No charge for use of National Stadium for NDP: Sports Hub boss

SINGAPORE — While the Singapore Sports Hub operators and the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) are still in talks over holding next year’s National Day Parade (NDP) at the new venue, the operators revealed yesterday that they are obliged under their contract to offer the Government the use of the National Stadium for free for the NDP and rehearsals, as well as major multi-sports events, such as the South-east Asian, Asian and Commonwealth Games if these are staged here.

So far, at least 60 dates — from the middle of May next year to the end of the year — have been pencilled in for the National Stadium alone, one of several facilities housed in the Sports Hub. Out of these, 30 per cent are A-list crowd-pullers that could easily fill the 55,000-seat arena.

Sports Hub Managing Director Mark Collins declined to name any of the events. He said these and the date of the official opening of the new sports complex will be revealed by the Government. Nevertheless, it will be fully operational from the last week of March next year.

“Our client is the Singapore Sports Council (SSC) and we have an obligation to provide them the facilities at no charge for use as they see fit,” said Mr Collins. “The NDP is one of those obligations and they are responsible for the operating costs and the overheads.”

He added that the SSC has a set number of days over the course of a calendar year when it can utilise the Sports Hub for national and major sporting events and it has to “manage the utilisation of those days”.

The Managing Director was speaking to the media after the Sports Hub’s commercial partner World Sport Group launched the sale of memberships for 1,655 premium seats at the National Stadium at a cost of S$1,950 each per year.

TODAY reported in May that the operators were in talks with MINDEF on holding the NDP next year and Mr Collins said the negotiations were still ongoing.

He added that installation events will be staged to test the Sports Hub’s facilities and systems for five weeks until early May next year, before it starts hosting a slew of big-ticket sports and entertainment events.

“We’ll start with a major sporting event, followed the next week by a major concert, and then a MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) event, then another concert and a sports event,” he said. The busy calendar will see a variety of events lined up “almost every other week”.

Being built at a cost of S$1.33 billion, the Sports Hub will consist of a 6,000-capacity indoor aquatic centre, a 3,000-capacity multi-purpose arena, a 41,000 sq m retail, restaurant and entertainment space, a water sports centre and the existing 13,000-capacity Singapore Indoor Stadium.