Factors Determining Booking Priority at National Stadium
Ministry of Culture, Community and YouthSpeakers
Summary
This question concerns the factors determining booking priority at the National Stadium and why it was unavailable for the Singapore national football team’s AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2024 semi-final. Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked about the team’s use of Jalan Besar Stadium and the rationalisation of priorities following the Government's takeover of the Singapore Sports Hub. Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong Chun Fai explained that the venue was initially secured for the tournament's original dates, but the ASEAN Football Federation changed the schedule in August 2024. By then, contractual commitments for other large-scale events had been made, making it logistically impossible to accommodate the football matches due to necessary pitch preparation and event set-up. Consequently, an alternative venue was used while the government facilitated live match broadcasts at various community clubs and HomeTeamNS locations for fans.
Transcript
30 Mr Saktiandi Supaat asked the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth (a) why is the 55,000-seater National Stadium being allowed to be booked for concerts during the period when the Singapore national football team is playing in the semi-finals of the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2024; (b) whether the team will have to play at the 6,000-seater Jalan Besar Stadium if it reaches the final; and (c) how the Singapore Sports Hub rationalises its priorities following the takeover by the Government.
Mr Edwin Tong Chun Fai: The Football Association of Singapore (FAS) and its venue partner Kallang Alive Sport Management (KASM) had ensured that the National Stadium (NST) was booked and made available to the Singapore national football team for the full duration of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2024. This was based on the original dates of the competition being fixed from 23 November 2024 to 21 December 2024. This was announced in February 2024. Had this schedule been kept to, the Singapore national football team would have been able to play at NST at every home game.
However, the dates were subsequently changed by AFF in August 2024, shortly before the start of the tournament. By then, based on the original dates, two other major events had already been confirmed for late December 2024 and early January 2025 at NST. Contractual commitments had been made and tickets for one of them had gone on sale since July 2024. These are large-scale events and time is needed to prepare the venue ahead of the event. Despite this, KASM checked if it would be possible to nonetheless accommodate the hosting of the football matches at NST along with these two events. This is due to the time required for pitch preparation and event set-up. However, it was assessed to be not logistically possible.
Consequently, FAS had to find an alternative venue at Jalan Besar Stadium for Singapore's semi-final home match on 26 December 2024.
To enable more Singaporeans to cheer on the Lions together, the People's Association and HomeTeamNS broadcasted both semi-final matches live at 14 community clubs and centres and HomeTeamNS venues. Fans also watched these matches live on Mediacorp's free-to-air Channel 5.