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All’s well with Sports Hub consortium: SHPL

SINGAPORE – Founding partner Global Spectrum Asia (GSA) will stay on with Sports Hub Pte Ltd (SHPL), after the consortium announced on Saturday (Feb 20) that equity partner InfraRed Capital Partners had not proposed to terminate GSA’s venue operating contract of the S$1.33 billion facility.

SHPL said partners InfraRed and GSA would “continue to work jointly to evolve the operating structure of the delivery model for Singapore Sports Hub”. Photo: Bloomberg

SHPL said partners InfraRed and GSA would “continue to work jointly to evolve the operating structure of the delivery model for Singapore Sports Hub”. Photo: Bloomberg

SINGAPORE – Founding partner Global Spectrum Asia (GSA) will stay on with Sports Hub Pte Ltd (SHPL), after the consortium announced on Saturday (Feb 20) that equity partner InfraRed Capital Partners had not proposed to terminate GSA’s venue operating contract of the S$1.33 billion facility.

Following Friday’s meeting in Philadelphia, in the United States, between equity partners InfraRed and GSA, SHPL said in a statement that they would “continue to work jointly to evolve the operating structure of the delivery model for Singapore Sports Hub”.

The announcement comes two days after media reports of a partnership breakdown between InfraRed and GSA, with sources telling TODAY that the SHPL board was unhappy with the commercial deals undertaken and signed by GSA, which had resulted in costs and losses for the consortium.

As part of a restructure, SHPL had proposed to the authorities to take the venue operating duties – which involve the booking and managing of concerts and sports events – in-house.

However, in a twist to the saga, SHPL said in a statement on Saturday that “no such termination was considered at the meeting”.

SHPL chairman Mark Woodhams said in the statement: “We value our partnership with, and involvement of, GSA at Sports Hub. Global Spectrum and we are committed to working together going forward to build on the success of the project.”

Added Dave Scott, president and chief executive officer of Comcast Spectacor, GSA’s parent company: “We will continue to lever our global venue management expertise and event sourcing capacity for the benefit of the Sports Hub.”

Since opening its doors in June 2014, the Sports Hub – touted as the largest public-private-partnership in the world – has been hit by a number of problems.

These include issues with the National Stadium’s grass pitch, a roof leak, and complaints of high rental costs by event organisers.

SHPL has also seen the resignations of seven senior staff in the last six months.

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