Tag: NAtional Stadium

New Stadium Pitch Unveiled By Singapore Sports Hub

The Singapore Sports Hub on Tuesday (May 19) unveiled part of its brand new pitch at the National Stadium, just in time for the 28^th SEA Games, which kicks off on Jun 5.

The Sports Hub said it has named Australia-based company HG Sports Turf as the official supplier of the Eclipse Stabilised Turf for the National Stadium for three years.

The technology combines natural grass with artificial grass – but is recognised by FIFA as a 100 per cent natural turf, Sports Hub said. “The reinforcement of the artificial grass combined with the open-weave backing guarantees stability and an even playing surface” when installed, it added.

How does the new National Stadium turf technology work? Find out: bit.ly/1dh0Aon

Posted by Channel NewsAsia Singapore on Tuesday, 19 May 2015

The pitch installation comprises 8,000 square metres or 800 rolls of Eclipse Stabilised Turf, each weighing 750kg. These will be transported from the nursery to the stadium with 40 flat-bed trucks within 48 hours and can be used immediately after installation. The turf has an expected lifespan of 15 years in Singapore.

How can we have an Opening Ceremony for the SEA GAMES 2015 at the National Stadium, and still maintain a quality pitch for the subsequent competitive events? In most countries, they solve this problem with two different stadiums. We don’t have such a luxury of space in Singapore. So the Singapore Sports Hub has introduced a “lay and play” solution, where the grass is grown elsewhere, and then transported and laid onto the Stadium right after the Opening Ceremony. They tested this out today to make sure everything will go well for the Games. Here’s a video of how it works!

Posted by Lawrence Wong on Tuesday, 19 May 2015

Singapore Sports Hub chief executive Philippe Collin-Delavaud noted that “HG Sports Turf have had success in stadia and events under challenging conditions and bring with them a highly trained and experienced team of professionals to install and maintain the turf at the nursery and at the National Stadium.”

To date, HG Sports Turf has supplied turf solutions to world-class sporting venues such as Etihad Stadium and Melbourne Cricket Ground, as well as at events like last year’s AFC Football Cup and ICC Cricket World Cup in Australia.

“We will continue to closely monitor and test the quality of the pitch before, during and after each event to ensure it is performing to our expectations of delivering a world-class facility,” Mr Collin-Delavaud added.

To maximise the potential of the Eclipse Stabilised Turf, Sports Hub said it has put in place growth lights, additional fans for air movement and made improvements to the pitch irrigation system. It has also installed moisture and temperature probes to manage the climate in the stadium. If there is a non-sporting event in the stadium, protective covering will be laid over the pitch as well.

Sports Hub has yet to cover the entire stadium with the new turf, but enlisted the help of a few of Singapore’s Under-23 footballers, including Irfan Fandi, to test out the grass.

The previous hybrid turf at the National Stadium was subject to scrutiny because of its poor condition, drawing criticism and concern from international sporting heavyweights Juventus and the Maori All Blacks, among others.

Last October, Sport Singapore took issue with the “sub-standard readiness” of the pitch which appeared sandy and patchy during a Brazil-Japan friendly, and urged the Sports Hub management to “do everything necessary” to ensure the pitch meets ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) requirements.

To preserve the pitch for the AFF Suzuki Cup, Sports Hub took a number of drastic measures, including cancellation of an international rugby match between the Maori All Blacks and the Asia Pacific Dragons, postponed a Jay Chou concert, and moved the stage for Friday’s Mariah Carey concert away from the pitch.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

May 20, 2015
The Singapore Sports Hub Will Be Ready For SEA Games 2015

The Singapore Sports Hub will face its biggest test in less than two months when the S$1.33 billion facility hosts 10 of the 36 sports to be competed at the 28th SEA Games from June 5 to 16.

While the Sports Hub has experienced some glitches since it opened last June, its chief operating officer Oon Jin Teik is “confident, but not complacent” that the 35ha venue will hold up well during the Games.

The National Stadium had experienced issues with its grass pitch, as well as a roof leak during Taiwanese singer Jay Chou’s concert last December, but Oon is hopeful of restoring the public’s confidence in the Sports Hub when the Games roll into town.

“We want to redeem (ourselves) on every occasion and not just the SEA Games,” he said at a media briefing at the Sports Hub yesterday.

