Debt ridden to ‘best in world’: Reds’ grand ambition

Murray Wenzel | February 26, 2026

Perched high in Ballymore’s new McLean Stand, David Hanham only has to look around to make the point.

“Seven years ago we said we’d build a world-class high performance facility and got told that, ‘we’ve heard that pipe dream many times before’,” the Queensland Rugby Union (QRU) boss tells AAP.

In 2020 the QRU was staring down $9 million in debt. All staff and players took pay cuts of at least 30 per cent to ensure the professional code’s survival during the pandemic.

“Our backs were against the wall,” he said ahead of the Reds’ Super Rugby Pacific home opener against the Highlanders on Friday. 

“There was no easy way out, only a collective decision to fight for the future of Queensland rugby.

“That decision came with real sacrifice. 

“People gave up security and certainty to protect something bigger than themselves, what is now a 144-year rugby legacy across this state. 

“It was also about preserving the opportunity to rebuild and the ambition we carry today is grounded in those sacrifices.”

And it’s some ambition.

Hanham stood in front of a full room at the Reds’ Super Rugby Pacific season launch earlier this month, declaring an intent to become the “best rugby province in the world” by 2030.

Better than French juggernaut Toulouse, who operate with close to a $100 million annual budget.

Better than Irish powerhouse Leinster, Leicester in England or Christchurch’s Crusaders, who have won eight of the last nine Super Rugby titles they’ve contested.

The Reds’ single title in the professional realm came in 2011 and, while improved, they remain a team searching for semi-final appearances and boasting a membership base of less than 9,000.

And it’s a crowded market.

Their Brisbane AFL and NRL counterparts have three titles between them in the last two years and a combined membership base of about 150,000. 

“Toulouse, Toulon, Leinster, Leicester, the Crusaders … they’re big clubs and I actually like that question about the Broncos and Lions,” Hanham said.

“Competition, it gets the best out of you. If it’s easy, you can get a level of complacency.

“Brisbane’s big enough for all of us, but in Brisbane, the one thing expected of you is success, and then they’ll turn up.

“We know where we are today and have a long way to go. 

“To be aspirational, to become one of the best, there are key ingredients.”

Pathways, coaches, more games, more quality opposition and commercial diversification are planks on the path to Super Rugby Pacific titles.

Games against Wales and Tonga as well as partnerships with Japan’s Saitama Wild Knights and Benetton in Italy, where the Reds will tour later this year for the first time in nearly half a century, have exposed their squad to the global game.

The Reds won this season’s Next Gen under-19s tournament and the club is confident they have the right man in Blues title-winner Vern Cotter to take the reins once Les Kiss departs to coach the Wallabies later this year.

Off the field, there have been six-straight operational profits posted and a familiar challenge staring them in the face – a decaying eastern grandstand out the windows of their new office on the opposite side of the Ballymore turf.

In 2007, then Prime Minister John Howard guaranteed a $25 million funding commitment to redevelop their ageing facility, only for the project to be canned the following year by Kevin Rudd after Labor won the federal election.

It took another 13 years for the QRU to achieve funding bingo, with the project a promise of both sides of government at state and federal level in late 2020 and demolition underway less than a year later.

The National Rugby Training Centre – and new McLean Stand – has been operational for three years and Hanham is back at the bingo table seeking to replicate the works by replacing the derelict structure.

The plan includes space for allied health businesses, additional high performance programs within rugby and other sports and, when complete, a rectangular stadium that can hold 10,000 fans.

Hanham admits they have opened themselves up to critics by declaring such bold intentions.

“There’s a lot of work to be done to even get close to that,” he said.

“It will garner a lot of interest and curiosity of ‘can they, or will they do it?’.

“But we’ve got home World Cups for men and women, and an Olympics in Brisbane on the horizon.

“If there’s a time to be ambitious, and not be afraid.

“Any year there’s pressure. We have a strong belief that we have a foundation to set ourselves for long term.

“We’ve set the bar high but already raised the floor in a lot of areas of our business.”