Small crowds at the Gabba are not new but it suffers alongside Adelaide's newly redesigned oval and the new stadium in Perth, due to be ready in the next couple of years.
Cricket Australia wants Governments paying for the rights to host tests.
Expect the Gabba to host a test next summer, with six tests to be played by South Africa and Pakistan, and the following Ashes visit by England. Beyond that, there's plenty of hard talking ahead.
What the Gabba has in its favour is the players like playing there, as you'd imagine considering their last loss in Brisbane was in 1988.
It is Australia's 'banker' ground, the traditional starting point of home international summers. Of 57 tests at the Gabba before the current match, Australia have won 35 and lost only eight.
The players are also known to prefer the natural pitch block, as opposed to the widely-used drop-in pitches.
And for all the fears over what lies ahead, the New Zealand test drew a record 52,199 to the first four days, a record for a transtasman test in Brisbane.