“We want it to continue to be functioning at every event, that’s always the objective. There’s a lot of work (to be done). We are confident but not complacent. “The bigger issues that are publicly known, we are fixing them and we see the improvement there and we’re also fixing the other smaller issues.”

The lay-and-play natural grass turf will be placed in the 55,000-seater National Stadium after the opening ceremony on June 5, and in time for the athletics competition two days later as well as for the football semi-finals and final on June 13 and 15,
respectively.

“The preparation for this (lay-and-play) has already started. Progress is good and we will monitor it on a daily basis,” said Oon. “Yes (it’s a short turnaround), but it is within the scope of what we have planned for and what our partners and suppliers can do.”

Four venues within the Sports Hub — the National Stadium, OCBC Arena, Singapore Indoor Stadium, OCBC Aquatic Centre — will host aquatics, athletics, badminton, basketball, billiards and snooker, fencing, football, netball, table tennis and volleyball during the SEA Games.

The organisers aim to attract 800,000 to one million visitors for the 10 sports at the Kallang cluster, while the remaining clusters at Marina Bay and the Singapore Expo will stage the rest.

The Games’ biggest venue host plans to pull out all the stops to draw spectators and fans to the Sports Hub during the multi-sports event, with a slew of activities and programmes planned throughout this month and the next to promote awareness among the public and drive support for the national athletes.

Dubbed the Pre-SEA Games Roar, activities include venue tours, meet-and-greet sessions with Team Singapore athletes, a Games-inspired fashion show, and Experience Sports Super 10s, a fun challenge to give the public a chance to play and compete in the 10 sports featured at the SEA Games. Entry to events such as the Cuesports Festival (April 18 to 19) and the 11th men’s SEABA Basketball Championship (April 27 to May 1) will also be free of charge.

The Sports Hub is promoting the SEA Games in tandem with the Singapore SEA Games Organising Committee, and Oon explained that, as the biggest venue cluster for the region’s biggest multi-sport meet, the Sports Hub is obligated to hype excitement levels.

“Through this initiative called the Pre-SEA Games Roar, we want to help Singaporeans discover, support and play,” Oon said. “Help them experience, understand and meet the athletes, form a relationship between the venue, sport and athletes.”

Visit www.sportshub.com.sg for more information on the Pre-SEA Games Roar activities.

Source: www.todayonline.com

April 10, 2015
Sportshub Pte Ltd And Bernd Stange War Of Words Over Pitch Readiness And Ability To Attract Quality Opposition

The Republic’s national head coach Bernd Stange has claimed it is very, very difficult to attract big teams to play them as long as the National Stadium’s pitch is not ready.

However, his controversial comments have been refuted by the 55,000-seater arena’s operators SportsHub Pte Ltd, which reiterated that the issue is being addressed, and the later stages of June’s SEA Games football tournament and July’s Barclays Asia Trophy, both to be held there, will show the playing surface to be up to the mark.

Stange’s remarks came when he was asked at yesterday’s pre-match press conference for Singapore’s friendly against Guam at the Jalan Besar Stadium tonight why the Lions, who are 153rd in FIFA’s world rankings, are playing a world No 167 side instead of a higher-ranked team that could provide a stiffer contest.

“It’s very, very difficult to convince top-class teams to play at Jalan Besar Stadium,” said Stange, referring to the venue’s artificial turf.

“All my promises I gave to bring teams over with my personal contacts to speak with (Iran coach Carlos) Queiroz, with (Russia coach) Fabio Capello and others depend on a ready Sports Hub.

“Unfortunately, a lot of teams refuse to play Singapore on the artificial pitch. Even Japan refused to make training sessions here (at the Jalan Besar Stadium) before they played Brazil (at the National Stadium last year) … As long as the (National Stadium’s pitch at the) Sports Hub is not ready, we cannot attract big teams. I did everything, but it’s difficult to convince teams to play there.”

The National Stadium’s Desso GrassMaster pitch — a mixture of natural grass woven onto synthetic fibres — cut up badly during Brazil’s match with Japan in October last year, prompting a re-scheduling of events to allow the pitch to recover for the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Suzuki Cup in November.

