Keeping close watch on Sports Hub ticket prices for Team Singapore events

Question

Ms Sylvia Lim: To ask the Minister for Culture, Community and Youth what measures are in place to ensure that ticket prices for events involving Singapore athletes and teams held at the Singapore Sports Hub are affordable to Singaporeans.

Response

Minister Lawrence Wong: The Singapore Sports Hub is managed by Sports Hub Pte Ltd (SHPL) under a Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Various parties are involved in organising events at the Sports Hub. Many events are organised by private promoters working in partnership with our National Sports Associations (NSAs) and SHPL. Some are organised wholly by private promoters.

To stage a major sporting event in Singapore, the event promoter has to cover all set-up costs including bringing in the team(s), venue rental, marketing the event, logistics, manpower deployment, and activating the operations at the Sports Hub. It is a large undertaking, especially where the 55,000 seat National Stadium is concerned, and so the tickets are priced to factor in these fixed components. At the same time, the event promoter has to price tickets appropriately to sell. As they bear market risk, it is also in their interest to ensure good ticket sales and the success of the event.

Notwithstanding this, we keep a close watch on the affordability of events which our Team Singapore athletes participate in, as we want all Singaporeans to have the chance to see our athletes in action, and to be able to cheer them on. For events where SportSG is not the main organiser, it will do its best to work with the relevant parties, including the specific NSAs, to ensure that the events are accessible to Singaporeans. Where SportSG is the main organiser for such events, as is the case for the SEA Games and ASEAN Para Games next year, I would like to assure members that it will set ticket prices that are affordable to Singaporeans.