The Big Read: The Sports Hub nightmare – what went wrong according to insiders, and can the Government run it better?

Another example of a successfully run venue is England’s Wembley Stadium, said Mr Matt Rogan, a UK-based author and sports consultant. 

The stadium is run by the Football Association (FA) in England and managed in a similar manner to a social enterprise, receiving both public and private funding. 

However, unlike in SHPL’s case, where the Singapore Government sets its KPIs, it is the FA itself that leads the Wembley project. 

“Ultimately, there is one decision-maker, the FA is responsible for how to run it, and the people who work to deliver the commercial responsibilities of the stadium all report to the same chief executive,” Mr Rogan said. 

“Every single pound of profit that they make is put back into growing the game of football.” 

He added that the England’s local authorities only sets the FA intangible goals, rather than monetary ones.

Such goals could include leaving it to the FA to grow the number of girls that are playing football in England. 

However, Mr Rogan acknowledged that football in England has a large and stable spectator base, which would mean that falling short of ticketing revenue is less of a risk factor. 

Another example of a successfully run sports complex is the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, the home venue of the National Basketball Association (NBA) team the Los Angeles Lakers, as well as several other sports such as ice hockey and boxing. 

Mr Marc Lim, a sports consultant and former journalist, said that the Arena has been able to generate considerable footfall on a daily basis as it is located “right in the heart of Los Angeles”, with office spaces around the vicinity as well. 

In Singapore’s case, renting out more non-sports related office spaces at the Sports Hub and building more office buildings around the area would likewise help make the vicinity more lively, he said. 

“One of my bugbears about the Sports Hub and the Kallang precinct is that it is so close to town and so close to the Central Business District, (yet) one of the things the Sports Hub failed to have was daily footfall to its businesses there,” said Mr Lim.

However, there are also several sports venues around the world that have fallen short of their commercial objectives, such as the London Stadium which was constructed specifically for the Olympic Games in 2012. 

The stadium is akin to a public-private joint venture, being owned by both a private commercial entity and the British government. Because of this arrangement, the stadium “didn’t rise to its potential”, said Mr Rogan.

“There are various stakeholders involved, and it got very political. That means that they are not agile or quick enough in developing the stadium for the future,” he added. 

The facility thus lost out on many commercial opportunities, such as serving other sporting events. For instance, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, which opened in 2019, features a retractable football pitch with a synthetic turf field beneath it, which could then accommodate other sports like American football.

Closer to home is Beijing’s Bird’s Nest Stadium, which was built specially for the 2008 Olympic Games.

Professor Simon Chadwick, sports consultant and global professor for sports at the Emlyon Business School in France, said that the stadium was built and initially operated by the Chinese government to predominantly serve “political ends”, rather than commercial ones.

“This was really a showcase asset that was created to project Chinese power,” he said. “It wasn’t created to run as a business and serve market needs.”

He said that after the Olympics, the venue proved to be located too far from the city centre for most tourists and locals to visit.

“There’s no particular reason to go there other than if there is an event,” said Prof Chadwick, adding that it was only about five to six years later that a private management company took over the operations at the Bird’s Nest.

“One of the things the private management company has had difficulty with is attracting the kinds of events to the venue that would prompt people to actually spend time travelling to actually see that event.”

WHERE SPORTS HUB STANDS AMONG THE COMPETITION 

One reason that SportSG cited for the takeover of the Singapore Sports Hub is the increased competition in the region, as new sports facilities are being developed in other Asian capital cities.

In Southeast Asia, the Sports Hub stands head and shoulders above other venues for now, said the sports consultants interviewed.

Said Mr Walton: “There are new stadiums being built in countries like Cambodia and Indonesia, for example, but realistically, for big international events such as the World Athletics Championships… Singapore is in a far better position than Indonesia and Cambodia, and in a better position than cities such as Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok when it comes to positioning in the international scene.” 

Agreeing, Mr Lim said that the closest rival could be the Kai Tak Sports Park in Hong Kong, which is due for completion in 2023 and will feature a 50,000- seat stadium and a 10,000-seat indoor sports centre.

“Hong Kong, being quite cosmopolitan, (is able) to attract the Rugby Sevens,” he said, referring to the annual competition that is usually held at the Sports Hub.

However, when bidding for major events such as the World Athletics Championship and the ATP tennis finals, Singapore is in fact competing with other major cities worldwide.

“When you look at the current World Athletics Championship bids, Singapore is not only competing against cities in the region but globally such as Los Angeles, New York, London, Cape Town and Dubai,” said Mr Walton.

“You need to be at the top of your game to challenge in these situations and quite frankly, it is difficult to put in competitive bids unless all the key stakeholders such as SportSG, the Singapore Tourism Board, the Economic Development Board and the venue operators are aligned,” he added. 

CAN A GOVERNMENT-MANAGED SPORTS HUB UP ITS GAME?

With SportSG looking to operate Sports Hub for the “social good” by having more community-centric events, additional operating costs are unavoidable, business academics had told TODAY earlier. 

However, there may be other costs to bear in terms of reputation and efficiency as well, said sports consultants. 

Mr Lim said that he does not expect the stadium at the Sports Hub to be made as accessible to the public as the other stadiums in Singapore, “where everybody can go and run every day”.

Still, its reputation as a world-class venue may be impacted with more community events being held there, with wear and tear becoming a factor. “The last thing you want is for the stadium to be truly a community sports hall, because we have all those around the heartlands… it should still be a premium experience for the National Stadium,” added Mr Lim, who believes that SportSG will set aside specific days for Sports Hub to be used by members of the public.