In December, SportsHub Pte Ltd, which operates the 55,000-seater National Stadium, announced a lay-and-play turf would be used for this June’s SEA Games to ensure an optimal playing surface.

In response to Stange’s comments, SportsHub Pte Ltd’s senior director (corporate communications and stakeholder management) Jose Raymond said about the lay-and-play pitch: “Work has been ongoing and has been progressing very well, and will be implemented in time for the SEA Games in June.

“The Barclays Asia Trophy, which will be held for the first time in Singapore, will involve top English Premiership sides Arsenal, Everton and Stoke City at the National Stadium in July. We look forward to having these world-class teams play at the National Stadium.

“FIFA dates have been confirmed for the next three years till 2017. We have been engaging the Football Association of Singapore and we look forward to hearing their plans, and working with them to bring world-class international football teams to the National Stadium for the benefit of our football fans.”

Singapore head into their first meeting with Guam on the back of last week’s 2-0 loss to Thailand, and a win will ease some pressure following their disappointing group stage exit at last November’s Suzuki Cup.

Guam are without Los Angeles Galaxy defender Adolph Joseph DeLaGarza, but head coach Gary White insists they are not here to make up the numbers.

“In the past two-and-half years, we’ve installed a belief to play football, rather than just sit back and hope for the best and keep the scores the low,” he said.

Singapore will be without centre-back Afiq Yunos, who is out for three months with a knee injury, while goalkeeper Hassan Sunny, defenders Baihakki Khaizan and Madhu Mohana, and attacking midfielder Shahril Ishak remain doubtful.

Nonetheless, Stange insisted he will field his strongest available line-up. “It’s a home game, we are responsible for our fans,” he said. “Hopefully we have fans to see this match against a team that is better than everyone believes.”

Singapore midfielder Hariss Harun added: “Lapses in our focus cost us the two goals (against Thailand last week). We also need to get into positions to score goals. We get chances but don’t put them away.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

March 31, 2015
Singapore Sports Hub Pitch Fiasco: The Untold Story

Michael Y.P. Ang is a Singaporean freelance journalist. He worked at the former Singapore Sports Council before covering local and international sports for Channel NewsAsia for several years. Like his Facebook page Michael Ang Sports for commentaries on sports issues that matter to Singaporeans.

COMMENT

By Michael Y.P. Ang

What’s happened in Singapore football, off the pitch, the past few days was more intriguing than even the most fiercely contested S-League match.

Few would have expected another football flip-flop, just days after last Saturday’s S-League announcement about the reversal of a recently introduced age-discriminatory policy.

But the TODAY newspaper, with its Nov 26 front-page headline “National Stadium to switch to artificial turf”, reported that SportsHub Pte Ltd (SHPL), the company managing the Singapore Sports Hub, was about to re-lay Singapore’s most famous football ground with an artificial turf.

The paper found itself making a U-turn 24 hours later (links to its original story have also been removed), carrying a correction in its Voices section to announce that its artificial-turf report was wrong, or at least premature.

Thanks to the hard work of stadium ground staff, the Kallang turf is less sandy now than during the Brazil-Japan match last month, but SHPL has yet to fully resolve the pitch problem. An artificial turf is among different options being considered and discussions are still ongoing, according to a spokesperson.

But the glaring issue remains, after years of planning and construction and billions thrown into the project, why and how has it come to this?

Three lingering issues

A Nov 27 Straits Times report shows that SHPL will bear the cost of providing an ideal pitch, but who will foot the bill for the $1.5 million spent on new lighting equipment for enhancing the quality of the problematic pitch?

Under the public-private partnership between the government and SHPL, Singaporean taxpayers are on the hook for the Sports Hub’s construction and operational costs. Would taxpayer money be required to fund the cost of rectifying a problem SHPL should have prevented in the first place?

Secondly, why was SHPL CEO Philippe Collin Delavaud’s subordinate, COO Oon Jin Teik, the one facing the media and making apologies last month? Isn’t it unfair to the former Singapore Olympic swimmer, who joined SHPL only a month before the stadium’s June reopening?

It would have been more appropriate for the Frenchman, who’s been at the helm since 2010, to be in the public eye during a crisis.

Thirdly, why was SHPL’s senior director of stadia Greg Gillin, the person overseeing the pitch installation, working on a major overseas project during the crucial final months of construction at the Sports Hub?

