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Chitchat Sports Hub - Failure from the word go

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
First the continued failure of foreign sports talents to deliver results for over 20 years. Then the $378m Youth Olympics that displayed our poor organisation and budgeting skills plus the added embarrassment of food poisoning suffered by volunteers and school children dragged from classes to attend events that they could not chose. Now the litany of woes from the moment the Sports Hub was conceived in the first public private partnership venture to unfair turf for sports and events leading to cancellations, recruitment of poorly qualified or under qualified staff at management level, failure to lightup the National Flag and the never ending carousel of resignations and re-hires.

What exactly is DisGraceFu doing


http://www.theonlinecitizen.com/2016/08/30/exodus-at-4-billion-singapore-sports-hub-continues/
Exodus at $4 billion Singapore Sports Hub continues 0
BY ONLINECITIZEN ON AUGUST 30, 2016 SPORTS
By Kannan Raj

The exodus of senior management personnel at the Singapore Sports Hub seems to be continuing.

The Online Citizen (TOC) has discovered that over the last few weeks, more members of the senior management have left or are in the process of leaving the Singapore Sports Hub.

Among those who are leaving include Mr Rob Abernethy, who is the deputy managing director of Global Spectrum, one of the consortium’s key partners.

His acting managing director Mr Jason Hrick, who took over from Mark Collins who himself left at the end of December, has also quit the project altogether. It is not known if Mr Hrick has returned back to the United States or if he has found another role in Singapore.

Also out the Singapore Sports Hub door is Sam Eatwell, the project’s Communications Manager who has been with the project for more than three years. And only a month ago, Eugene Lee, the Sports Hub's Director of Marketing also quit from Sports Hub. Mr Daniel Teo, who was a Director of Facility Management of yet another Sports Hub consortium partner Cushman and Wakefield, also left in July 2016. Also out are the Sports Hub's Design Director Hendra Chong, and Daphne Chew, its social media and marketing manager.

An insider and current staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that these departures reflect the continued state of unhappiness within the project and the current leadership.

“There is no vision for the project and no one seems to know where the project is headed to. There is no event strategy, community engagement strategy or any kind of strategy. When there is no vision from the management, it will be hard for staff to feel motivated.”

The project’s Chief Executive Officer is Manu Sawhney. who took over from predecessor Philippe-Colin Delavaud in October last year.

Since taking over as CEO, and as TOC had previously stated in a previous article published in June 2016, no vision for the project has been relayed to the public over the plans for the project.

A national embarrassment, the Government through the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth pays $193.7m to the Singapore Sports Hub operators on an annual basis, subject to inflation. The Government made this disclosure in Parliament in February this year, in response to a parliamentary question by Workers Party MP Sylvia Lim.

With the Government is paying the consortium $193.7 million a year over 25 years, the amount which taxpayers would be paying the consortium over 25 years would exceed $4 billion, and not $1.33 billion which is often used in media articles.

The Singapore Sports Hub has continued to remain in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Embarrassingly, during the National Day Parade on 9 August, the national flag did not project on the roof during the pledge taking. The organisers of the National Day Parade investigated the cause of the glitch and in a joint statement with the Sports Hub, blamed the problem on a software glitch. This led to netizens mocking the project, saying: "Pitch got problem. Acoustics got problem. Now software also got problem."

Sponsors of the project will also want to question if they are getting their money’s worth by investing in the project due to a lack of events at the National Stadium.

During the announcement of the winning bid in 2008, the public was made to believe that there would be at least 90 event days at the National Stadium and 46 event days at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. This announcement was made by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who was Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports at the time.

This year, there have only been a handful of events which have come and gone which include the Rugby 7s, a football match involving Tampines Rovers and Selangor and an upcoming match between Singapore and Malaysia, among very few.

