🎙️ BONUS | How the Ekka Showgrounds is Set to Change

**Kip Wightman** (0:07)
Happy bonus podcast.

**Susie O'Neill** (0:10)
Good to be here. I've got to do some prep for my... I'm on the ABC radio at the Ekka today at 2.45.

**Kip Wightman** (0:16)
Yeah.

**Susie O'Neill** (0:16)
It's a Thursday.

**David Lutteral** (0:17)
You've got to prep for this show.

**Ash Bradnam** (0:18)
You're prepping for that. Yeah.

**Susie O'Neill** (0:20)
But everyone does that. No one preps for what they do. They just prep for other things, don't they?

**David Lutteral** (0:24)
True, true.

**Susie O'Neill** (0:26)
But because, well, I've got to get my facts right.

**David Lutteral** (0:28)
What are they asking you? What's the topic?

**Susie O'Neill** (0:30)
They're going to talk to me about the R&A showgrounds turning into the Olympic Village. Oh, that's why you're going on. I've got to speak to the communication people from Brisbane 32 because I actually don't know exactly what's going to happen and when it starts. All I know, because I ran into the lady that's, help is the head of the village at the organizing committee the other day. I said, how big is it compared to the Sydney Olympic Village? And she said, it's half the size in area.
But a lot of the area is ovals at the R&A showgrounds. Or is it just one that's an oval? There's some space you can't use.

**David Lutteral** (1:03)
It's just one oval, isn't it? You know what I mean?

**Susie O'Neill** (1:05)
So there's space.

**David Lutteral** (1:07)
Yeah. I mean, if you look at where the Showbag Pavilion and Sideshow Allianz that is, there's ovals there as well.

**Kip Wightman** (1:13)
So she said a lot of it is kind of uninhabitable.

**Susie O'Neill** (1:16)
They could put the dining hall on the...

**Kip Wightman** (1:18)
So is it all going to be demandables and stuff?

**Susie O'Neill** (1:20)
No, it's going to be high rises. I think there's six high rises.

**Kip Wightman** (1:23)
And they, are they a permanent fixture?

**Susie O'Neill** (1:25)
Yeah. They'll sell them as accommodation.

**Kip Wightman** (1:27)
And so then the R&A Showgrounds is no more?

**Ash Bradnam** (1:29)
Yeah.

**David Lutteral** (1:30)
That's what I've got to find out. The high rises will just be... Yeah, I don't know how they're going to do it moving forward with those high rises. But I think there's already high rises within the precinct of the Ekka as we speak now. Like Ridges is inside the Ekka.

**Kip Wightman** (1:43)
Yeah, it is. It isn't actually an Ekka.

**David Lutteral** (1:44)
Area. I think there's some other ones that are as well.

**Kip Wightman** (1:47)
The actual oval itself will stay as an oval.

**David Lutteral** (1:49)
I don't know that either. You need to find some facts about this.

**Kip Wightman** (1:52)
See, one of the facts I don't know.

**David Lutteral** (1:53)
The oval will become a 20,000 seat arena, so there's a massive upgrade. This is the last Ekka where Machinery Hill will be as it is. It's being knocked down after this Ekka, and they'll start working on it after that. So there'll be an upgrade. Even those things I don't know.
Read the paper today, it's got some stuff in it, I'm sure.

**Susie O'Neill** (2:13)
Oh, okay, I'll do that.

**Kip Wightman** (2:14)
There you go.

**Susie O'Neill** (2:15)
So anyway, I'm looking forward to that.

**Kip Wightman** (2:16)
You need to find your facts out. Luttsy seems to know more facts about the changing arena than you.

**David Lutteral** (2:20)
I don't know, I do a podcast on it, yeah.

**Kip Wightman** (2:22)
Have you done it? What's the podcast called?

**David Lutteral** (2:25)
Toward the Games, it's about 2030

**Kip Wightman** (2:28)
Right, I didn't realize that. I thought it was just going to be like Demantables and Fake ACOM. I didn't realize it was going to be real.

**Susie O'Neill** (2:34)
So it's a big deal. I want to actually go to a meeting next week, Monday, about what athletes need in a village, because they're building it to sell, but also it's got to accommodate athletes going to events. So high rises can be a really big problem because the lifts.
So they have to coordinate them somehow. I don't even know how, with some algorithm.

**Kip Wightman** (2:57)
Imagine being on the top floor as well and waiting for the lift the whole time, and it stops on every floor below. When you're competing in 45 minutes, and you're nervous.

**Susie O'Neill** (3:04)
I think they do it so there's a lift dedicated to that part. I don't know. There's an algorithm.

**Kip Wightman** (3:09)
Right.

**David Lutteral** (3:10)
Yeah, somehow they do it, but it's tricky.