Gabba boss says Olympic rebuild will solve electrical woes

A planned rebuild of Brisbane’s ageing Gabba stadium could help prevent a third repeat of an embarrassing blackout during a major sporting event.

Play was halted with 12 minutes remaining in Friday’s AFL clash between the Brisbane Lions and the Melbourne Demons after an underground cable joint failure left the teams and more than 30,000 fans in the dark.

Players wait on field as power goes out during the round 2 match at The Gabba.Credit:Getty

State energy company Energex was able to restore the power supply roughly half an hour later and Brisbane hung on for the win in the Gabba’s second such incident in recent years.

Addressing reporters at the venue on Saturday, Gabba general manager Mark Zundans applauded the efforts of staff and emergency services, adding a response was in place after a similar blackout forced the cancellation of a 2019 Big Bash League game.

“We’ve done everything that we can to try and mitigate last night, [it] was probably demonstrable that we were able to get the game up and going again,” the stadium boss said.

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The Queensland government plans to rebuild the Gabba ahead of the 2032 Olympics and recently revealed the estimated project cost had blown out from $1 billion when it was announced in 2021 to $2.7 billion.

A competitive tender process for the rebuild is expected in the second half of this year, with construction slated for the four years to 2030.

Zundans said the electrical infrastructure was one of many issues that could be addressed with an upgrade.