Within three months of joining SHPL in April 2013, Gillin was hired as a pitch consultant for the Indian Super League (ISL). The Australian soon became a frequent flyer to India, visiting ten sports centres, eight of which were eventually selected as ISL stadiums.

This year, from May to October alone, Gillin “made around 120 visits to the eight venues”to ensure that they met international standards.

To be fair, there’s nothing wrong with engaging in external work. But puzzlingly, Gillin was spending time away from Singapore when he himself had expected “teething problems” at the rebuilt National Stadium.

The ISL kicked off on Oct 12, and there’s been no pitch fiasco reported in India. Why was Gillin able to do so much and so well for eight stadiums overseas but not for the only stadium he is responsible for in his full-time job?

The Straits Times reported on Oct 14 that “The Sports Hub have flown in overseas consultants such as Alex Garbea, who was responsible for … the best field at the recent World Cup in Brazil”.

Is it logical that the Sports Hub’s own pitch chief was consulting overseas while the Sports Hub was forced to hire foreign consultants to find solutions to its own pitch problem?

Such a fiasco would have been unlikely had Sport Singapore been chosen to manage the National Stadium. After all, it has an outstanding record of running Singapore’s largest sporting arena for 37 consecutive years.

Ultimately, the question should be: “Is a public-private partnership like the one at the Sports Hub the best way to build and operate a cluster of highly important, public sports facilities?”.

We should find an answer quickly, because like it or not, we’re stuck with the arrangement for the next quarter-century.

Source: https://sg.sports.yahoo.com

November 29, 2014
National Stadium To Get New Artificial Turf Permanently

After months of controversy and spending S$1.5 million on new lighting equipment to try to improve the quality of the National Stadium pitch, Sports Hub Pte Ltd (SHPL) is making a drastic U-turn: It will resurface the pitch permanently with artificial turf — the surface it had originally considered but opted against, TODAY has learnt.

This means that less than six months after the new stadium was opened, the S$800,000 Desso GrassMaster pitch — a hybrid of synthetic and natural grass— faces the prospect of being replaced with an all-new synthetic surface.

Sources said the cost will be borne by SHPL. For promoters of sports events who insist on natural grass, TODAY understands that SHPL will install it over the artificial pitch temporarily and this can be done in less than 72 hours. In response to queries, SHPL chief operating officer Oon Jin Teik said: “We are exploring several pitch solutions that can cater to our multipurpose sports and entertainment calendar at the National Stadium. More details will be released at a later date.”

The consortium already has a nursery that is used to grow grass to be installed outside the football pitch for cricket matches that require a bigger turf. In future, this will also be used to grow grass for the main pitch.

In March last year, TODAY reported that SHPL had been considering installing artificial grass for the National Stadium in view of a hectic calendar for the 55,000-seat arena.

The plan was abandoned later in favour of the Desso GrassMaster. Artificial turfs are approved for use in elite competitions by international sports bodies such as FIFA and the International Rugby Board. However, some teams, including several English Premier League football clubs and international rugby sides such as the Wallabies and the Maori All Blacks, are known to insist on playing on natural grass.

When the stadium was opened in June, it hosted the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, among other events.

The pitch failed to recover in time for the high-profile football friendly matches between Juventus and a Singapore Selection side as well as between Brazil and Japan in August and last month, respectively.

A series of hasty measures were taken to help the pitch recover for the ongoing AFF Suzuki Cup, including cancellations of a concert by Taiwanese pop star Jay Chou and an Asia Pacific Dragons versus Maori All Blacks rugby friendly match. However, sandy patches were still visible on the field when Thailand defeated Singapore 2-1 in Sunday’s opening match.

Speaking from Spain, Mr Paul Burgess, chief groundsman for Spanish football club Real Madrid, said laying natural turf over synthetic grass is not uncommon. For example, Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium, which has a permanent artificial pitch, installed natural grass temporarily for the 2008 Champions League Final between English clubs Chelsea and Manchester United.

“It has been done in many stadiums and can be installed very quickly,” said Mr Burgess. “All you need is about three to four days to lay the natural turf over artificial pitch. If you maintain it properly, it can last at least a month. If you don’t maintain it properly, it will last a day.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

November 26, 2014