The current state of affairs at the Singapore Sports Hub is nothing short of an embarrassment and it is only right for the leadership of the Singapore Sports Hub address the issues at hand, for the sake of the public, its investors and sponsors, with its vision and strategy being the first items which should be made public.
 

halsey02

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
The Sports Hub failure is a microcosm of the way the pap is running Singapore

“There is no vision for the project and no one seems to know where the project is headed to. There is no event strategy, community engagement strategy or any kind of strategy. When there is no vision from the management, it will be hard for staff to feel motivated.”

It describe PAP to a "T"....anyone fainted?
 

aurvandil

Alfrescian
Loyal
Comparing the old and new stadiums, it is an excellent analogy of what Singapore once was and what Singapore has become.

old%20national%20stadiumbirds%20eyeview02.jpg
 

RandomNexus

Alfrescian
Loyal
The exodus of senior management personnel at the Singapore Sports Hub seems to be continuing.

The Online Citizen (TOC) has discovered that over the last few weeks, more members of the senior management have left or are in the process of leaving the Singapore Sports Hub.

Among those who are leaving include Mr Rob Abernethy, who is the deputy managing director of Global Spectrum, one of the consortium’s key partners.

An insider and current staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that these departures reflect the continued state of unhappiness within the project and the current leadership.

“There is no vision for the project and no one seems to know where the project is headed to. There is no event strategy, community engagement strategy or any kind of strategy. When there is no vision from the management, it will be hard for staff to feel motivated.”

A national embarrassment, the Government through the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth pays $193.7m to the Singapore Sports Hub operators on an annual basis, subject to inflation. The Government made this disclosure in Parliament in February this year, in response to a parliamentary question by Workers Party MP Sylvia Lim.

With the Government is paying the consortium $193.7 million a year over 25 years, the amount which taxpayers would be paying the consortium over 25 years would exceed $4 billion, and not $1.33 billion which is often used in media articles.

The Singapore Sports Hub has continued to remain in the news for all the wrong reasons.

Embarrassingly, during the National Day Parade on 9 August, the national flag did not project on the roof during the pledge taking. The organisers of the National Day Parade investigated the cause of the glitch and in a joint statement with the Sports Hub, blamed the problem on a software glitch. This led to netizens mocking the project, saying: "Pitch got problem. Acoustics got problem. Now software also got problem."

Sponsors of the project will also want to question if they are getting their money’s worth by investing in the project due to a lack of events at the National Stadium.

During the announcement of the winning bid in 2008, the public was made to believe that there would be at least 90 event days at the National Stadium and 46 event days at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. This announcement was made by Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, who was Minister for Community Development, Youth and Sports at the time.

This year, there have only been a handful of events which have come and gone which include the Rugby 7s, a football match involving Tampines Rovers and Selangor and an upcoming match between Singapore and Malaysia, among very few.

The current state of affairs at the Singapore Sports Hub is nothing short of an embarrassment and it is only right for the leadership of the Singapore Sports Hub address the issues at hand, for the sake of the public, its investors and sponsors, with its vision and strategy being the first items which should be made public.

Problem lies in the model - privatisation of an institution yet requiring it to serve national objectives.

Any private enterprise should let itself determine its own costs and profits. Over here, the government is unable to distinguish the contradictions of a privatised enterprise and a national institution. It seems to want the private company to assume the costs but at the same time, requiring it to do national service like rent the stadium for National Day events at a "lower" cost and host football matches at "discounts" etc.

This is similar to SMRT - eventually the government has to take over the whole thing after a fiasco revealed that the citizens cannot accept a transport system that has flaws in train breakdowns. You have a privatised entity whose concerns is maintaining costs when attempts to raise fares is subjected to government's perogative. Secondly SMRT track infrastructure is made not to run for present demands.

Also one needs to note that the hawker centre privatised in Sengkang becomes another fiasco as it is "neither here nor there" problem - you raise consumer food prices allowing for profit maximisation by tendering company who has to get it by bidding heavily on a "high" price.

A stadium like sports hub should either be run as a private entity or a government's owned entity. If so, then either will respect its goals and serves the imperatives of its designation.

