Logan unveils ballpark vision as mayor makes pitch to Asian investors

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Logan Mayor Jon Raven has taken his council’s vision for an Olympic ballpark to Asia in a bid to attract investors to build the stadium in time for the 2032 Games.

This masthead revealed last month the council had teamed up with Griffith University to push for an on-campus diamond sports stadium that could host baseball and softball at the Brisbane 2032 Olympic Games.

Raven returned from a trip to Japan and Taiwan – Asian baseball strongholds – on Tuesday morning after a whirlwind 10-day trade mission in which he sought foreign investment into the planned 5000-seat ballpark at Griffith University’s Logan campus.

Render of the proposed baseball stadium at Griffith University’s Logan campus at Meadowbrook.

Central to his pitch were new renders of the proposal, by design firm Populous, that were presented to potential investors.

Logan Mayor Jon Raven at the Griffith University site.

While the planned Logan Indoor Sports Centre would host Olympic and Paralympic events in 2032, Raven hoped to have the ballpark built in time to attract two of the higher-profile competitions to his city, particularly in a time zone friendly to baseball-mad Asian markets.

“There are two different strategies: one is we host a business and investment forum and I talk about slogans broadly, then at the end of it, I narrow in on the Olympic and the baseball opportunity,” he said.

“The second is when I start talking about baseball – half the room sits up a lot taller and listens more and then starts problem-solving. They start contributing ideas because they want baseball to be in the Olympics.

“You can see the difference from when I’m just going, ‘here’s our population numbers, here’s our growth figures, here are the industries we’re interested in’, and then pivot to baseball. All of a sudden you’ve got them – they’re keen, they’re leaning forward in their seats.”

Speaking to this masthead on his way to the airport in Japan for his journey home on Monday night, Raven said his ballpark advocacy was essentially “speed-dating for investment” into the stadium.

“The main thing they want to understand is the land tenure and the business model arrangements that we’ve used in Australia,” he said.

The stadium would have a permanent 5000-seat capacity and be expanded for the Games.

“That’s the next step for putting together, and we’ve already started work on having that business case ready for them to look at.”

Raven said potential Logan ballpark investors included companies and banks already associated with stadium-building in their home country.

“They know that when you have a new stadium, only about 30 per cent of their income comes from baseball. Everything else comes from corporate functions, concerts, large community events and things like that,” he said.

“Even in a country where baseball is the first and nearly only sport, the majority of the income comes from everybody else using it, which is really good news for Australia because we all love live music concerts, we love community events and everything else that happens outdoors.

The plaza area at the entrance to the proposed ballpark.

“It’s great news for us that while baseball having a professional team would be perfectly ideal – and what we want – we don’t need to rely on that exclusively.”

But a firm investment commitment was still a way off.

“It was a lot of first dates, that’s what I would call it,” Raven said.

“They’re not going to commit to marriage on the first day. They’re not going to commit to a $100 million investment on the first meeting, either.”

Along with private Taiwanese and Japanese companies, Raven met with representatives of the World Baseball Softball Confederation in Osaka and Chinese Professional Baseball League secretary-general Yang Ching-lung at a match at the Taipei Dome.

That event featured the Rakuten Monkeys from Logan’s Taiwanese sister city, Taoyuan.

“The Rakuten Monkeys were really keen on doing exchange programs with our young people, who are either cheerleaders or potential baseball players who would want to come and do almost student cultural exchanges with Taiwan,” Raven said.

“I think it’d be a fantastic way of just opening up all connections between Logan and the rest of the world.”

One disappointment for Raven was the facility was not in place in time for Logan to attract the 2027 Softball World Cup, which was awarded to Redcliffe last month.

Talobilla Park was announced as the host venue for the tournament, which would use temporary stands at the community sports venue.

Moreton Bay Mayor Peter Flannery gently ribbed Raven when the announcement was made, saying he had “missed the boat on this one”.

Raven conceded Logan had left its stadium push too late to bid for the event.

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