7.1 billion.
Related readCentenary Pool closes as Games works spread to three inner-city sitesWhat the stadium is for after 2032
During the Games the venue hosts the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletics. Afterwards, according to the authority, it becomes the home of the Brisbane Lions in the AFL and of the Brisbane Heat and Queensland Bulls in cricket, and will be owned by Stadiums Queensland.
The case for the extra seats was made by the authority in a post dated 26 August, which pointed to regular sell-outs at the Gabba as evidence of demand.
Its seated capacity of 63,000 rises to 70,000 for concerts. The authority's venue page lists connections by Cross River Rail, Brisbane Metro and the busway network among its features.
The Gabba, which the Lions and the cricket teams leave, is not addressed in this week's announcement. The wicket statement of 21 September concerns the pitch, not the land at Woolloongabba.
What it means for Herston and its neighbours
For the suburbs around Victoria Park, a named builder changes the horizon more than the daily experience.
The daily experience is already set by the early works. The authority's construction notice for September describes earthworks inside the stadium footprint with excavators, bulldozers and large dump trucks, standard working hours of 6.30am to 6.30pm from Monday to Saturday, and a footprint that will expand as work progresses.
The authority's venue page shows how the phases overlap: planning and approvals across 2025 and 2026, design in 2026, and early works from 2025 to 2027. The ABC reports that the site was handed to the authority in June 2026.
The horizon is the main build. From 2027 the site moves from earthmoving to structure, and it stays a construction site for years. Neither the authority nor the Government has published a completion date in the material released this week; the fixed point is the opening of the Games on 23 July 2032.
The stadium does not need a development approval from Brisbane City Council. Under section 53DD of the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Act 2021, as amended in 2025, development to build a listed Games venue is taken to be lawful despite fifteen State Acts, including the Planning Act 2016. The authority's venue page records that a referral under the Commonwealth's environment law, the EPBC Act, has been submitted.
Opposition to the site has not gone away. The ABC's report notes continuing protests over the park's cultural and historic significance to Indigenous people, and arrests earlier in 2026.
The next three months
Consultation on the Victoria Park Precinct Draft Legacy Plan, which covers the parkland around the venue, closed on 27 September. The Government has not yet said when a final plan will follow.
Inside the selection process, the joint venture and the design team now work through the detail together. The outcome to watch is the contract: its price against the $3.6 billion the ABC reports, its completion date, and how risk is shared between the builder and the State. On the authority's timetable, those answers arrive in the new year.
Kooky, from Shaka
Kooky edits Queensland Estate and builds Shaka, the payment router he made for Queensland property professionals. One payment comes in, and every agent, agency and party in the deal receives their signed share on closing date.
