Debated in Parliament on 8 Jan 2025.
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.
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.
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