I wonder how a government that get it right in many issues with top rated paid talents but here clearly the central question is whether sports or national day rally can be privatised - the answer is clearly no. It is one issue I wonder how they fumble so badly.

Was this problem a legacy issue of Vivian's?

Over here, it is clear the privatisation for Sports Hub is a wrong move. I reckon it is a matter of time the Government will take it back into public hands.
 

RandomNexus

Alfrescian
Loyal
The old national stadium was great and a cheaper model is to refurbish it. I cannot understand why you want to spend billions to rebuild one that is working, and yet cannot recover its costs.

Let Sports Hub be built in another location and let it be run totally as a private enterprise. This one can run those mega concerts which can reap its great returns unlike sports that garner meagre returns. Whatever, one can always have the national stadium for cheap football games and no-frills sports events etc.
 

johnny333

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
The old national stadium was great and a cheaper model is to refurbish it. I cannot understand why you want to spend billions to rebuild one that is working, and yet cannot recover its costs. .....


Probably has to do with making $$$. The PAP has many starving members & cronies who need the $.
Isn't that why people join the PAP?
 

maxxi

Alfrescian
Loyal
They selected the wrong pitch.

Very advanced quasi-synthetic that some scholar read about in a shiny brochure.
Installed in Wembly,Man City,PSG stadiums.

Never been installed in tropics and in a semi-covered stadia.

Excuse was: "it needs chance to grow".

Later buy 1.5 mil sunlight system to bring more sunlight to tropics!

Now solution is to grown Serangoon grass is a remote location the install before match.

Yea right.
 

melzp

Alfrescian
Loyal
It is very good signs that people in Sports Hub are resigning.
If they don't, I worry.

Unlike the Cabinet; they chose to stay till becoming deadwoods.
Strangely, the motivating factor to stay is $$.

Therefore, the Man in-charge must step forward to answer and justify.
Instead of giving the deadwoods pretentious Golden Handshakes.
 

frenchbriefs

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
this just show that most singaporeans just cant be bothered with sports unless its soccer or basketball on tv,just wait for the occasional "local born" ang moh talent to bring them their olympic medal and they will feel redeemed as a race/nationality......

sinkies like whine and bitch about how the government doesnt support local atheletes but honestly how many sinkies are interested in sports and willing to commit to it at a professional level?most sinkies prefer spending their time off from school or work at air conditioned mall stuffing their faces or shopping for bargains......sinkies are a race of dota and csgo players and battlefield 3 players not atheletes.....fifty percent of sinkies cant even pass their ippt after ORD.
 

chootchiew

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Why they cannot use it for public to use the running track or let sleague match play there ? Scared dirty or waste electricity? Better than be white elephant.
 

mojito

Alfrescian
Loyal
We built Marina Barrage, Gardens by the Bay, Biopolis, Mediapolis, Fushionopolis. Changi Airport T4 coming up, T5 later. And don't forget Tuas megaport. So many new and exciting things coming up, I don't see why all the pessimism here over a poorly run sports stadium. :rolleyes:
 

winnipegjets

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
If the AG would dedicate the same amount of resources that they did on audit the WP TC to audit the YOG and the Sports Hub, they would recovery lots of dirts amounting to at least tens of millions.

Lots of PAP cronies benefitted from these two projects.

Ministar Shanmu should call in the AG to audit these two projects to prove to Sinkees that there were no malfesance. Make sure to engage the forensic auditors from PWC.
 

halsey02

Alfrescian (Inf)
Asset
Probably has to do with making $$$. The PAP has many starving members & cronies who need the $.
Isn't that why people join the PAP?

You go & observe any RC's near you & you will soon recognise those "volunteering' there are there, for the 'feeding'....like feeding 'kois' in the pond...when you throw in the 'food pellets'...there is a frenzied activity ... same ripple effect at the RC's...
 

enterprise2

Alfrescian
Loyal
The gahment r just clueless!! They tore down an icon and rebuilt it with something that grass cannot grow and parachutes cannot get in safely. They made a temp floating platform that amazes them it became a tremendous success and now they can't remove it!! Just shaking my head!
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
Agree that it is the model that they are struggling with. Its Singapore's first public service infrastructure that was built under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model. This model was first launched in the early 1990s in the UK to speed up building and delivering of much needed public infrastructure. However it is has generally failed in the UK with iconic example of the London Underground brought back under public control in 2 phases. In OZ and Canada it has better successes. Interestingly the deal for the Sports Hub was inked in 2008 and the London Underground had one year before in 2007 took back 2/3rds controls in the 1st phase. However much of planning and tender exercises was done prior to 2008 and went back all the way to 2005.

To your point - the motives and agenda between public and private sector must reconcile or else it will lead to disaster.

Yes, another one of the Viv Balakrisnan's babies. I note that he is into fads and buzz and want to show how progressive he is but has left a trail of destruction. Viv also led two other disasters - the hawker centre privatisation and the hawker food social entrepreneurship programmes. The latter was closed down shortly after a year and the other is bumping along from pillar to post.

I don't see the Govt taking it back as to them it is an admission of failure and a loss of face, both not in the PAP playback. They might do what they did for Sheldon Adelson and Marina Bay Sands construction phase during the financial crisis when Adelson had to pump his family money to stay afloat. It was well known that the Singapore Govt provided much needed loans via one of its private vehicles. It therefore was not up to parliamentary scrutiny.

Scary now that we have Viv inc charge of Smart Nation. The complete opposite of Goh Keng Swee in terms of deliverables. ACS where both came from will now go into deficit.

Problem lies in the model - privatisation of an institution yet requiring it to serve national objectives.

Any private enterprise should let itself determine its own costs and profits. Over here, the government is unable to distinguish the contradictions of a privatised enterprise and a national institution. It seems to want the private company to assume the costs but at the same time, requiring it to do national service like rent the stadium for National Day events at a "lower" cost and host football matches at "discounts" etc.

This is similar to SMRT - eventually the government has to take over the whole thing after a fiasco revealed that the citizens cannot accept a transport system that has flaws in train breakdowns. You have a privatised entity whose concerns is maintaining costs when attempts to raise fares is subjected to government's perogative. Secondly SMRT track infrastructure is made not to run for present demands.

Also one needs to note that the hawker centre privatised in Sengkang becomes another fiasco as it is "neither here nor there" problem - you raise consumer food prices allowing for profit maximisation by tendering company who has to get it by bidding heavily on a "high" price.

A stadium like sports hub should either be run as a private entity or a government's owned entity. If so, then either will respect its goals and serves the imperatives of its designation.

I wonder how a government that get it right in many issues with top rated paid talents but here clearly the central question is whether sports or national day rally can be privatised - the answer is clearly no. It is one issue I wonder how they fumble so badly.

Was this problem a legacy issue of Vivian's?

Over here, it is clear the privatisation for Sports Hub is a wrong move. I reckon it is a matter of time the Government will take it back into public hands.
 
Last edited:

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
It certainly worth AGO's scrutiny in view of scale and the list of issues.

If the AG would dedicate the same amount of resources that they did on audit the WP TC to audit the YOG and the Sports Hub, they would recovery lots of dirts amounting to at least tens of millions.

Lots of PAP cronies benefitted from these two projects.

Ministar Shanmu should call in the AG to audit these two projects to prove to Sinkees that there were no malfesance. Make sure to engage the forensic auditors from PWC.
 

scroobal

Alfrescian
Loyal
Just the pitch alone would make a good story book and Harvard MBA case study. None of the explanations on the pitch made sense. No mention of liability and the parties bearing all these issues.

They selected the wrong pitch.

Very advanced quasi-synthetic that some scholar read about in a shiny brochure.
Installed in Wembly,Man City,PSG stadiums.

Never been installed in tropics and in a semi-covered stadia.

Excuse was: "it needs chance to grow".

Later buy 1.5 mil sunlight system to bring more sunlight to tropics!

Now solution is to grown Serangoon grass is a remote location the install before match.

Yea right.
 
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